Buenos Aires Pt. I : the culture bit (soundtrack: The Gotan project, la revancha del tango)

We arrived at about 8am feeling a tad groggy, but excited. After a coffee at the bus station, we headed towards the subte (tube) station to get a tube to San Telmo, one of the old areas of the city, popular for its traditional cobbled streets & architecture, markets, artisans, smokey old bohemian cafes and that kind of thing.

Checked into a hostel in time for free breakfast (consisting of the traditional Argentine sweet pastries, bread & jam, coffee) and had a rest before setting off to explore. The first thing that struck me about BA was that it didn't feel like we were in Latin America at all. Indeed the 'Paris of South America' does feel very much like a European city, after absorbing millions of European immigrants throughout the 19th century, many of which were Italians.

And thanks to the Italian influence, there's some tastey treats to be found. There's an abundance of tastey cheese-based snacks, and I'm talking quality cheese, available at a reasonable price. No more of that south American water sponge 'cheese'. For now, anyway. Colette has been indulging ever since, and it's certainly been a challenge to my attempted low-carbon (aka less dairy) diet. A challenge I reckon I've temporarily failed, mainly due to my tired, bored taste buds who have been pushed to the point of rebellion over the general lack of dietry excitement in recent times. Empanadas. They're the snack of choice here, and are basically little pasties, hand made and filled with a variety of fillings including a tastey cheddary type of cheese with onion, blue cheese (a particular treat!), spinach, and of course plenty of tastey looking meats. That has been another temptation - the meat - which we've so far managed to overcome. We are in the land of the steak! Everywhere you go, mouth-watering steaks abound, all offered for a price that boggles the mind. The meat here is cheap as chips. In fact its cheaper - I could eat a prime Argentinain slab for less than the cost of a kilo of potatoes. This is not the place for 2 meat - loving vegetarians.


And then there's the Mate! The presence of mate was first observed as we got closer to Argentina, in the South of Brazil. The Argentines visiting Foz de Iguacu could be seen wondering around sucking on metal straws (bombillas) protruding from tiny brown cups (gourds), thermos flasks hung around their shoulders. Its a type of shrub thats dried and used like a tea - in fact it's comparable to green tea. There's a real ritual to its preparation, and people pass it around, taking Mate is a social affair. We've become fairly partial during our stay, and now have our own Mate drinking apperatus and a half kilo pouch of mate (courtesy of my new friend Alcira, who I'll come to shortly).

There's plenty of live music. We've seen amazing reggae bands, local bands playing all sorts of latin fusions, jazz-funk bands (one of the best jazz-funk bands I've ever seen in fact) and, last but not least, we got to see the mighty Manu Chau. And of course there's the Tango we' tried our hand at Tango too which has been fun. I really like Tango music, which probably explains my love for the heavily tango influenced Gotan project.


San Telmo has a great atmosphere, especially at the weekends when the square is packed with people eager to watch the free Tango shows whilst sipping drinks out on the cobbled streets, and the artisans gather to set up their stalls. Sunday is a day out here - it feels like a festival with street performers, music and artists selling their work. Bands just turn up with their amps and generators and play. You'd never get that in the UK, you`d need a licence for this, a permit for that......
And of course, we' tried our hand at Tango too which has been fun. I really like Tango music, which probably explains my love for the heavily tango influenced Gotan project.

Despite there being plenty to see in the city, we've probably missed a lot of sights due to that fact that you need to keep your eyes squarely on the ground just in front of you in order to avoid the abundant piles of dog shit. I've never seen so many dogs in a city. But these are different from the usual latin American city dogs, in that they have homes and owners, and are usually not pregnant and attached to leads. 'Paseadores de perros' are the people employed to walk the dogs of the people who have dogs but not the time in which to walk said dogs. That sentance is up for review. Its's hilarious - you have a person (usually male, muscle-bound and bursting with machismo) walking up to 14 dogs in one go. You'd have to be strong to do it too - some of the dogs are monsters (this is reflected in the size of some of the deposits left, unless there be bears in these streets). Unfortunately though, poopa scoops have yet to catch on, and so we're left to run the turd gauntlet on a daily basis.



We had only planned to stay for 1 week or two, but then we found a Spanish school with a promotion of one week's free lessons. One week turned into two, and we discovered some volunteer work we couldn't refuse....and so we were locked into another 4 weeks in Buenos Aires.