Buenos Aires, Argentina

I felt inspired today to find some new foodie places and set off after Spanish for La Cocina. Apparently they do some of the best empanadas, so I squeezed into this small bar and ordered 3. They were amazing, hands down the best I have eaten and they fully restored my faith in these being a good rival to the pasty post a few tasteless ones I have tried lately. I had a beef one, a chicken one and then one called ‘picachu’ which was a spiced chicken one. This was my favourite. Given I was doing well on the food hunt I headed down the street to Rapa Nui, a heladeria which had some interesting flavours. I particularly liked Frambuesa Nevada, that was a raspberry mousse with meringue topping. This evening I headed out for a wine tasting session in Palermo, with a few guys from class. We were drinking mainly a selection of wines from Salta that surprised me. Apparently the high altitude produces exceptional results and the white was particularly citrusy. My favourite was a blended Malbec called Amalaya which was really easy to drink. It is ‘Malbec week’ so the bar let us sample a range of wines and I couldn’t fault any to be fair. By midnight we were all drunk and hungry, so we piled into La Cabrera for a steak. This place is very popular and considered one of the best for steak. I talked Dan into sharing a steak which was good move given the size, we also had Provolone which I had seen on many a menu but not eaten. It is essentially a grilled round of cheese with herbs, not as exciting as I hoped. Steak was great, felt my expectations were perhaps too high or maybe I should try it more sober. Finally with a very full stomach, I caught a taxi home. The driver found my mispronunciation of my street ‘Ruggieri’ really funny…..still can’t see why what I was saying was so hard to understand!

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Chatted today to Sarah, recently arrived from Perth. We decided to grab lunch and then I volunteered to show her the parks and Floralis generica (large steel flower). The parks of BA are perhaps one of my favourite things about this city. They have a varying degree of structure to them and they always have a cross section of people to watch. I particularly like early mornings in my local park when all the dog walkers are in. Owning a dog in BA is very popular, and so is paying people to walk your dogs. The dog walker can earn up to £10 per dog and you see them walking around 10-15 on mass leads. I digress, today is a scorcher of a sunny day and post a pizza & beer lunch we stroll up to the flower and then through the parks to Plaza Italia. Gorgeous afternoon!

Buenos Aires, Argentina

A haircut had been praying on my mind for a while. It’s been about 12 weeks, which is the longest I had gone without a cut & colour for years. I have my genius hairdresser at home, but he is refusing to fly out, so I decide a trip to La Peluquería is overdue. I have spent a few weeks eyeing up options and had spotted one that looked reasonably priced (budget conscious traveller that I am!). I made my way up there after class and politely asked if they spoke English….No?…google translate it is then. Suffice to say, they were never going to be as good as Barry but the colour is ok and the cut has taken the weight out. I think it is perhaps the shortest my hair has ever been and feel it is too short. On a positive at least I won’t need to go through that trauma again for a while, although I dread to think of what a good cut in Bolivia or Peru looks like….perhaps I will just grow it.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Tonight I caught a bus south to Almagro and to a club called La Catedral. I met a couple of friends there for a group Tango lesson which started at 10.30pm…Apparently every night in Buenos Aires there are around 20 milongas that people can go to and dance across the city. This venue is a old church and feels very bohemian. I hadn’t realised that the lesson was in Spanish but manage to follow hand gestures. We learnt how to follow the rhythm, how to hold yourself (lean in, balance and allow the man to push you round the dance floor) and a few basic steps. Anastasia was telling me how if you miss a step or collide with someone, the woman never apologises, as the man leads, it is his fault. Always. It was basic good fun with smiles all round. I am definitely not a natural but would give it ago again in a friendly environment. We had a couple of beers to quench the thirst we’d worked up before heading home around 2am….on a school night!

Buenos Aires, Argentina

This is only about the second time it has rained during my stay in Buenos Aires, during the day. I wanted to spend the day exploring the Palermo barrio. After enjoying Eggs Benedict as a Sunday Brunch treat, I made my way down past the botanical gardens and along Thames Street. Palermo is a more up market area with boutique shops and cafes along big tree lined streets. The markets are good to look round, but in the rain the atmosphere is not as good and I tended to mooch around the shops to stay drier. There are hundreds of ice cream shops in BA and here there seems to be one on every block so I felt despite the rain I should test a few flavours. I stumble on Jauja, which features Patagonian flavours and enjoy a Passion fruit type one that reminds me of fruit salads. The guy in the shop is clearly pleased to meet a foreign face and helps me practice my Spanish a bit. I enjoy the early afternoon and take a few pictures of street art as I walk round before rain starts to get heavier and I retreat home. I spent the evening practicing my Spanish and trying to plan my next adventure.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

I feel like I went to bed as a young Argentinian after a good night out and woke up as a middle aged English woman. I can feel those dancing muscles and it seems a late sleep was needed. I walked out to a lovely sunny afternoon and headed to Puerto Madero which is in the east of the city. My initial plan was to hire a bike to cycle around the ecological reserve behind the new city area. The late start put paid to that plan, so I strolled around the lakes instead looking at strange birds, even spotted a huge otter type animal snaking past the Ibis. The weekends are a big family time for people so it is very relaxing just people watching. There is a cultural centre nearby (CCK) which has a Penas & Milonga late afternoon, so I spent a couple ideas watching professional dancers, regular couples and a orchestra with 4 accordion players. They were all very good, but the Tango does confuse me both from a steps and music perspective. There does not seem to be any logic or patterns to the dances, it seems hard. They also did a couple of dances in lines that reminded me of country dancing at school. These were much more joyous affairs, with people clapping and waving handkerchiefs around. I walked back up av. Corrientes, home of Cadore ice cream – dark chocolate and banana split flavours were divine. I caught the Subte home, there has been a protest so it is sweaty and rammed with singing passionate Argentinians.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

I felt better with my Spanish today, took a little test and did better than I thought, I also found I can name quite a few fruit and vegetables just from shopping and ice cream flavours! Tonight there is a traditional asado organised by the school at a residential house, technically it is not a BBQ, and the suggestion can cause offence….but it is essentially a pile of meat cooked over coals. It looks like the meat is prepared with a salt type preparation before cooking, and the rack over the coals is slanted (like a house roof). The address is in Belgrano, looks like a affluent neighbourhood and I catch the Subte out there. I do manage to trap my arm in the Subte door, which is a tad embarrassing but I recovered it well! We meet at 8.30pm and I am deliberately starving. The house is at the base of a block of flats, and I am surprised how open it is, leading onto a wide terrace that can house a table for 20 and has a asado at one end. I am not sure if he is hired or part of the family, but the guy is busy filling the rack with all sorts of meat – morcilla (blood sausage), lamb ribs, steak chunks, aubergine, chorizo sausage. Faye and the Kiwis are already here, and they have thought to bring alcohol. Two Dutch guys, Thomas and Wilfred are heading out to buy beer so I put in some cash for a couple of bottles of wine….decent Malbec is available for around £5. It is a lovely evening, I obviously drink too much wine before dinner is served at 11pm but manage to put a decent effort in eating a bit of each meat. After dinner there is a movement towards heading to a Salsa club, it is the last time I will see the 2 Kiwis so feel it would be fun to have a dance. Faye for some reason has brought a bike, so we were slightly concerned as she wobbled off in the wrong direction (she did get home safe). There are about 10 of us that head to the club by taxi, its free for women and we head up to the Columbian themed party. It is a good laugh and aside from the terrifying part when a stranger asked me to dance (he was very kind and didn’t complain when I went the wrong way) I really enjoyed the atmosphere. I was surprised that it was 3am before I knew it, some of the group were heading off and the music changed so I decided to head home. I started off walking, before deciding that taxi was probably safer and would be quicker. I realised Dad had just made a scrabble move so was awake early morning, quite funny wishing him Buenos noches as he started his day.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Spanish is still a little muddled in my head! Today we were learning ‘to be’ and when to apply ‘ser’ or ‘estar’…. After class the Kiwi’s, Harriet and Guy were going to the Eva Peron museum, which was on my list so we decided to grab lunch and then head over. Fun with the waitress practicing our Spanish, she then verified orders by practicing her English. Huge milanesa sandwich, ordered ‘simple’, this means just that. If you order ‘completo’ it comes with everything, like fries/egg/ham. It actually started raining as we walked to the museum. The museum is in a former building of the Eva Peron Foundation, quite a grand and beautiful building. Interesting presentation of the former First Lady, I had watched Evita previous but this focused more on how she supported the poor and woman through her role. Originally trained as an actress with a few roles, she met Peron at a rally for earthquake victims and married him a year later and he became president. She was really popular with the lower classes and together the Perons set up child education, holiday options for the poor, hospitals to improve the conditions for the working class. The museum obviously focuses on the positives of her life and role, she died at 33 of cancer and was given a state funeral joined by masses, the first for someone of her status. The museum was nicely presented and they featured some of her glamorous and day to day outfits which were lovely. This evening I went for a few beers with Faye, a British girl staying for a couple of weeks. We hit a couple of craft breweries near Plaza Serrano.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

I genuinely have nothing to write today that is exciting. Spanish class was tough, and I am wondering if it will soon start coming together…. left class hungry and with a banging headache. Found a lovely fresh pasta shop on the way home, so bought spinach tagliatelle for dinner. Spend the afternoon doing jobs I had put off, exciting ones like cleaning my trek sandals which are not so fresh after Iguazu soaking. I will comment on the variety of local shops there are in the city. Local greengrocers, fresh pasta shops, bakeries are regularly found every few blocks which is really nice to experience.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Spanish day 2 – counting, time, occupations and more verbs. Head is really trying hard to make sense of it. Grabbed a few empanadas for lunch as I am going back down to La Boca neighbourhood for the afternoon. The school organises a few social activities each week and I quite liked the sound of this tour. It is with a local guy and promises to show you beyond the usual touristy street of Caminito. First adventure is getting there, and taking a bus. It is actually much easier than it looked, you tell the driver where you want to go and then put your Sube card on the machine, bit like an Oyster card. We meet the guide down near the port and spend about 3 hours in the neighbourhood. I learnt this was where the port was located originally, and was key for the Spanish to move extracted silver from the mines near Lima back to Spain as it was largely downhill, thus quicker. I was also impressed with how much the football club influences the area. It is known worldwide, but has membership rather than an owner. Once you have been president of the club, you are eligible to run for mayor, and then president of the country (as the current president history demonstrates). The club also runs support centres for the community, woman and children. They also fund the fire service facilities, which we saw and chatted to the bomberos. It was great to be out in the sunshine, enjoying stories about the area and meeting more students from the school. Faye lost her sube card and missed the bus back, so I hopped off to help her. Would like to think someone would have done the same for me if I got stuck. 25degrees & sunny