Ali in Argentina: First Impressions
I'm in Argentina. Buenos Aires at the moment! Alex and I have escaped the snow and swapped goose bumps for heat stroke this Christmas.
While my Winnipeg family is shivering in -40 (Celsius) right now, Alex's family comes from Argentina and we're here to visit them, get ill advised tans, and explore. We arrived on Saturday, slept the whole day and night and have spent the last two days wandering the city and reacquainting ourselves with the smell of cigarettes and the summer Canada never had.
The first thing we did on Sunday was arm ourselves with maps, cameras and cliche-tourist-give-away; the backpack, and hop on board a double decker tour bus.
I'm not sure I'd recommend it because as the bus lurches around street corners, you sit there with headphones on, listening to grainy audio that cuts in and out abruptly, often mid sentence as you pass important landmarks. I'll be honest. I didn't pay much attention so I can't tell you much about what we saw. There was so much to look at, it's overwhelming. With such a dense population (13 million) and so much history, it's impossible to remember it all, but you certainly won't be bored.
We got off at Boca, the birth place of the Tango, where men used to dance sensually together. It's probably the biggest tourist trap in the city, but it was interesting walking through the crowded colourful streets watching live Tango dancers and nibbling on over priced food.
While waiting for my chicken empanada and caprese salad with an animal in it, I sipped on a delicious glass of white (can't remember what kind) from Bodegas Etchart winery, where the grapes are grown at high altitude. It was delicious and I wish I would've written down which one I had since I like to keep lists of wines I enjoy.
Now back to the animal in my salad. It was actually a fly so large, it is best described as an animal. To apologize, the kindly gentleman serving us poured 2 more hefty glasses of wine to wash the offence away. Still jet lagged at the time, I'll admit it worked.
Alex was very happy to enjoy his first Asado, which is an Argentinian barbeque done over charcoal. It adds a smokey flavour to the meat and there is usually an assortment of pork, steaks and sausages cooked together on the same grill.
These snappy tango dancers performed a slightly different form of dance that involved stomping so it looked like a mix of tango and tap dance. And since you asked, no that guy is not wearing a skirt. He is wearing traditional gauchos, that are basically like harem pants from the 80s that Argentine cowboys wore. A lot less constricting than jeans, don't you agree?
One stop on the tour bus was Cafe El Estano (est. 1880) where I sampled a very small cappuccino that was... not good. I am sorry to report that so far we have yet to experience a decent espresso or cup of coffee and believe me, we've tried. They are always served scalding hot, which leads me to believe that it doesn't taste good because they are burning the beans.
Old cars are the most common, from banged up 50s models you only see in the movies to dinged Jettas. Cabs are the worst, but no need to be nervous getting into one since they are all like that.
One of the best meals we've had so far has been at Marcelo in Puerto Madero. Though people were openly smoking heavily there, which is apparently now against the law, and one such offender was huffing on a cigar, the restaurant on the water was elegant with top notch service. Servings were enormous. Observe the appetizer we shared.
Understand, this was only my share of the appetizer. Alex's plate had more. Take a look at the serving dish it came in. Are you full yet?
The risotto parmigiano with fresh arugula was amazing, and this was also one dish split between two. Needless to say, we did not order desert.
One of the things I love most about Buenos Aires so far is the gorgeous architecture. Everywhere you look there is something jaw-droppingly splendid and then a block later you'll be staring at delapitated buildings that don't look habitable, yet somehow they are.
On the urging of my Father in Law, who was disturbed to hear via skype that I wasn't enjoying the local brew - "What do you mean? Argentinian coffee is the best in the world!", we stopped in at one of the most famous and oldest cafes in Buenos Aires, Cafe Tortoni. It was established in 1858 and it is against the law for them to make changes to the interior. Waiters clad in tux and bowties serve cappuccinos to photo snapping tourists. Alex asked one of the waiters what the ratio of locals to tourists was and was told about 90% of the cafe's visitors are tourists.
Despite that, the coffee was better... but I still don't really like it. I blame the Italians. No one makes better coffee than the Italians in my opinion.
Aside from the Zara display window, I'm sorry to report that this is probably the best fashion I've seen in Buenos Aries so far. We've only started exploring so I'm sure the fashionistas are hiding out somewhere and we'll find them yet, but so far the styles have been pretty basic. Everyone is dressed like us on Casual Friday. Even the shoes have been easy to resist because they aren't much different than at home. Trends I'm noticing are studs, suede fringe and lots of silver and gold snake skin.
The Galarias Pacifico was a refreshing break from the oppressive heat outside, though despite visiting every shop on all 3 levels we didn't buy a thing.
We shared a gooey cheese, tomato and garlic pizza from ancient popular pizza joint, Pizzeria Guerrin that was established in 1932. This pizza was pretty good, but the one before it arrived with some sort of mystery meat despite Alex, (who is fluent in spanish) asking about an ingredient he didn't recognize and being informed it was a vegetable. A vegetable with a heart beat, apparently.
This is the oldest creepiest looking church. Those black windows are supposed to be stain glass. I suppose they really are stained from the belches of car and truck exhaust spewed at it daily, but it looks spooky, no?
We've now done two days of the older parts of Buenos Aires and tomorrow Alex tells me, we'll start exploring the new.
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