Sunday, April 12, 2009

To the Land of Steak (Buenos Aires in the Fall)

*Yeah, the asterisk is needed. I can’t fairly judge Buenos Aires. When you’ve been in a developing country for three months, a western style city will look pretty good when you’re used to that. I’ve been eating the same (albeit delicious) food for three months, I’ve been in a hot, never changing desert for three months, and I haven’t been in a real park in three months. So when I’m fawning over some aspect of Buenos Aires in this entry, remember that it is a biased opinion.

I like cool weather. This makes fall and spring my favorite time of year. Peruvians may call Trujillo the city of eternal spring but their spring is a little different than a Minnesota spring. Therefore Buenos Aires in late March and early April was perfect for me. After the first day, when it was in the 90s, it was in the low 70s the rest of the time and down into the 50s at night (I really feel like a Minnesotan when I lead off an entry about Buenos Aires talking about the weather). This was one of the many reasons why I enjoyed Buenos Aires.

So, I arrived on a Saturday evening a day before my traveling companions, Sarah and Fiona, arrived. If I had arrived 2 or 3 hours earlier I could have gone to the Argentina/Venezuela World Cup qualifying match. I know that would have excited my soccer loving friends to be able to tell them all about that, but alas I had to settle with watching it on TV in my hostel while eating a delicious carne picante empanada. The hostel manager ordered these for me from a restaurant just around the corner because I was starving after traveling all of the previous night and that day. I’m glad he did because I went back to this place to get 2 or 3 of them 3 more times during the duration of my time there. These things basically just contained steak, spicy steak and little else. They were unbelievable. That’s why I went back 3 more times at the end of sight seeing days.

I went out to explore the barrio that we were staying in, which was Palermo (Bruno, if you’re reading this, unfortunately there was no Palermo’s Pizza in this neighborhood. At least not one that I could find.) I would describe this neighborhood as Uptown like without the hipsters and with an area that is very reminiscent of seven corners. (Don’t worry, the rest of Buenos Aires has plenty of hipsters. In fact there are enough of them there to make me think there is another mother ship, JO.) Palermo has a vibrant nightlife and plenty of fantastic restaurants. I sat down at a place in the seven corners like area to pass the time until my restaurant had a table for me. I met a Canadian hombre who had just spent 4 months in Uruguay with his Uruguayan girlfriend. When I asked him how he had met this girl, he replied with, “Well, I’m 40, single and traveled down there last week to find a wife.” Pure honesty, he had no qualms about his reason for going down there. He then told me a story about some cat that showed up at their doorstep, so I paid my bill and left. I left to go to a restaurant that would promptly serve me one of the 10 best meals of my life (by the way this is the first restaurant meal to crack the top ten, the other 9 have been at family gatherings for Christmas/birthdays. You can’t be something that is made with love.) La Cabrera served me a superb cut of Chorizo de Bife (no it doesn’t taste like chorizo sausage at all, it’s just their name for that cut) along with 13 really good side dishes. This was not a meal to share with oneself, for two reasons: 1) their was way to much food, over a pound of beef and 13 side dishes the size of a ramekin dish, and 2) you shouldn’t eat something so good all by yourself. I got over it rather quickly and enjoyed it thoroughly. That was a great end to my first evening in BA.

On Sunday, the San Telmo ferria is in full force. I got up and walked the tree (aww trees, I missed thee) lined streets to the subway. Got off the subway in San Telmo and promptly walked in the wrong direction, discovered a food market and enjoyed a fresh juice and sandwich while I “read” the Sunday paper (it was in Spanish). The last part of that was really how the whole trip was (Sarah and Fiona may disagree but we didn’t really get lost or go in the complete wrong direction the rest of the week), just very relaxing getting to sit down where ever I wanted and just observe what was going on in the city. So I eventually made it to the market which was a cross between a flea market, a craft show, an antiques road show, and on the outskirts of it, a tourist trap. If anybody had wanted some silver they should have let me know before this trip, an unbelievable amount of silver antiques. There were also a lot paintings and drawings on display. It was all very relaxing, a common theme here, to walk around in. I didn’t have people hassling me to get into their taxi or to come to their restaurant, nor were my ears bombarded with noise pollution (well there was noise but not over bearing and not annoying to me). There were tango dancers just dancing in the street, people playing accordions, and people selling humongous ham and cheese (lots of cheese) sandwiches. I of course had one.

I sat down to have something to drink towards the end of the day at one of the cafes on the cobblestone (important, remember that for later) street. A girl came up to me and started talking in rapid fire Spanish. Now normally I try to at least understand someone but she was talking so fast I had no chance. So I said, “Wo, wo, wo. No entiendo.” To which she replied, with a perfect American accent, “Oh, you speak English. Can I sit here; there are no other places to sit.” She sat down and we talked for awhile. As the sun got a little lower, shining in my eyes, our waiter got an umbrella to help me out. He took a stand from behind me and put the umbrella in there. Perfect! No more sun in my eyes, but as I went to lean back as I had been doing the whole time, myself and the chair just kept going and going. All the way until I was on the uneven cobblestone street that had been even up to that point with the help of the umbrella stand. I blame the waiter. And so concludes the first full day in Buenos Aires (I still have 4 more days to get through).

With Sarah and Fiona now having arrived, we went down to La Boca to see the colorful houses and tango shows. This day we were hassled quite a bit because it was such a touristy area. First, a pair of “tango dancers” grabbed us and said we should get photos with them. They of course wanted money, a lot of money, for each photo. A string of restaurants had their minions out to get all of the passing tourists to come to their place and watch the tango show and each their crappy food. The neighborhood was beautiful though. The wood and sheet metal sided houses were painted brilliant, bright colors and their residents were just out hanging the laundry. The neighborhood had a very clean, orderly, and vintage feel to it, even if it had turned into a tourist trap. We did see a great tango show at lunch. I am still amazed at how this dance is done, I know they must rehearse their routine nonstop but there is still leading that needs to be done and it is not obvious how.

We also saw the thinnest house in Buenos Aires which had been given to some freed slaves. I wouldn’t have noticed it had I just been walking down the street. All these houses in these old cities look so thin that it doesn’t stick out to somebody who grew up without another house within a half mile of their own and after living in Peru for 3 months where many of the habitations probably have less square footage than this place. It appears, from the outside, that somebody still lives their. I would hope that it has been connected to one of the adjacent houses by now. We also enjoyed some hot milk with melted chocolate afterwards, the Argentinean café version of a hot chocolate. It didn’t have as strong of a chocolate flavor but an individual bite of the chocolate bar was splendid. That night we went to a jazz percussion show that is held outside at the culture center (the Konex Center) every Monday. The place was full of Argentinean hipsters and young travelers. The music was awesome and a good 1 and a half hours of entertainment.

The government area of the city is beautiful as well. I enjoy looking at sculptures of historic figures and the Greek style architecture that Congressional buildings are often built in. We followed the Avenida de Mayo down to the Plaza de Mayo. The Avenida was designed by Mayor Alvear to be reminiscent of Madrid. It’s lined with beautiful buildings (which maybe I could describe in greater detail if I knew anything about architecture, but the great thing is that its something you don’t have to know a lot about to appreciate). Saw some colorful bear art, got a quick Argentinean history lesson from a local (Gen. San Martin is there George Washington is how he described it), and I ended daylight with some more steak empanadas. We went back to La Cabrera that evening and this time the steak came with 13 different side dishes than the first time I went and all amazing again. That’s at least 26 side dishes that they had to offer and who knows how many others they are hiding. I want more. The steak was scrumptious again (for me at least) and to start we had a something (I didn’t order it and I forgot to ask the name) with arugula, queso fresco, other cheese that I’m blanking on right now and prosciutto. You can’t go wrong when prosciutto is included. It was another amazing day of walking around, in cool weather, in parks, and in friendly city streets. It just felt good, putting it simply.

With the absence of any more good stories, I’ll blow through the last few things that we did. We walked through the rose garden, saw the famous Recoleta Cemetery (unbelievable mausoleums, including Evita Peron’s (“don’t cry for me Argentinaaaaaaaaa”), saw an old library in the Scientific Society of Argentina, saw the Palacio Paz (awesome for its complete and utterly ridiculous amount of overabundance as palaces and mansions always have), ate more empanadas, had an awesome torta with an absurd amount of cheese, shared the largest calzone I have ever had, saw the museum of modern Latin art (the MALBA), relaxed the afternoon away in a café because the city was shutdown for the burial of past president Raul Alfonsin (he was buried in the cemetery we had visited the day before), and spent the dusk hours walking through the botanical garden in Palermo. We then finished off a wonderful eating week with a grill out provided by our hostel which included steak, pork tenderloin, sausage, and blood sausage (was there other stuff to eat, sure, but who really cares when that stuff has been on the grill).

So what do I think of Buenos Aires? I loved it. I loved it because I didn’t feel so much like a tourist there (I’m sure I looked like one but when you have been stared at for three straight months because you’re a gringo, it doesn’t take much to feel like you’re fitting in). It felt like a city I could have lived in. I could imagine riding my bike through the streets to my job, to school, or to the market and it would have been easier than doing so in Pittsburgh (hey, another reason I can’t fairly judge BA, pedestrians have the right of way there). It was the perfect place to go for a quick break from Peru.

Speaking of Peru, I missed being here. For these 6 months, it has and will be my home and I miss home when I’m away from it even if I’m having an awesome time. I especially missed the kids. It’s not hard to miss them either because they have this unconditional love for you (which by the way is completely undeserved as I can’t speak their language but I’ll take it anyways). It’s nice to come back to 10 minute hugs from kids who ask you how much longer you are staying and when you tell them until June they say, “dos meses mas. No Junio, Agosto tio.” I missed working on the water project (always a good sign that you’re work is something you enjoy when you miss doing it) even though I did need the break. I’ll look forward to my next vacation while I’m in Peru but I also look forward to returning from that vacation.

I can honestly say that although nothing wild and crazy happened in BA (I’m not left with any great stories), I’ll always have great memories of it because of where I’m at. Obviously the food played a huge part in that as it always will with me. I’ve had multiple friends tell me that they have wanted to go to BA and if/when they go I hope I can go with them so that I can relive it again.