EL TOUR GRANDE

On our way out BsAs, we stopped by Plaza Dorrego to soak in some weekend antique shopping.

We loved the atmosphere and ended up chillaxin over some tapas at SAGARDI. We were down for the count, 13 to be exact!

I think it safe to say that we’ve seen and done BsAs. It’s a laid back, Euro party town – a mix of Barcelona and LA with a twist of Rio sans the architecture and indigenous diversity. The whole ethnic cleansing just did not sit too well with us. I suppose no different than what the Euros did in the good ole USA. It’s a great place to live, so relaxed. But we’ve OD’d on choice cuts of beef, then some pasta, then more cuts of beef heaven.

After our 4th day we started itching for something more authentically America Sud. So we’re thinking of making a run for the border to Montevideo, Uruguay for some displacement, or perhaps Colonia. We hear its nice there. Hopefully we find something more real…

It’s time to throw the towel in on this one.

We stumbled upon a Russian Biker whose goal it is to set a world record by riding the most miles across the earth on his bike, sure, that may not be so unique, except, he’s mute!

The very best of luck to you! We hope you set that record soon!

Damn, some human beings are amazing!

Will the real Argentinians just please stand up, please stand up.

PEACE!

Lethargic! We kept getting lazier and lazier by the minute in BsAs.

Life is too good! So we figured it’s time to move on.

We’ve spent 2-3 days getting to know BsAs, mostly on foot as it’s a very pedestrian friendly city. Walking through BsAs, one cant help but notice the sheer amount of graff dominating the walls. It’s ubiquitous. Taggers use it to display thier wares. Advertisers capitalise on its “youth reach”. Heck, I think the government may even sanction it as evident in some which have more of a PSA message…

Oh yea, and +cruz got sick of his hair so he went under the Argentinian chopping block. On his way out, he noticed a striking resemblance with the graffed clown outside the walls of the cutters, coincidence? hmmm…

Another lazy day in BA, Palermo hopping. We sauntered around Palermo Viejo, Palermo Hollywood, Palermo Cambodia (wha??? but yes you heard it right) and Palermo Soho, dodging dog poop on most street pavements. It reminded us of a more humid Venice Beach in LA, which made us feel a little too close to home.

Found a nice antique textile store called Arte Etnico Argentino on El Salvador, the “happening” street in Palermo.

Stopped by to say hi to our friend Martin, our friend from La Muria, and his wife Bettina with their daughter Sumi. We ended up borrowing a Mac computer at his newly moved in office in Palermo to do some work, well kind of, if you consider filling out a UK embassy work visa a job, which it was, took us like 4 hours!

By this time we were sick of beef. Thank god Martin, dropped us off at the Nordic gastronomia – Olsen which served us a non-meat meal in normal “Japan-sized” portions. We feel human again! not like the cows we just devoured ;-)

We find Palermo to be a pretty laid back and relaxing. In fact we don’t leave the hotel until almost 2 pm, time for lunch here. Well partially it’s because Eric’s been staying up til 2 or 3 am to making photo selects for this blog… old habits die hard!

So it was almost 4 pm by the time we got to the famed cemetary of Recoleta Cementario, which according to a local friend of mine Christian von Sanden is the “must see attraction” of BsAs. So we had to oblige…

The elite of Argentina’s conquistadors are buried here, everyone from ex presidentes and thier wives, the most famous of all being none other than the countries most iconic woman – Evita Peron.

It was not hard to find her grave. Just follow the tourists.

You could still see remnants of Evita’s spirit living in today’s society… mov.evita.

It’s wierd seeing Europeans in a South American country (please forgive me for commenting, but it struck us really odd… there’s no natives in BA) – which we soon realised why, thanks to the “Campaign of the Desert” led by the celebrated national hero – General Roca, which was a military campaign that drove out the indigenous tribes from the interior of the country. We can’t vouch for it’s validity throughout the country, but we think they succeeded within BsAs at least. Job well done?

As Olivia, the Swedish friend we met at our hotel, said… “Buenos Aires is not Argentina.”

The cemetery led us to neighbouring MALBA for a surprisingly nice contempo art exhibition from Latino Americanos. Nice stuff indeed. and its great to see a museum completely devoted to this, tho i did not realise that one of my heroes, Cy Twombly is Latin American. Maybe he spent some considerable time there.

We heard about the legendary Argentinian parillas and how they love their meat! So we gave it a go at Las Cabreras. One thing we soon realized is that una porcion is enough for tres personas!!! Lunch starts at 2pm. Makes sense if the day starts at 10am and dinner peaks at around 10/11pm. It’s later than Espana. On weekends they even have midnight dinner. We needed a food break only after the second day. How do Argentinians look this good and eat this way, we do not know.

Thank God our friend Sun An was exaggerating slightly when he said, “Dude, there’s no salad in Buenos Aires! They just have MEAT!” VIVA! LA PARILLA!!!

We spent the rest of the afternoon acquainting ourselves with Argentine history. Suffice it to say, there’s history, but there’s not… First, an afternoon getting to know the adhoc Museo de la Ciudad followed by the slightly better than adhoc Museo Etnografico. Both of which were slightly less than lackluster.

Museo de la Ciudad.
Hmmm, whose history is it that were talkin about?

Museo Etnografico.
Umm… WHERE’s THE BEEF? I MEAN THE LOCALS?

(Sadly, this question and the rest of the indigenous saga would later reveal itself at the famed Recoleta)

Here’s to imagining what could have been…

OK, enough pining for the past. Onto the better things about BsAs…

It’s time for a café y postre at one of those classic Tango cafés…

Ohhh, how easily swayed we are with cake time ;-)

Onto the streets of San Telmo, the famed Tango district…

Ok we made it to Palermo, Buenos Aires after a long flight from Oaxaca to Mexico City to Dulles, Washington DC then a redeye to BA.

The first thing we did was eat… at a nice cafe called Frances.

Checked into a nice B&B in Palermo – Kala Petit Hotel

The afternoon saw us sauntering aimlessly around the all too familiar streets of BsAs. It felt like a cross between Madrid and LA. Hmmm…

The gelatos are good, one of the great contributions from the Italian heritage of BsAs.

Oh yea, and everyone looks like they’re a fan of either Trevor Jackson or Sebastian Tellier by the looks of their optical shades du mode.