Steak, tango, and fútbol
Trip Start
Dec 06, 2005
1
22
80
Trip End
Jun 17, 2006
Buenos Aires,
Argentina
Thursday, February 9, 2006
FASHION. Neil and Jehan have been complete and utter metrosexuals the whole time. They've bought heaps of rude clothes, in plenty of ridiculous colours and with so-called "fashionable" designs. Lots of leather
01 Pink Presidential Palace
. Neil has no shame, he walks into shops and straight away asks to see the leather pants. Brooksy also bought a leather jacket. I had nothing to do with any of this of course, but enjoyed laughing and telling them all how womanly and/or gay they are. They would have spent at least 24 hours shopping over the week. I went and did far more interesting things :) SIGHTSEEING. We visited a cemetery for Argentina's ridiculously rich and famous. The presidential palace here (where the President and his staff work) is called La Casa Rosada and the whole thing is light pink. Weird. La Boca is a working class suburb with a famous street called Caminito which was fantastic, but touristy. A very "alive" part of town, brightly coloured houses and streetscapes, great sculptures of famous Argentinians like Maradona and Eva Peron, unique circus-like signs and posters everywhere. Cafe Tortoni is the oldest cafe in BsAs (est 1858) and I loved it - amazing furnishings, waiters in full blacktie, live music, tango and pool rooms up the back, and a renowned hot chocolate. Speaking of tango, ...
TANGO. Was just walking randomly along a pedestrian mall we came across a really impressive group of dancers strutting their stuff. It's a really flamboyant, intimate dance, really great to watch when it's done well
02 Largest avenue in the world (9 de Julio)
. We also went to see a tango show at a restaurant on Jehan and Brooksy's last night, which was great fun - with audience participation, a ludicrously small dancing stage, and some live tango music afterwards. That was in the suburb of San Telmo, which is a really cool little arty suburb with not only plenty of tango culture, but cobblestone streets, mansions open to the public, fruit markets, and plenty of antique and leather shops.MEAT. The food here was simply sensational. We had so many feasts with so much amazing meat, but also great pizzas and pastas (Argentina has a large Italian heritage). Two in particular were memorable - one place where we had to go back another day, with superbly cooked "lomo" and delicious sauces, and another where Andrés took Brooksy and I, a 20min bus ride out of town, where it was all-you-can-eat with heaps of all different meats, cooked on big swords angled over a fire, plus fresh pizza/pasta, salads, fish/seafood, drinks and a dessert, all for a bargain price of under 10 bucks. Incredible. Homemade icecreams here have also been excellent, and you probably know how much I like icecream.
FUTBOL. Boca Juniors is the most famous soccer club in South America, with some of the most passionate supporters anywhere. So Brooks, Jehan and I decided to check out a home game of theirs
03 Tango in the street
. It was crazy, the tournament doesn't really even matter for them, and it wasn't an important match against a fierce rival, but that didn't deter the fans from singing, chanting, tens of thousands jumping in unison, doing EVERYTHING they could to urge their beloved team on to victory, which came quite easily, 3-0. The crowd was 99% Boca fans, and most of the chants only had a few words (always including "Boca" and "Dale" - which in this context roughly translates to 'come on'). With almost continuous trumpets and drums keeping the atmosphere electric, a few cheerleader routines, and some very dubious hamburgers, it was a great experience and I want more!NIGHTLIFE. Having found it very difficult to get a straight answer from anyone, we tried many a night spot during our time here trying to find the best places. One moronic taxi driver took us to a club which was full of 13-16 year olds, but there was a foam machine... Eventually, on Saturday night, we found a fun "boliche" (nightclub) in the seaside suburb of Puerto Madero, and stayed out till the sun rose. That wasn't actually that hard though, considering we arrived around 3:30. The whole timetable here is stuffed - people get up late, have siestas, work till 9 or 10pm, eat dinner until 1 or 2am, head out dancing even later. Still not used to seeing icecream joints open at 3am.
RANDOM. One final random thing that happened in BsAs. One day we got up at a lazy 12pm and headed over the road from our apartment for some breakfast. The cafe was called "The Cafe of Friendship". It was full of prostitutes. We are definitely not in a red light district, but there were just all these single ladies sitting down waiting for blokes to approach them, presumably for a siesta-time arrangement. It was very uncomfortable once we figured it out, which didn't take long. We laughed a lot amongst ourselves, watched a few deals take place, and got the hell out of there.
