Travellers Tip 312: Walking in the rain does not constitute washing your clothes

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In the almost European heart of Argentina it´s easy to relax. Lazying around, catching up on quality nothing time and just enjoying the pleasure of once again being in a place of comfort and ease. It is not so easy, however, to relax when you have a constant sugar rush to rival even the largest consumption of Rainbow Drops. This is the world of Dulche and boy is it sweet.

Here in lies the problem, what was meant to be a nice relaxed week experiencing the true cafe culture and meat of the arguablely the greatest of South Americas big cities has turned into a caffine and sugar filled binge of all that is good in life. As a result, and much to our horror, for the first time in this entire journey we´ve also put weight on!

Yes while this may not frighten you, it scares the bejesus out of us. Used to scraping together one or two good (ish) meals a day has now become coffee and crossiants followed by pounds of grilled meat topped off with wine and bread and cheese and just a wee bit more meat. Oh and don´t forget the gallons of almost Italian quality Ice Cream (how could you forget the Ice Cream). We haven´t had time to relax at all.

Racing from one end of the city to the other desperately searching for the perfect cup in a mad quest to suck the pleasure out of every second in a country where the toliets are clean (although usually without locks - very weird) and bounty ... well ... abounds.

This place is great, full of everything ´we´ve been missing. The food, the meat, the coffee, the wine and other non food related things too (Nic, however, would like to point out that there is a disturbing lack of soup - some people are never happy).

And so it is that while we should have been at one of the greatest football spectacles in the world, the BA derby of Boca v River, we were scoffing down buns and tea. Or when we could have visited the country retreat of Tigre just outside the city, we were headed back to try the Banana Split flavoured ice cream (they make it with Dulche de Leche so it has toffee swirls and little chocolate buttons running through it - mmm). And while all of this is fun and of course exceptionally tasty it does make you question just how much of the real Argentina we´ve seen.

Thankfully with that in mind we let Nic navigate again and so we got to see a lot more of the city than we had ever planned, or wished, to. No slum is off limits when she sets her mind to it, no map is ever remembered. Instead of the peaceful 30 minute stroll down to the colourful tin houses of the Camenito (massively over rated and full of dreadfully crap tourist shops), she took us on a delightful if somewhat longer mission through the docks of South Americas largest port. A blissful 3 hr extravaganza of warehouses and cranes, lorries and potholes. If you want to see the real Buenos Aires they say you need to spend some time with a local. Well, with Nic you get to go where even the locals fear to tread.

So to recap. Our week in Buenos Aires has been spent eating and getting lost. It´s nice to know some things never change

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Photos

San Telmo Market
BA´s home of Antiques and ... well ... not so antique

Ladybird
We tried to get one of the hummingbirds, but they´re just too damn fast. So Ladybug it is.

Comments

[Slovenian girl]

HAHAHA
...and even taste of BA is still the same :) I had the same problems with dulche de Leche, huge steaks, wine, ice cream, coffe...ahhh...and I put on weight as well! Sooo...don't worry - you are not the only ones. This is all part of BA :) have fun, Jana