Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires… a large city, alive with culture, filled with massive parks, gorgeous architecture, beautiful monuments, lots of eye candy, incredible shopping / sense of fashion, and great gastronomy especially in terms of red meat, which I had not experienced, and Pizza, which I had many times… because I LOVE Pizza.

Schtuff We Did

These are in no particular order, just a simple list of things we did/ experience, and stuff we saw while hanging out in Buenos Aires.

1. Plaza de Mayo: Last year in my Spanish literature class, I was assigned a small reading over Las Madres de La Plaza de Mayo, a group of woman who convene at La Plaza de Mayo every Thursday at 3:30. After they group together, the woman march around the plaza holding pictures of their sons and husbands who “disappeared” after the military coup in Argentina. Despite the swarm of tourists, it was a very powerful event to witness. You can read more info about the mothers of the plaza de Mayo on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madres_de_la_plaza_de_mayohttp:// es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asociaci%C3%B3n_Madres_de_Plaza_de_Mayo

2. Museums: Devon and I decided to get our sophistication on and visit a couple art museums in Buenos Aires. The first museum we visited was El museo de Bellas Artes. A museum full of beautiful art. The second museum we visited was the museum of Marcel Duchamp, a very influential/ interesting French artist from the early 1900’s. Overall the museums were pretty sweet. Side Note- Previously I had not been a big museum guy, but the pieces in these two museums laid a very small foundation for an interest in the world of Art.

3. Ferias: Thanks to some great recommendations from Jessica, Devon and I visited a ton of different Ferias, street fairs, in the streets of Buenos Aires. We went to the ferias in La Boca, Recoletta, and San Telmo. The San Telmo feria was incredible, multiple streets were lined with shops, tango dancers, bands, street performers, and tourists. Seriously, there were more high tech telephoto lenses strapped to $1,000 digital cameras in 1 square kilometer of the fair than I had ever seen in my life. I’m sure all those amateur photographers snapped some national geographic worthy photos.

4. The Cemetery: The cemetery in Buenos Aires was fascinating; it truly felt like a little city. The graves, called homenjaes, were large buildings with very complex architecture. It is extremely expensive to be buried in a homenaje, thus only very rich and powerful people, such as Evita, are buried in the Recoletta Cemetary.

5. Monuments: We saw a ton of different Monuments, especially generals sitting on horses. Apparently a lot of General’s who most likely spent a lot of time sitting on horses made a huge difference in the fight for Argentina’s independence… who knew. My favorite monument was a huge metal flower that automatically opens and closes when the sun comes out… it was sweet.

6. Walkabouts: Although we did get lost a handful of times, Devon and I graduated from previous walker status of Amateur Strollers… to Professional Walkers during our time in Buenos Aires. On average we walked 7+ kilometers a day, which doesn’t seem like a lot but in 90+ degree weather, walking around is not an easy feat. Our Walkabouts were great for getting to know the city, we wouldn’t have seen a lot of the gorgeous buildings, stores, and parks in Buenos Aires had we decided to take cabs, or metros everywhere.

7. La Bomba Drum Show: Every Monday night in Buenos Aires there is a huge drum show on a street called Sarmiento. Devon, Casey, a good gal from San Diego we met in our hostel, and I decided to listen to everyone’s advice and go to the show. The show started at 8:00, so we decided to arrive a little early so we could get a good spot for the show. Apparently everyone in Argentina decided arriving at 7:45 was a good idea, so walked for two blocks and made our way to the back of the entrance line. After 45 minutes of waiting we finally got into the drum show. The energy of the entire scene was remarkable, 15 different people pounded on different styles of African drums while a crowd of 2,000 moved their hips and arms to the pulsing rhythm. All in all La Bomba was one of the best events I experienced in BsAs.

8. Steak and Grilled Veggies: One thing everyone has to do in Argentina is have a steak. I have heard that from at least 14 different people and poor Devon is traveling with a vegetarian, me, and because of this in the first 2 ½ weeks we have been in Argentina he hasn’t had the pleasure of devouring a huge Argentine steak. So we decided the night before we left for Uruguay we would go out to a nice restaurant and Devo could finally bite into and experience the hype of Argentine meat. So Tuesday January 20^th Devon, myself and 4 friends from the hostel went to a restaurant, which I have spaced the name of, but it was very famous for having some of the best cuts of meat in all of Buenos Aires. After waiting for more than two hours, yes two straight hours of standing outside a restaurant waiting to just get a table, we were finally sat at 11:30. Everyone, minus me, I ordered grilled vegetables, finally received their gigantic cuts of red meat yumminess around 12:20 and after their first bite everyone agreed the outrageous two hour wait was completely worth it.I topped off my fine grilled veggies with an amazing chocolate lava cake.

9. Night Life: Night Life in Buenos Aires is nuts. Dinner doesn’t start until at least 10:00 and parties don’t get hype until about 3 am, and clubs close at 6 or 7 in the morning. Devon and I teamed up with a bunch of people we met in our hostel went to a couple different bars, a hip hop club, which was great because hip hop is hard to find in South America, and a house party with a bunch of people much older than us. Devon and I are 21 years old, the majority of the people at the party were 30 years old. We must be really classy... and mature. Anyways, Argentines most def know how to party and stay up really late…
   

10. Hung out at the Hostel: We stayed at a pretty sweet Hostel in Palmero Soho, the most urban area of Buenos Aires. We met a bunch of great people in the Hostel, and spent a lot of time eating, talking, partying and hanging out with our fellow hostel mates.

11. Celebration for Mr.President: I haven’t been in America for any of the Obamaness, I was in Santiago, Chile when he smashed John McCain and Ms. Sarah Palin in the Presidential Election and I was in Buenos Aires when, Mr. Obama took oath to become America’s 44^th president. Although I have been thousands of miles south of the United States Border for the past 6 months, I have truly got to experience how important Obama’s election is to the entire world. Cab Drivers, Hostel Managers, Waiters in restaurants, and indigenous farmers have all expressed to me how excited they are for America’s New President. Mr. Obama is not only bringing hope and change to the United States; he is bringing hope to the world.

With that said, Tuesday January 20^th all the Americans in our hostel gathered together and went to a bar called Sugar to watch our new leader take office. The bar was packed with people; the room honestly looked like a package of sardines. Devon and I had to get creative to find a spot to see the TV, luckily I spotted a cozy little spot more or less above the bar and we sat in a hunched over position for 1 ½ hours to watch the inauguration. It truly was a special moment, and I am glad I was able to experience and witness the significance of this event through the eyes of another group of people: with foreigners, from all parts of the world, who are truly hopeful for America’s and the World’s future. Now we will have to see how everything turns out.