Back in Buenos Aires

After 18 hours on the bus and spilling hot tea all over my lap at breakfast, we made it back to Buenos Aires alive. For the entire month we've been here, there has been construction going on in the center of Avenida 9 de Julio, which is right next to our apartment. The city government was building a special lane for busses to drive down so that they don't clog traffic on the main street (9 de Julio is a major avenue in the city) or get slowed down by the existing traffic. It's a great idea, and when we first arrived, the construction was in early stages; the center lane just looked like a pit of torn up concrete. But today was the inauguration of the new bus lanes, and they look pretty good. By now Lindsay and I have gotten used to taking the bus (aka colectivos) around the city as the buses generally get you closer to where you want to go than the Subte. 

As our days left in Argentina are running out, we decided to go shopping for things we want to bring home today. I'm not going to say what exactly we bought since I don't want to ruin the surprise for friends and family back home, but we had fun finding a few treasures to remind us of Buenos Aires when we're back in the States. 

This evening Lindsay went to play a soccer game in an all-girls soccer tournament in the city. She has played a few times with a group called BAFA (Buenos Aires Futbol Amigos), where both locals and foreigners living in Buenos Aires can sign up online for games and come play. But in those games, she was the only girl since its not as common for girls to play soccer in Argentina as it is in the US. So it was great for her to get to play a game with other girls, meet both Argentinians and non-Argentinians, and win 5-0 (go Linds!).

We were planning on having dinner tonight at Cumana, our favorite traditional Argentine restaurant, but when we got there (around 10, regular going out to dinner time in the winter), it was packed. Lucía met us for dinner and suggested we go to the place next door, La Cholita, as it was another traditional Argentine food restaurant. It was quite tasty (although I still prefer Cumana), and I had a choripan and Lindsay had a spinach and cheese stew which was delicious and almost like a soufflé. 

Cataratas de Iguazu

We got up this morning at 9am, which should tell you how excited Lindsay and I were to see the falls given our usual wake-up times this trip. After a quick breakfast of coffee/tea and jam on toast at the hostel (I gave bits of toast to the hostel cat who sat hopefully at my feet while I ate), we walked over to the bus terminal. It was much smaller than the terminal in Buenos Aires (which has over 100 gates and full of people and luggage, making it difficult to navigate), so it was easy to find the bus to the falls. For only 60 pesos (about 8 dollars) round trip, it was a deal!

The ride out of the city, through increasingly wild and jungly nature to Iguazu National Park (which was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984) took about 45 minutes. The entrance fee for non-Argentinians was 170 pesos and completely worth it. The crown jewel of this 212 square mile park are the Iguazu Falls, a group of spectacular waterfalls on the border of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay that range from 60m to 82m in height and are 2,700m long (Niagara Falls are 50m at the highest and 1,039m in length). The name "Iguazu" comes from the Guarani (the native people of the region) words for "big" and "water", making the place aptly named. When we first entered, it tooled a bit like Disneyland: a large map, lots of nice little kiosks selling Iguazu trinkets, and a professional-looking nature museum that explained the flora, fauna and history of Iguazu.

We took the Green Trail from the entrance to the central station. It was packed, and somehow Lindsay and I found ourselves in the middle of a German tour group, the leader of which chided us when we stepped off the path until she realized that we were not in her group and did not speak German. For about 20 minutes, we walked (slowly given the crowd) along a paved trail surrounded by thick green foliage, the trees arching together to form a roof over our heads. It felt very jungly and exciting, and I was straining to listen for the waterfalls to tell when we were getting close. We arrived at the central station, where there was a cafe, a mini-market of indigenous artisans selling crafts, restrooms, and coatíes.  What is a coatí? This adorable animal:

They are surprisingly tame, and we saw them everywhere. They were not afraid of people, to the point where several jumped at plastic bags people were carrying, trying to rip out the food inside. They reminded me of mini-raccoons with longer noses, and they liked drinking spilled soda from the cafe tables:

The coatíes also hung out in trees:

And swarmed over packets of alfajores that people dropped on the ground:

Despite their cuteness, though, coatíes are quite aggressive and will bite you. Several people (especially small children) ignored this fact and tried to pet the little animals, with little success.

From the central station we took the Upper Trail, which lead up to the waterfalls and allowed you to walk over them. Not directly over, but over the river close enough to the edge that you could look down and see the water pouring into the river below. 

First was Salto Dos Hermanas, then Salto Chica.

Next was Salto Bossetti (Bossetti Falls) and Salto Adán y Eva. 

The last waterfall we could closely approach was Salto Gpque Bernabé Méndez, and from the end of the Upper Trail we had a great view of Saltos Mbigua, San Martín, Escondido, Rivadavia and Belgrano. 

In awe but getting tired of fighting the crowds to get a good picture of the waterfalls, we headed back to the central station and then followed another trail to a good cafe for a lunch of empanadas and lemon soda. Then, we took the Lower Trail, which is part way down the waterfalls and affords fantastic views as you can look at them head-on. Mercifully, this trail was also much less crowded than the first and we could walk at a leisurely pace and pretty easily get good pictures (except for the trees getting in the way).

From the beginning and middle of the Lower Trail, we had a good view of the Devil's Throat (Garganta del Diablo), an incredible U-shaped waterfall that is 82 m high, 150m wide and 700m long. Unfortunately, the river feeding this waterfall flooded a few weeks ago, breaking the bridge that let you get a closer look, so we had to satisfy ourselves with admiring it from afar.

There was one pathway that went very close to Salto Bossetti, so if you were brave and stood at the edge of the platform for a few minutes, would would be completely soaked. Since it was pretty cold (although luckily perfectly sunny), I opted to keep my distance, but Lindsay ran in long enough for me to snap a picture of her in the mist of the waterfall.

I enjoyed the walk back on the Lower Trail, where we had a great view of Salto Dos Hermanas and Salto Chico:

I also loved the path in general, it made me feel like a was walking through a magical jungle, especially the way the light fell through the trees overhead.

In addition to the coatíes, we spotted a beautiful bird. Lots of other animals, like monkeys, jaguars and other smaller wild cats, anteaters and toucans also live in the park, but we didn't see any of those.

To make the day even more perfect, we stopped by the Freddo (a chain of gelato cafes in Argentina) at the central station before we caught the bus back to Puerto Madero. It was my first time there (hard to believe, I know, but the cold weather for this month usually put me in the mood for submarino instead), and I had a dulce de leche gelato-filled alfajor (think Argentine ice cream sandwich), which was absolutely delicious.

We arrived back at the bus station in Puerto Madero with plenty of time to eat a quick meal before getting on the bus for the 18 hour ride back to Buenos Aires.

Puerto Iguazu

Around 3pm, we finally arrived in Puerto Iguazu after 18 hours in the bus! We had a small breakfast (typical Argentine breakfast of coffee/tea and cookies/toast) on the bus around 9, but we were out of snacks, so by the time we got off the bus, we were starving. Puerto Iguazu is a very small, safe city that seems to exist solely to accommodate the many visitors to the falls. Lindsay and I walked the easy three blocks to our hostel, dropped off our bags, and then went to a parrilla, Color, that Lucía had recommended. As we were starving, we decided to go all out. We started out with a provaleta (the fried provolone cheese that I shall miss dearly back in the US), which was of course delicious.

We were expecting the Caesar salad we ordered (with the dressing on the side as dressings in Argentina tend to have way too much mayonnaise) to come out next, but it did not. Instead, our "parrilla completa", a sort of tasting platter of Argentine grilled meats came out next. Now, we had tried every kind of empanada, lots of dulce de leche things, the pizza, the ice cream, and several different cuts of beef and pork. We still had not tried any offal, something else Argentina is known for. Our parrilla completa had: chorizo, flank steak, black pudding (morcilla), chicken thighs, chitlings, beef ribs and kidneys. The chorizo was my favorite, followed (surprisingly) by the morcilla, which tasted like a very meaty pate. The ribs were also very good and fatty, and the chicken had nice crispy skin. The flank steak was a little tough, probably because I forgot to order it medium or medium rare, so it came out well done (the default meat cook setting in Argentina). The kidneys weren't bad, but it was a very fatty taste and the texture was a little off-pudding. I still had several bites before giving my verdict, though. The chitlings, on the other hand, took only one bite for me to know that I did not like them at all.

By this time we were completely stuffed and had forgotten about the salad, so when it came out we had them wrap it up to go (which is an acceptable thing to do in Argentina). 

We walked around the town for a bit. As I said, it was very small and cute and consisted mainly of restaurants, cafes, hotels, hostels, clothing and souvenir shops, and the bus station. We followed one of the main roads out of the town (which took about ten minutes of walking) to where it met Río Iguazu. For another 10-15 minutes, we strolled along with a lovely view of the river, the street lines with parks, to where Río Iguazu and Río Paraná intersect. It was still a very nice view, but it was a very overcast day and it was getting dark, so on a sunny day I'm sure it would have been better. 

By this time I was getting pretty cold, so we headed back to the hostel and (for once) went to bed early so we would be well-rested for the falls. Our room in the hostel, about the size of a large walk-in closet, at least had a private bathroom, plenty of extra blankets, and a friendly cat meowing outside out door. 

Mercado de San Telmo, crepes con dulce de leche

As today was our last Sunday in Buenos Aires, Lindsay and I headed back to the outdoor market in San Telmo. It was quite cold today, in the 40s, and the weather report said it might even snow at some point. So, we bundled up and braved the walk to Plaza de Mayo. The market was much less crowded than it was the first time we came, thanks no doubt to the cold. Given the amount of non-Spanish languages we were hearing, it was mostly tourists and the vendors that made it out today. We searched through piles of mates, admired the many patterned scarves, and discussed priced for leather purses. There was tons of jewelry, many with turquoise stones and intricate metalwork. We stopped for awhile at an artisan potter who included classic Argentine symbols on his pottery like tango, indigenous animals, and ACDC. 

This is probably a good time to comment on the popularity of American classic and hard rock (I've heard Creedence Clearwater Revival in more than one taxi, and most souvenir shops sell shot glasses with rock bands as well as couples doing tango). 90s music is also still very popular down here...as one of the stand up comedians said at the "Gringo Comedy" show we went to said: "the 90s isn't just a decade, it's a state of mind." While I'm talking about that comedian (a young woman originally from the US who had been living in Argentina for about five years), I should mention another one of her jokes which I have found both hilarious and incredibly true. In the US, she says, guys have pick up lines. In Argentina, guys have pick up dissertations, and they will defend them as long as you will stand there (or as long as they can pull off following you). 

But back to the market. It was pretty cold and starting to rain, so Lindsay and I decided to head back to the warmth and safety of our apartment. Luckily, on the way out of the market we passed a crepe stand. I had a plain crepe with dulce de leche (classic Argentina, putting dulce de leche on everything), and Lindsay had one with dulce de leche and Nutella. Both were fantastic and totally worth having sticky hands  for the rest of the walk home. 

After a shower and packing back at the apartment, Lindsay and I were off to the bus station once again. This time, though, it was an 18 hour bus ride to Iguazu to see the world-famous Iguazu Falls. The bus was pretty nice: big seats that laid back like last time, but unlike last time, we were given blankets, pillows and dinner (which was similar to airplane food) on the bus.

Bosques de Palermo, chocolate con churros (por fin)

Since it was sunny today, Linds and I decided to check out Bosques de Palermo, a group of large parks between the neighborhood Palermo and the river. They were very cute, and despite the cold (the sun tricked us...it was actually a pretty chilly day in the low 50s/high 40s), there were still people out rollerblading, playing soccer and sitting by the lake feeding the geese. There were a few small artificial lakes in the parks, and there is a nice Japanese Garden at the edge of the parks. We started to get cold and hungry, though, so we made out way back toward the city, and ran into the Monument to the Regions of Argentina, which was pretty impressive.

We continued down the street toward Santa Fe, where we were sure to find some grub, when we ran into an Agricultural Exhibition. We didn't end up going inside as it was getting dark and it was almost over, but we did peek in and see gauchos roping cattle in a ring, lots of other farm animals, artisan crafts and tons of food. Luckily, the food was not contained to the inside of the Exhibition; street vendors with carts of choripan, hamburgers, empanadas and candied nuts were sprinkled throughout the plaza at the entrance of the Exhibition. Perfect, we had just been craving choripan. As a reminder, choripan is chorizo between two pieces of bread, usually eaten with the sauce chimichurri. It's in parrillas and other restaurants sometimes, but it's a very popular street food. We picked out the tastiest looking cart, dressed our choripanes with the sauces and toppings of our choosing and sat down to enjoy our meal before catching the Subte back to our apartment (and out of the cold).

When we returned to our apartment, we were disappointed to see that the power was out on our whole block. We really wanted something warm to drink, so we decided to go to a cafe we'd had out eye on for awhile. It was a chocolateria/heladeria and was one of the few places I'd seen chocolate con churros (one of my favorite foods in Spain) advertised. I was very excited to try Argentina's version, but was unimpressed. Maybe the churros I had were too old, or maybe the chocolate wasn't as thick as I was used to, but it just wasn't the same. Still good, but I think I'll stick with submarino with medialunas as my Argentine cafe snack.

Also, today is officially Día del Amigo, so there are special deals advertised on bars, restaurants and shops all over the city. What a fun holiday! Even the flower stands (which are plentiful and which have beautiful flowers) had special deals.

¡Feliz Día del Amigo!

For lunch today Lindsay and I went to a classic Buenos Aires pizza joint: Kentucky. As funny as it is to have an Argentinian pizza chain names after a state in the US, it's even more entertaining to hear people say "Kentucky" in Spanish. The pizza is delicious, and today I had a piece of four cheese and a piece of ham, cheese and onion with a thick layer of caramelized onions. Also, since its cold here Lindsay and I often get coffee (for her) and submarino (for me) with our meal, which is something we usually get either confused looks or laughed at for since people don't normally do that here. But it wasn't cold today and we had mineral water with our pizza and didn't get teased, yes!

On the way back, we stopped at El Ateneo, a bookstore that used to be a theater. It still looks like a classic theater, complete with balconies that are now reading nooks. At the back of the store, behind a drawn red velvet curtain, is the stage, which is now a cafe. Lindsay and I were of course drawn in to the extensive collection of cookbooks, and two next to each other were just calling our names. 

Walking down Santa Fe, one of the main streets in Buenos Aires, I am always amazed by how many shops there are. Tons of independent and big-name clothing stores, lots of shoes and leather jackets, several mini-malls, including Bond Street mall which is full of tattoo and piercing parlors. The cars, especially the taxi drivers, have a general disregard for staying within their lanes, and there is a good deal of traffic, especially during rush hours. Also, people honk. A lot. 

Tonight, we went to Lucía's house for a dinner with her friends to celebrate el Día del Amigo, or Friendship Day. First designed in 1958 by Dr. Ramón Artemio Bracho as part of his campaign to foster a culture of peace, Día del Amigo is celebrated in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Peru. And by Lindsay and I from now on because it's a perfect excuse to get together with your friends. 

After dinner, we all headed out to Frank's, a very cool speakeasy-style bar. While we 

were walking the few blocks to a Main Street to catch taxis, though (there were eight of us and taxis only hold four, so we needed two), something funny happened. I should preface that at the dinner was a group of Lucía's friends from her job working at the Spanish school, which most UCs and many other US colleges partner with to arrange study abroad programs. So, there were two guys originally from the US at dinner who had been living in Buenos Aires for several years. While walking, we Americans unintentionally ended up about a block ahead of the Argentinians because we just walked more quickly. But back to Frank's. the outside was unlabeled, but one of our group knocked on the door, which opened to reveal a dimly lit room and a large bouncer standing in front of the door. He whispered the password (yep, you have to know the password to get into the bar, and it changes), which today was "Sergio Einstein". We all filed into the smallish, empty room and walked to the telephone booth flush against the back wall. You punch in a code into the phone, and the secret door in the wall opens to let you into Frank's Bar. 

It was a beautiful place, and probably the most dressed up I've seen people in a bar so far in Buenos Aires. It was speakeasy style, lots of dark wood, comfortable dark leather couches and wood chairs with red upholstered seats and back. Two large chandeliers hung from the ceiling, and there was a smaller second floor with its own little bar that would be perfect to rent out for a party. This place also had a fantastic cocktail menu. It being Día del Amigo and it being Argentina, everyone was pleased to share their drinks, so I got to try some of several different drinks, not just my own. I had the "bees knees" (yes, named in English), which was gin, honey, and sparkling lime (and think) and it was absolutely delicious. I'm definitely figuring out how to make that when I get home! 

Abasto and Antares

Today I had my first Starbucks in Argentina, mainly because I was really missing chai lattes and you can't really get those anywhere else. I also has a delicious four cheese scone that I really hope they have in the US when I get home. My chai latte was good, but sweeter than in the JS. This didn't surprise me because Argentinians have quite the sweet tooth, and many things, for example the soda, especially 7UP, are sweeter in Argentina than in the US.

After that brief adventure, we went to the Abasto, the biggest shopping mall in Buenos Aires. It was huge! Seven floors, each about the size or bigger than indoor malls at home. It even had its own Subte stop that went directly into the mall. I made a mental note of this for rainy days in the future. There were many Argentine brands, for example Paez, the well-known shoe store that was the first (well, not the first as the gauchos wore those kinds of shoes) to make the type of shoes Tom's now uses, which is why the Tom's symbol has the light blue and white stripes of the Argentine flag. There were European shops, like Zara. There were also American shops like Billabong and Quicksilver. Funnily enough, all those surf shops are very popular in Buenos Aires. 

In general, the style in Buenos Aires is all over the place. It's not a very formal city; most women don't walk around wearing makeup and many people walk around in ski-style jackets that would earn you many scandalized stares in Madrid. People are on average shorter here than in the US, which may explain why platform shoes are very popular here. So are leather ankle boots, tight patterned pants, and ugly men's hairstyles. It's cold (in the 50s), so people are mostly wearing coats and scarves, sometimes hats. At restaurants and bars, with the exception of a few nicer places, you're fine in cute jeans and a fashionable top. At clubs, people are less dressed up than in Madrid, but you still see plenty of tight dresses and skirts or high heels that you would expect in a club.

I had heard that in the last 20 years or so, craft brews had become popular in Argentina. Quilmes, kind of the Budweiser of Argentina, is everywhere, but if you want to get a good beer in Buenos Aires you definitely have to look for it. So today we went to Antares, one of the most popular craft breweries in Buenos Aires. The place was (and is always) packed, and we waited about an hour at the bar to get a table, where we were joined by several friends. I got their tabla de degustación, where you could pick four of their beers to try and I had the honey beer, the barley wine, the kolsh and the scotch. All were good, the kolsh and the honey beer probably my favorite. 

Happy hour and tango at La Viruta

Today was our first sunny day in Buenos Aires, yay! It had either been overcast, foggy or raining for our first week and a half here, so seeing some blue sky greatly improved my mood. Lindsay and I were so motivated by the weather that we even brought our dirty clothes down to the lavandería to get out laundry done. We dropped it off, and in a few hours picked up our clean, folded clothes for only 30 pesos, about $4 on the Blue Rate. As I mentioned before, the official exchange rate (5.5 pesos to 1 US dollar) in Argentina is currently very different from the unofficial (Blue) rate, about 7.5 pesos to $1. Many businesses have cropped up to allow people to take advantage of this exchange rate, and not all of them reputable. Some money change places will give you counterfeit pesos, and some will give you only a slightly better rate than the official. Luckily, Lindsay and I have made Argentine friends, so we have been able to exchange our US dollars with them to get a good deal in a safe and reliable way. Many Argentinians want US dollars because its a more stable currency then the AR peso and because US dollars are accepted at many places in Argentina, especially for bigger purchases. 

We went out for our first happy hour (which in Buenos Aires is usually 7-9 or something similar, sometimes even until 10 or 11) in Palermo tonight. Danilas had tasty 2 for 1 happy hour cocktails, decent nachos (Argentina may be in Latin America, but they don't really do spicy and the empanadas are the only thing that really resembles Mexican food) and was right around the corner from La Viruta. La Viruta is a popular dance venue that teaches tango and other types of dance every day of the week. So today, we finally learned how to tango. 

We arrived when the post-lesson free dance from the early dance class was just ending, so we watched people dance for awhile, wondering when (or if) our tango lesson would start. But start it did: the lights went off and a spotlight illuminated a group of smiling people in the center of the room, who all introduced themselves as instructors. The lights came on and we divided ourselves into beginning, intermediate and advanced sections in the room. It was a bit hectic: the room and dance floor were large, but still bursting with people. The women went on one side of the room and the men the other, where we both learned our respective steps.

Then, we partnered up and danced the basic tango steps. Then we would stop, the instructors would give us feedback, we would switch partners and dance for another (5-10 minutes). It was fun, but there were (of course) more women than men so we didn't get to dance every time, and some partners were good while others were nervously staring at their feet. The dance floor was also crowded, so we kept tangoing into each other on accident. Also, tango would probably be fun and sexy once you're good at it, but when you're learning it's kind of boring and more difficult to improvise to than other dances. I think I prefer dancing salsa, but tango is still really fun to watch. 

Lucía and Gonzalo (or Gonza for short) met us outside La Viruta and we walked over to Soria, one of the many cool bars in Palermo. It was crowded as tonight there was a MundoLinguo event, which is kind of like Spanglish but way less organized and with all languages. We didn't participate, but it was fun to see people walking around wearing flag stickers for the languages they spoke and hearing conversations in so many languages.