Buenos Aires

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Hello friends, I hope this email finds you in good spirits and good health! This blog was composed in La Poloma, Uruguay on the Atlantic Coast. I am told that this tiny beach town booms in the summer with Argentine, Brazilian and Uruguayan tourists as well as others from all over the world coming to surf. Still, I find it hard to believe when most of the businesses and hotels in town are all boarded up for the oncoming winter and it is still solidly fall. Lucky for me the beaches are not only completely deserted, populated by mostly fishermen and star-fish collectors, but beautiful as well. Neither the temperature nor the ocean is too hot or too cold and there are thousands of small sea stars washed up on the beach amongst the billions of mussel shells. But now I have to apologize because of my tardiness in my blogging. This entry is going to be about Buenos Aires, the vivid and wonderful capital of Argentina, that I left on the 19th of April. Since then I have done so many things and I only have a week until I come home! Oh well, let us get back to the wonderful world of South America...

Besides the fiasco of getting from Cozco to Lima (I got horribly sick on the single evening in Cuzco and could barely function the next morning going to Lima) and Lima to a hotel in Buenos Aires (the flight from Lima to BA was overnight and then upon arrival to the Hotel Residencial Carly at seven in the morning they unkindly related that there was no reservation though we had definitely made one the previous day) Buenos Aires was great! That Sunday morning, after walking down the street (cursing Residencial Carly the whole way) and checking into the Hostel-Inn Buenos Aires, was for sleeping. After a morning nap the Sunday market in San Telmo´s Plaza Dorrego beckoned. Not only was the market wonderful, exploding with sights, sounds and smells but it was a fantastic way to see some of the area of San Telmo, an old Buenos Aires burrow famous for Parisian mansions turned youthful hotels and apartments and, of course, Tango. The market was phenomenal, full of bright colors, beautiful crafts and weaves, leather and silver and Argentinians drinking mate everywhere.

To top off the experience was La Vieja Rotissoria, one of the many parrillas in the city (parrilla literally means "grill" but in colloquial terms alludes to the restaurants propensity for delicious carne, pollo - pronounced posho like Spain Spanish - sausage and cheese) and a fantastically crowded little restaurant busting to the brim with hungry Sunday diners. I was ecstatic to be in a place where I could enjoy meat in confidence, unconcerned that it may have come from open markets that seem so unsanitarily dangerous to travelers with weak stomachs. I ate a Chorizo sausage, not spicy like Mexican chorizo, but had a hard time fending off the urge for both Morchilla (blood sausage) and Bife de Chorizo (a giant steak). The best part of the meal was the taste of the Chorizo and the papas fritas Provencals (garlic and parsley) and the second best the price, though I confess that the inexpensive price made the meal that much better. The other fantastic discovery was a pizza shop called Ugi´s that served a delicious medium sized mozzarella pizza for about one dollar and seventy-five cents. Add my excitement that Argentine pizza comes with mozzarella instead of a poor tasting, salty cheese that never seems to melt properly, as do the pizzas of Peru, and a bottle of wine for another dollar and you have one happy camper. Buenos Aires, here I come!

The next day was a similarly wonderful walking tour of the city´s downtown. Buenos Aires is lively and exciting, full of beautiful people and architecture of Parisian and Italian styles. I loved Peru dearly but am not ashamed to say that the relative familiarity and architectural beauty of Buenos Aires was welcoming and exciting. Walking north from the Hostel-Inn, Avenida de Mayo is the first commercial hub that smacks of European hustle and bustle, style and commerce. The Avenida is long and wide flanked on the western end by the Plaza del Congresso and to the east by the beautiful Plaza de Mayo and the Presidential Palace Casa Rosada. Ave de Mayo exhibits many of BA´s famous building and commercial centers as well as famed cafés such as the Café Tortoni, a wonderful place for churros and chocolate (I unwittingly thought this meant there was chocolate in the churros but actually means hot chocolate and churros) and inexpensive Tango shows. There, in the middle of Monday in downtown BA I felt underdressed, it was hilarious.

Across the Avenida de Mayo is the large walking street Ave Florida. This see and be seen, shop till you drop atmosphere was by now so foreign to me that I gazed around, eyes glazed with a giddy smile on my face as if I were visiting an Argentine culture far more foreign than it actually was. For lunch I looked confusedly at a menu and ordered a Milanesa steak sandwich. In case you are unfamiliar with the term as I was, a Milanesa anything means simply fried something. Thus, I ate a delicious fried steak with cheese for lunch. I bit heavy, I admit, but delicious nonetheless. Later that evening, when I had rested my stomach and digested my lunchtime gut-bomb somewhat, I played mini-field soccer with a bunch of the gents from the Hostel-Inn. By the time we had finished the game I was severely out of breath and had to ring my shirt out so I would not drip all the way home. I have no idea what it is usually like but the amount of humidity that existed in the air seemed to cause my body to leak at every pore.

The seventeenth was another delightful day of exploration in Buenos Aires, the sun out and the air just as humid as the previous day. Again the hustle and bustle began early in the morning and though I yawned emerging from the Hostel most Argentinians in the streets were dressed to kill and looking ready for action. The cosmopolitan fashion of the city once again struck me, people out and about acting more important than they likely are as their gate suggests they are off to somewhere or something far more interesting than they exude, I imagine. Another difference in the people is the way in which the inhabitants of this city gaze at people, far different than in Lima, for example. It is a more suggestive look, much less that you are a foreigner and are completely different looking, but more that you are your sex. Men look suggestively long and longingly at women and women do the same to men. Everywhere, all over the city, even in La Boca where the day´s adventure took place...

La Boca is a burrow of Buenos Aires south of San Telmo; a working-class burrow as described by guidebooks but home to the world famous La Boca Junior´s football (soccer) team and the colorful Caminito neighborhood. Though the ecstatic tourist info guy in San Telmo said to take a bus through the neighborhood directly to the Caminito police officers assured the main road was perfectly walking-safe and I never once feared for my wallet or person. On a side note I have to say that on the whole the tourist info people in both Argentina and Peru have been extremely helpful and constantly excited about their regions. Similarly, police always are happy to help with directions and suggestions but you must, obviously, be prepared to speak the language. Anyhow, La Boca seemed fine enough but the destination was the Caminito neighborhood.

The history of this neighborhood is tied to the shipyards and the Italian immigrants who called it home. Long ago in the shipyards the boats were painted in wonderful colors while the homes were made of drab colorless scraps of materials. When the workers were finished painting the ships they asked to keep the extra paint in the cans and took the leftovers to paint homes, businesses, buildings, etc. Truthfully, I have no idea how colorful the neighborhood actually was, nor if the buildings standing now or the colors they employ were those used when the neighborhood began to gain recognition for the trait, but the current neighborhood is bright and colorful beyond belief, not to mention tourist and Tango dancer infested.

The Museo de Bellas Arts de La Boca was a major highlight on the day trip. The museum highlighted the painter Benito Quinquela Martin´s beautiful and oil-heavy depictions of La Boca, its inhabitants and the shipyards. His paintings were beautiful and I highly recommend a visit to the museum to see his works. Finally, a trip to the La Boca Juniors´ home field (a famous football team) was in order. Though entry to the empty stadium was not an option, the history and football greatness seeped from every entrance.

As the sun peaked through the curtains on the next morning only two things were stirring, the thermometer and the humidity gauge. The sun had nothing to stand in its way this morning and as it climbed high in the sky it began to evaporate what was left of the flooding that had ensued after torrential amounts of rain, bone chilling lightning and thunder slapped the city the previous night. The city promptly became a sauna, it was horrible. Though I hate to admit it I used the AC at the Hostel-Inn and do not regret a moment of its cool, moisture-free deliciousness refreshing every inch of me. Still, the cool was only for resting and with a bowl of frosted corn-flakes, Dulce de Leche smothered buns and warm coffee in my stomach Buenos Aires was again ready for a walking assault.

The gorgeous and wealthy district of Recoleta, north of central Buenos Aires was in the days cross-hairs but the decision to take the city´s efficient and swelteringly muggy metro system was key to success of the mission. Recoleta was gorgeous. On each side of every street rose elegant condo buildings, consulates and hotels erupting with Renaissance Parisian and Roman architecture. The main attraction for the morning was the famous Recoleta cemetery, a necropolis where the most famous and wealthy portenos (people from Buenos Aires) and Argentinians are laid to rest either alone in or in a family enclosures. Even the famous first lady Evita lay at peace behind ornate granite splendor. After a quick visit to the humid botanical gardens a return trip to La Vieja Rotissoria for a large steak and papas fritas Provencals was in order before a evening nap and a light dinner of one of Argentina´s other famous treats - empanadas. From there it was off to the famous Café Tortoni for churros and chocolate and the wonderful Tango show I mentioned earlier, it was fantastic!

The next day existed purely to kill time before an overnight departure to Corrientes, Argentina! I will talk to you soon my friends!

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