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Published: April 21st 2006
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la boca
teresa chillin in la boca buenos aires ('BA') is a beautiful city -- definitely more like a piece europe plopped in the middle of south america. you can see the influence in the architecture, food, people, art, and overall culture. in some ways, it's like the italian city of florence without the gradiose of the renaissance. probably a bad comparison to anyone from italy or argentina, but you get the picture.
we spent our first day in BA soaking up the atmosphere by cruising around -- literally, on cruiser bikes! we cycled for 4 hours through all the major neighborhoods of the city -- an awesome way to see it. at one point, we rode through some vendors and a clothesline hanging in the street nearly beheaded me -- my helmet got knocked off because we were going pretty fast -- luckily my head wasn't rolling around in street. soon, you would have seen a new menu item at the argentina taco truck -- cabeza china (chinese head). seriously though, we stopped in cool areas like san telmo, where tango originated -- it was great seeing local tango dancers in the street (although teresa still thinks drew lachey from dancing with the stars is better).
tango
street dancers in san telmo we also went to the recoleta area, where they have a cemetery with elaborate masoleums -- each body is buried in structures the size of small homes or churches. we even saw where eva peron, evita, (as in 'don't cry for me, argentina') is buried.
another site we visited was their goverment center, plaza de mayo. they have a "pink house" instead of a "white house". although it was rather uhh, pretty, it made us wonder why it was pink. maybe their famous president was a little 'extra' friendly with the males? perhaps he had an intern that did some favors for him... mario lewinsky? well, now we know why his wife, evita, told argentina not to cry for her. he wanted evita's brother, evan.
how do you say president in spanish? "el presidente"
how do you say 'gay president' in spanish? "el president-hayyyy"
(ok that was dumb, but say it out loud in a gay voice.... president-hayyyyy.... haha, isn't that funny?)
although this city is very 'european', it still has latin elements. for instance, the laidbackness. we had heard that in front of the pink house, there's supposed to be a changing of the guard on
cruisin
teresa cruisin through la boca the hour. so we waited... 2:00pm - nothing... 2:15.... 2:20 -- no changing of the guard. so finally, i approached some police officers and asked in my basic spanish: "a que hora los guardias cambian?" he replied: "no se". then another cop replied in english: "eh, when-ayver. it happans when it happans". well mr. cop, it nay-ver happan'd. we waited for-ayver. nay-ver. oh well.
one of our favorite things about BA was their beef. argentina is known for having the best beef/steaks in the world. talk about my kind of heaven. so we went to a few parillas (bbq houses) and had plenty of bovine. thank goodness teresa is not a vegetarian. the way it works is you approach the huge bbq grill with an empty plate. you see a bunch of guys grilling fresh beef and pork over hot coals. you tell the guy what part of the cow or pig you want and he grills it for you. i never learned animal parts in my high school spanish class, so i kept asking him what was what. it was hilarious because he would touch the appropriate part on his own body so that i could understand.
thriller!
recoleta cemetery: look at the thriller gimp! it went something like this:
me: "que es vacio?" him: he pointed near his stomach. flank.
"que es castillo?" he touched his ribs.
"........... lomo?" he touched behind his back. tenderloin.
"........... hombro?" he touched his shoulder.
"........... testiculo?" he touched his balls! we both laughed.
it was fun telling him combinations of parts and watching him touch them. it was like a human street fighter video game. i was the controller, he was the game. i kept saying combinations like and watched him respond. i eventually wanted to tell him: "cabeza! hombro! testiculo... ahora gritaaaa!!!!!"
(translation: head! shoulder! balls! now SCREEEEEAAAM!!!)
this would make him look like michael jackson, which would have been hilarious to me. but somehow i couldn't get the courage to ask a butcher with a huge knife to dance like MJ. so i just asked for a piece of meat and left quietly like a good little fat boy. what a coward i am. COW-ard... get it? nyuk nyuk nyuk.
other experiences:
- went to easter mass at the main cathedral in town. it was great joining the locals in celebrating our religious tradition. everything was all kumbaya and
meat
cows and pigs meet their doom: our stomachs! harmonious, until communion. they don't form a line, they all bum rush the priest to get their bread! teresa got upset, and nearly let the alameda out. she said, if it wasn't in a church, she would have gotten "all hermana" on them. that translates as, she would have gotten all 'SISTA' on them.
- when i speak spanish, i know i sound different. but one argentinian guy said i sounded like i had a brazilian accent! what the?!?! i was flattered.
- we stayed in a cheap hotel in an area called plaza miserere. we found out later that it's the ghetto of buenos aires. i guess that's why it was cheap. funny thing is, when we saw it, we're like, oh this is just like newark or oakland. we felt at home.
- nothing beats getting a choripan (grilled chorizo in a french roll) from the street for less than 2 bucks. god bless chorizo.
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