Argentinean Cinema Experience

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The first order of business after our usual breakfast at the Marriott was to go to the Brazilian consulate to request our tourist visas. Once again, our hotel’s location proved to be very convenient since the consulate address was within walking distance (in between Retiro and Recoleta, over 9 de Julio Avenue). Once there, we went through security and joined a moderately long line of applicants waiting for their turn to speak with one of the three or four consulate officials behind service windows.

When our turn came, we were given the bad news: it would take a minimum of three business days for our visas to be issued. That meant that the soonest that we could depart for Iguazú was Friday May 19, or most likely Saturday, May 20. Considering that our last day in Argentina was set for Tuesday, May 23, this unexpected delay could not be accommodated very well. We decided to proceed with our trip to Iguazú but without the visit to the Brazilian areas of the falls.

We left the Brazilian consulate and walked towards Asatej Travel Agency to modify our reservations. When we met with Natalia, she offered the same basic package but eliminating the activities in Brazil. In doing so, the trip would be now a day shorter: only three days and two nights. Our departure date was set for Thursday, May 18; and our return date was now Saturday, May 20. The only pending business was to get the trip vouchers from Asatej whenever Natalia called us or notified us via e-mail that they were ready. We also would get some money back from them because of the shorter trip.

With the business of the day done, we headed back to La Valle Avenue, looking for a movie theater showing “Chronicle of a Escape” (or “A Escape’s Chronicle”), our pre-selected Argentinean film from the day before. We found it showing at “Atlas”, a large, multi-theater complex, so we purchased our tickets and went in.

At first, the movie theater experience did not appear much different to what you can experience in a large movie theater complex anywhere in the U.S.; many new U.S. films with Spanish subtitles were being shown in some of the other theaters at this particular complex. It was the Argentinean film that made the difference.

“Cronica de una Fuga” (as the title goes in Spanish) was based on real events during the tumultuous years in the 70’s when a military junta ruled Argentina. In those days, any perceived political detractor could be subjected to illegal arrests, tortures, and even execution. The film is the account of one victim who was used as a decoy by a captured terrorist. To allow his comrades time to escape, this terrorist implicated the main character during his interrogations by his captors (the regime’s secret police). Though he was innocent, the main character is kidnapped, tortured, and kept naked and chained to his bed at an abandoned mansion that was being used as an illegal prison. Eventually the main character and some of his companions manage to escape and leave Argentina. After the junta was deposed a few years later, the ex-prisoners return to Argentina as witnesses during the trials of some of the perpetrators of human rights abuses during this period.

In comparison to Hollywood’s movie-making high technology, the Argentinean production was almost devoid of special effects or extraordinary action shots. Instead, the film relies heavily on the power of the story, the credibility of the actors in their roles and a documentary style (cinema verité), which keep the viewer engaged with everything that is developing around the characters.
Though the fast, heavily-Argentinean-accented dialog kept Sergio and Joaquín from understanding every detail of the story (even I had trouble understanding some of the local slang), we all appreciated our cinema experience and felt that we learned from it.

In the way out of the movie theater, Joaquín all of a sudden pulled Sergio and me towards a window display near the location where we had purchased our tickets. This window had a very large collection of Star Wars characters and since Joaquín has his own large collection, he couldn’t resist the temptation to “compare notes”. After a while, he appeared to have verified that his collection was not too behind and we continued our walk back to our hotel.

After a short breather, we were back out on the streets. This time we wanted to explore the area of Barrio Palermo, where we knew (from our various guides) that we would find a number of points of interest, including the city’s zoo, a botanical garden and a Japanese garden. We used the Subte to get there. From our neighboring San Martín Station, we went on Line C to Diagonal Norte / 9 de Julio Stations. Once there, we changed to Line D and went on this line to Plaza Italia Station where we exited the system.

We decided to cross the road from Plaza Italia and walk east along General Las Heras Avenue. We had not walked but a few meters when Joaquín all of a sudden started to speak in very familiar terms with a stranger walking in the opposite direction… Shortly after, Sergio joined the conversation too. It turned out that of all the people in Buenos Aires walking the streets at that precise moment, we had run into one of Joaquín’s classmates at Georgia Tech, Derek Deraps, who unbeknown to Joaquín, was starting to attend a summer program in Buenos Aires. After the surprise wore off and learning that we were going to Iguazú for a few days, Derek and Joaquín agreed to contact each other after our return to Buenos Aires to arrange a get-together.

We continued our exploration of the area by resuming our walk east on General Las Heras and then turned left on “Rep. de la India” Street, following the perimeter of the city’s zoo. This area is the site of upper-end apartment buildings with very attractive lobby areas showcasing Nouveau Art style decorations and furniture. We eventually reached Avenida del Libertador where we stopped to take photos of the large monument in the intersection of Libertador and Avenida Sarmiento (Monument to the Spaniards). After our brief photo opportunity, we turned left on Avenida Sarmiento (southwest direction), returning to Plaza Italia.

From Plaza Italia, we walked west over one of the roads perpendicular to Santa Fé Avenue and eventually stopped at a coffee shop and ice cream parlor that looked promising to experience the famous Buenos Aires’ style ice cream that we have heard so much about. According to Sergio and Joaquín, who actually volunteered for the experience, the ice cream was very good but also very rich, so I was very glad that I had limited myself to just having an espresso coffee.

Once we returned to our hotel, we decided to look for a good restaurant to continue sampling Buenos Aires cuisine. Per our concierge’s recommendation, our best bet was to go to the area of Puerto Madero… We got a list of about ten restaurants in that area that were highly recommended. Topping the list was “Aires de Patagonia”, a restaurant specializing on meats (including venison) prepared according to Patagonian tradition.

During what was supposed to be a short taxi ride to the restaurant, we realized that our driver did not quite know where to go. He went through the entire Puerto Madero area on “Alicia Moreau” Avenue without finding the restaurant. During the second pass from the opposite direction, he said that it was possible that “Aires de Patagonia” may have gone under, a good reason why we could not find it. At this point, he recommended “Estilo Campo” Restaurant, which according to him, was the top restaurant in Puerto Madero, a good value and offering an excellent wine selection (and with the added bonus that he actually knew where it was… Or so we hoped!). He stopped the taxi a bit later and indicated that we had arrived. As I was getting ready to pay for the ride, he realized that we were not quite there yet, so he took off again and went about one more block before finally stopping in front of the restaurant. Since I was riding on the front passenger seat, I had not seen that Joaquín had actually gotten out of the taxi during the first stop (Joaquín was on the seat directly behind me). So I was very surprised not to see him when Sergio and I finally came out of the taxi a block later. For some reason (that I still don’t understand), Sergio did not say anything when we left Joaquín behind.

Joaquín eventually re-joined us and we finally headed for the restaurant’s entrance, where we could see through a large window the various meat selections being cooked to perfection. It was then that we realized that we were just next door to “Aires de Patagonia” Restaurant, our original destination.

Since by this time we had already seen that both restaurants were fairly equivalent, we decided to try Estilo Campo; we knew that we would have more opportunities to return and try Aires de Patagonia later during our stay in Buenos Aires.

Estilo Campo’s service was very good, and the wine selection was outstanding, our dishes though were just good compared to other restaurants that we had sampled elsewhere… As a value statement (when compared to these same good restaurants), our meal this night was a real bargain!

After leaving Estilo Campo, we took a leisure walk along the water and back to our hotel for the evening. In the couple of blocks or so before arriving at the Marriott, several groups of young women insistently invited our all-male party to go to this or that other strip club. I wondered if they could tell that we were actually a family after we declined their invitations or maybe this would be a normal activity for a typical Argentinean father and sons party to do.

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