Biking and Boating: Week 3 in Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires Week 3

Boats in Tigre, (Bottom L-R) Rose Garden, Bike Tour, la Flor in Buenos Aires

[20 - 27 de Enero, 2014]

By week 3 things were becoming a lot more comfortable. Eli joined me in an afternoon private class at CEDIC and we both doubled up on our Spanish study for this last week. Outside of class, we'd often duck into an air conditioned food court or coffee shop to avoid the heat and do our homework or trip plan. It was an intensive week of studying and I'm sure I got sick of using Spanish in the evenings in this week, but regularly Eli and I had been getting together and having "conversations" in Spanish to practice. They were slow, "Aprendo las palabras de frutas en mi classe hoy. Quieres practicar?" and typically uninteresting, "Ayer el negocio fue abierto pero hoy el negocio esta cerrado" but we had a good time practicing. Eli- "Tu eres un edificio, K- Eli, you just called me a building, E- I know. Yesterday you were complaining you were fat so today I am one-uping you. K- Muchas Gracias mi novio simpatico!"

Over the weekend we wanted to go for a bike ride around the parks in Palermo so stupidly I arranged this for Sunday. I met Eli early, at about 10- you know, early- and we circled the block a few times looking for the bike place. Nothing was open. The streets were dead- no people, no cars, nothing. Perfectly quiet, which is ironic because when I go to bed late I am amazed at how they can collect trash at midnight regularly right outside my window! But experiencing weekend morning silence was something new. Apparently when it is the cultural norm to eat dinner at 10 pm and go out for the night at midnight, it is also the culture to sleep in on Sundays. Eli shrugs things like this off and says, can't expect everyone to care about being good capitalists. I just wanted to rent a bike on a weekend!

The city free bike system, which we can't use anyway, was chained up and taunting us. 

Oh well, a good pout later we still enjoyed our day of riding through the parks of Palermo.

The Rose Garden

After the ride we enjoyed lunch at our favorite terribly named restaurant chain.

Not surprising, the pizza here is bad.

Other than the fine offerings at Kentucky Pizza, Buenos Aires has some great places to eat. Over the past three weeks we have enjoyed a good mix of nice restaurants, cheap lunch stands like empanada stands, our actual favorite pizza place called Ugi's, and lots of delicious BBQ restaurants. Here are some highlights to exemplify what you need to know about dining out in Buenos Aires.

Delicious pizza place on Cordoba Street with thick dough pizza you can try by the slice

1. Ham and cheese (Jamon y Queso) are the bread and butter of Argentina and are found everywhere. There are sandwiches made with only ham and cheese, like a stacked grilled cheese sandwich, that is then covered in mozzarella. These are found on every menu. Pizza is popular in Buenos Aires due to a lot of Italian immigrants, however, even pizza can be adapted. Ham can sneakily be found in almost all foods.

Ham found on a hamburger

Carne empanada

 2. Empanadas are cheap, delicious and sold everywhere. These pastries (I didn't have a picture so thank you internet) are stuffed with sauteed meat or vegetables or sometimes ham and cheese! Enjoy them baked while you can (Chile fries them). Each one costs about 70 cents.

The Bridge of the Woman in Puerto Moderno, Buenos Aires

3. Fine dining restaurants give you a blue market rate for USD if you pay with dollars which means that your meal can be up to 20% cheaper if you pay with a foreign currency. Eli and I were told at the above restaurant in Puerto Moderna that even if we charged our meal we would get the blue market rate. We enjoyed a delicious steak dinner with wine on the waterfront, at midnight mind you! to find out later that wasn't true. But still the steak was delicious and we enjoyed stuffing ourselves at 12 like true Portenos.

Have a Chop of beer at happy hour

4. Happy hour exists in Buenos Aires but are a bit different then we remember. This one ends at 11 pm! Quilmes is the only Argentinian Beer- a pale ale that's not very interesting- but it comes in a Chop, a glass mug, and pitcher or table tap at happy hour which at least made it fun to drink.

5. BBQ steaks and vegetables are by far the best meal in Buenos Aires. Close to where I lived was a highly recommended "Parrilla" restaurant which was known for being both delicious but inexpensive. Eli and I went on Saturday and enjoyed it so much we promptly returned on Sunday for our last night in the city. Our entire meal, steak, vegetables, salads, bread and a bottle of wine cost less than $20 USD. My favorite feature, the cutting board plates- dig in you carnivores, no time for plates!

Oh boy, what a ridiculously long post. 

During the week we did some awesome things:

Every Monday night is a drum show rave that is an experience you have to have in Buenos Aires. The group is called La Bomba de Tiempo and you can see them on YouTube here: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_OZcscfbQs) 

Eli found out that the Argentina Men's volleyball team had a game in Buenos Aires while we were there so we went to the free match (rediculous!) at a stadium in La Boca. I wish we had our videos up on YouTube to see how good these guys were but for now, just a photo.

Inspired by our great fake bike ride on Saturday we did an urban hike on Wed. To show that it was urban and hip I used an instagram like tint on our photos.

We visited La Flor which looks like an exploded Chicago Bean and tried to visit the National Library but it was closed for 2 months. Fortunately we also got a tip from my friend Jenn to visit El Ateneo, an old theater turned book store. We added it to our hike and it was beautiful.

El Ateneo Book Store (Thanks Jenn!)

We took a day trip to Tigre which is roughly an hour north of Buenos Aires. Next to Tigre is a huge delta so the tourism is built around canal tours and renting cabanas out on the islands. There is a well known fruit port which now mostly sells furniture. Living 3 weeks in a busy city, it was nice to get out on a boat but otherwise I'm 50-50 on Tigre. Would definitely recommend someone to visit and stay on the islands, but the main town was pretty crowded.

Donna, this picture is for you! A crew house on the river.

Canals, island beaches and fruit in the port market

Tigre Art Museum

FINALLY the last weekend in town we got on real bikes and took a guided bike tour. Our guide was great and let us practice Spanish with her. Otherwise we had mostly already seen everything the tour included. Riding around the city in the bike lanes was a nice experience.

Plaza de Mayo

La Flor, San Telmo, and Puerto Moderno

Leaving Buenos Aires was sad. I really enjoyed talking with my housemate, Lourdes. She is from Mendoza and studying graphic design in school. She really wants to go to school in Denmark next year but needs to pass an English proficiency test to be allowed in. She was happy to use her English on me and she fully understood where I was at with Spanish so let me ask a lot of questions. Wish I could have stayed longer but we both have trips to prepare for/go on and it was time to move on. Perhaps I'll see her one day again in Denmark!

Bye Lourdes, thanks for letting me stay with you!

On to Iguazu Falls in north Argentina... 15 hours by bus away. Let the trip begin!

Photo Album Link:
https://plus.google.com/photos/109460435397456771231/albums/5978248229163283313?authkey=CNzarsi_g_7zVg