Argentine breakfast like all Argentine food is extremely tasty and extremely unhealthy.
This array of goodies are called “facturas”. You get a dozen for 7 pesos = $2.57 They give you a basket and tongs and you choose 12. Lots of fun but we are feeling a little ill right now.
We finally managed to find a tango class that was in English and open at the time that we attended.
There are 2 particularly spectacular cafes in Buenos Aires, Confiteria Ideal is the run down one. It looks perfect in the pictures but it is quite tattered. A beautiful example of crumbling grandeur. When asked why I wanted to come to Buenos Aires before I left Oz, I said that I was going for the “crumbling grandeur”. And so it is: www.confiteriaideal.com
So Jules and I were better than I expected to be but a long way from being proud of our footwork. There were dozens of whirling couples around us whilst we had lessons.
So I guess now it is time for tango shoe shopping :-)
So they have this lovely concept here of celebrating the first day of Spring. For some reason it is deemed to be on September 21st. I know this was a few days ago but Argentines are a “late” race and time has ceased to have meaning to Jules and I, so I am content to write about this after the fact.
Anyway the shop windows are still filled with colorful paper flowers and sweet smelling freesias are available on every street corner. On the actual day lots of men and boys were toting flowers. Maybe for their Mums?
Simone was performing at a festival at a warehouse called Konex. See pics here. It was dark by the time she performed so the photos are not great.
Happy Springtime to all of you.
xx Jess
Every website of every Argentine company I’ve had the displeasure of visiting has committed flagrant sins of flashturbation. Every single one is jam packed with useless flash adornments and disastrous navigation substitutions. It’s horrific. Feels like the web did in 2001.
In fact, to book our bus tickets (with full reclining bed and champagne) to Mendoza, it’ll actually be easier for me to go into the Terminal de Omnibus Retiro tomorrow morning and hurl poorly constructed Spanish at them than use their website which allegedly offers online booking.
Excited about the champagne, though ;-)
We’re pretty well settled now – and are starting to wear some tracks of familiarity into the nearby streets. It’s a strange feeling to be “walking home”, or “almost home” in another part of the world – one that I did develop toward the end of my stay in Bath this year. You know it – when you start to pull out your keys a certain distance from the front door, or you bump into someone you know. Tick that off the list of feelings we wanted to have here.
Anyway, with familiarity comes the desire to travel more – and particularly get out the city. We’ve largely decided the general details of our two major side trips now. First will be over-alp to Santiago Chile, and from there down to Chilean Lakes District then onto Patagonia via a ferry. Probably have to fly back to BsAs from down there. Looking to spend around 2 weeks on that one, though the large distances involved might extend it a bit.
(Check out the awesome ferry route in Google Earth with this link)
The other way point is Uruguay to chase some sand & surf in mid to late November. Again, we’re looking for about 2 weeks out of town, to take in Colonia, Montevideo, Punta de Este and Punta del Diablo. The latter looks to be the most amazing little fishing village right on the cusp of the travel & backpacker scene. Fingers crossed we can, for once, get in there “when it was still cool” ;-)
Uruguay is comparatively small, and very easy to get to from Buenos Aires – just a few hours on the ferry from the port over the Rio de la Plata.
It does feel awfully decadent to be spending hours – even days – researching nearby countries to visit.