Justice served....and delayed.

Another day in the BA!

DC was nice and got up early to go get pastries for breakfast. I'm convinced my snoring had woken him up!

Suitably refreshed, we again called for Radio Taxi to chauffeur us around BA. On the roster for today's events was the market in San Telmo, the Underground and then an evening of futbol.

We taxied to San Telmo, one of the older neighborhoods of BA, to check out the market at Plaza Dorrego. Full of sights and sounds, tango music welcomed us to the experience. We walked around for quite a while checking out the different vendors.

La policia. They have this weird contraption on top of the light bar that looks like a camera. Probably a facial recognition scanner since they take your picture when you come in to the country.

The streets of San Telmo.

This pooch was obediently waiting for his owner.

Zoom in. Those are all gnomes, Travelocity type gnomes, crowding the balcony. All looking inward. Weird.

Curiosity shop selling anatomical models and old tax ledgers.

Church bell tower from the market.

Mostly antiques, but the side streets had food and crafts. I picked up a neat leather folio for $20.

One of our taxi drivers recommended we look up since the first floors were commercial but the second floor residential units were often more elaborate.

A neat bar on Plaza Dorrego. Out front they had a small band and an older couple dancing the tango.

Cool 40 oz. of Isenbeck, an Argentinian beer.

DC makes a friend.

While we sat down for a bit of lunch at Cafe de Arbol, we heard a commotion behind us. I turned to see a dark haired woman in a white tank top running through Plaza Dorrego just behind me. She was moving at a good clip and carrying a purse, but she had several pursuers all of whom were shouting, presumably something along the lines of "Thief!". Well, it worked because someone reacted and basically clotheslined the heck out of her and down she went. The vigilante mob descended and kept her sitting on the curb until at first one policeman (looked more like a traffic cop), then a Barney Fife looking character arrived, followed shortly thereafter by what looked like CSI:Buenos Aires. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see what came of all of this commotion because we were involved in ordering food and I turned around and everyone had dispersed.

Vigilante mob justice served. The offender is somewhere to the left of the big mob of people in the background.

 All while this excitement was going on, we were waiting on our food. DC and I ordered empenadas and they were quick to arrive. Others got a pizza and a sandwich but MD never got here ordered. It must have been something like 45 minutes before we finally canceled her order because it was time to move on.
 

Empenadas baby! I had ham and cheese and onion and cheese.

Cuidado, our seats were right on the edge of the curb.

Stop, break dancing businessmen ahead.

Kill fire.

More second floor architecture.

Mmmm, helado.

After the food and excitement, we went off in search of El Zanjon. El Zanjon is a historic site where an underground construction was unearthed in 1985 and has since been reconstructed. I don't have many photos but if you're in BA it's worth a stop. In the early 1800s the wealthy family that owned the lot, covered over the creek (el zanjon=creek or rivulet) to build a three patio type city house on top. In those days, they simply built on top of older buildings with new construction. The family that owned this place was very wealthy and involved in the shipping trade so they included a watchtower to monitor their ships on the river two blocks south. Later there was a yellow fever epidemic in the area of this house so the rich abandoned these homes and moved elsewhere like Recoleta (the neighborhood not the cemetery). In 1985 the current owner purchased the property for renovation in to a restaurant but changed once the abandoned tunnels in the basement were discovered. Since then the restoration has preserved several distinct periods of construction and BA history.

The middle patio and the watchtower at El Zanjon.

I'm not really sure about this.

 After the tour of El Zanjon, we stopped for gelato before taxiing back to the apartment. Next we were to meet Santiago, our guide, to go to the futbol match.

Yep, the museum of ham.

Barrio in the median of an interstate.

Lots of dogs.

If only I had taken a picture of the couple that owned this dog. What a hot mess! They were totally mauling each other walking down the street, get a room!

 We met Santiago at a hot dog/beer stand on Avenida 9 de Julio. He is a young guy who speaks English well since he has a telemarketing job that has him calling the States every day. He is a Boca fan, but he said he wouldn't hold it against us that we were going to a River match.

We boarded a Sprinter mini bus and had an adventurous ride to el estadio. The driver was a chain smoking, gravelly voiced, tank top wearing Porteno who had road rage issues! We stopped in another neighborhood to pick up some Canadians and two guys from Tennessee. As we drove on a highway to get to the game we passed the poorest neighborhood in BA with some shacks built between the bridges of the overpass.

Walking down the avenida to the game, match, whatever.

To get in to the actual stadium we had to go through multiple levels of security. The first two were to check you for your ticket. The next two were more invasive pat down type checks. And this is how I lost my tactical pen. Apparently a tactical pen is more dangerous that a flare, but more on that in a bit.

I didn't get a pic of the riot truck, but the security checks and the overwhelming police presence was all to prevent violence between fans. After the game, yep, I could see how it is necessary.

We finally got to our seats after trying different doors and again more security checks. It was a festive atmosphere that only got louder when the opposing team, Estudiantes, had their goal keepers come out to practice. Apparently whistling at them is a negative thing and hurling insults is expected.

I've never experienced such rabid fanaticism as when the River Plate team walked on to the field. I'll see if I can post a video, but the noise, singing and confetti was out of control. And when Estudiantes hit the field? Well, FF said it best, "there were a lot of mothers being insulted."

The noise and atmosphere continued the whole game, rising and falling, until in the first half, River scored a goal. I've see goal celebrations on TV, but nothing compares to seeing it in person. It defies description.  

El estadio.

 I'll have to check for pictures from DC, but there were firefighters down next to the field in addition to the ambulance on the track. When the game ended the celebration intensified again, to the point some joker up in the nosebleed seats set off a marine distress type flare. And my tactical pen was more dangerous, riiiiight.

We had to wait for half an hour so the Estudiantes fans could safely exit the stadium without violence and I would say rightly so. After exiting the stadium in a mass of humanity, we joined another mass of people walking down Avenida del Libertador. We finally met our crazy bus driver and headed back to drop people off. Once we dropped off the Tennesseans, we convinced Santiago and our driver to drop us off at our apartment. When they couldn't exactly find it, we had them drop us off near some food as we hadn't eaten since lunch time.

Sweet Unimog near the stadium.

Hopefully not necessary.

La Americana.

 After checking out where we thought Santiago was sending us, "just a block more", we found La Americana and pizza and empenadas type place. We negotiated the menue, which was not a hen and chicken stuffed empenada nor a chocolate empenada (trip inside joke), we picked up some fantastic food for the walk (7-8 blocks) back to the apartment. And so ended day two, with dinner at 1:30 AM! All in all a fantastic start to this trip. I would be sad to leave BA, but excited to begin the next leg of the trip.

Ham and cheese and Onion and cheese empenadas at 1:30AM.

This scene looked like Hopper's "Nighthawks" in person.

Second half of an epic day in the BA

It was immediately apparent upon landing that the summer down here (it is towards the end of summer now) is a lot like DC. Hazy, hot and humid. I was very glad that I had brought several short sleeved shirts!

JD welcomed us to Uruguay 1217 1A and what a place it is! A spacious three bedroom apartment with a servant's quarters located near the Recoleta neighborhood, it is the perfect base of operations for maneuvers around Buenos Aires. We got settled in and in a bit of foreboding for the events to come, the lights had gone out in half the apartment and MD had called the owner's cousin, Ballesario, who was serving as the rental agent. Just prior to Ballesario's arrival I saw the lights flicker back on but didn't think much of it. When he got here, all appeared in working order. The clan from Ohio arrived shortly after we did and we all were excited that the band was all back together (well, except for the two from Baltimore, but we'll see them in Chile)!

After a bit of cleaning up, we ventured forth on our way to see the sights of the Recoleta Cemetary. First, though, we were a bit famished from our travels. A couple of blocks away we found Nucha a small cafe, with an enticing looking menu. FF helped with the translation and soon a respectable looking spread arrived on the table.

Food's up!

MD and DC both got the Tarta de espinaca. VERY good.

I got the quesadillas de pollo which was also VERY good. That small dish at upper right is guacamole salsa. Outstanding stuff, it's kind of a guacamole, garlic, tomato, onion relish. So delicious!

You know I couldn't get out of there without dessert! This is a brownie, with caramel and walnuts on top.

FF got a tarta de jamon y queso (ham and cheese).

After that fantastic lunch (almuerzo), we wound our way through the neighborhood to the Recoleta cemetery, a cemetery founded in the early 1800s. Initially founded for use by the middle class, it quickly became the spot to be buried in Buenos Aires. Families paid large sums of money to construct elaborate mausoleums, presumably for generations to come. The architecture of the mausoleums is varied, detailed and rich in materials. We wondered around for a while and eventually found Eva Peron's mausoleum. In case anyone is interested, the mausoleum next door is for sale at about $150,000US. After exploring the cemetery, the sun was beating down so we decided to head back to the apartment to experience the custom of the siesta.

Apparently the Portenos have discovered the elusive 25th hour!

Recoleta Cemetary.

The mausoleum of Eva Peron.

Unfortunately, shortly after we returned the electricity in our apartment ceased functioning. Upon investigation, it appeared to be isolated to just our apartment so MD called Bellesario. The rest of that story is worthy of a separate post, so you'll have to stay tuned. I did manage to catch a few sweaty winks of sleep before we changed to head out to dinner. We managed to procure two taxis and our taxi driver was very helpful and educational in describing the features of BA and correcting my broken Spanish. He was very insistent that we understand the rich nightlife (the discotecas open at 2AM!) and restaurant fare (gastronomia).

After a ten minute drive we arrived at our restaurant for this evening, La Cabrera. I hope to upload pics soon (we are in the Santiago airport and I'm on the iPad mini), but The dinner was epic to say the least. FF handled the ordering as we had many questions. We started with so many appetizers that the waiter cut us off from ordering any more!

We started with provoleta, a baked smoked provolone cheese dish with prosciutto and sun dried tomatoes. We actually finished most of the three we ordered. I'm forgetting some of it so I'll just post pictures!

The varied and eclectic interior of La Cabrera.

I'm not sure what this was for besides butter for the bread.

An appetizer of papas v cebolla. Aka fries with grilled onions. Mmmmm.

The famous Provoleta! It may not look like much here, but the dish it was in was three inches deep!

A Caesar salad with bacon, of course!

The steaks for FF and DC. Easily three inches thick. Now, that's a sirloin.

My dish on the left. Since I don't eat beef, I thought I'd have the pork shoulder, stuffed with bacon.

FF tackling the whole cow that was his steak.

Most of the whole spread. Missing are the two bottles of wine. I also wish I had taken a picture of the tackle box full of condiments that was a yard long. All of the small dishes above came from the tackle box.

The dessert selection. Chocolate volcano in the middle with apple pie, vanilla ice cream, strawberry ice cream, flan and tiramisu.

Pictures are worth a thousand words, right? The pictures above are worth ten million calories after the exchange rate!

We waddled to a street corner to hail a cab. Our drive back to the apartment was like a rally race. Lane markings and traffic lights are mere suggestions. Luckily we made it back and miracle of miracles, the electricity was back on! Another late night, but on to another day.

Bienvenidos a Buenos Aires!

Well, I've got a lot to tell you, but it's close to one in the morning here and after I describe the dinner we just had, you'll understand. (BTW, we are two hours ahead of home which was hard for me to figure because I always thought of South America as being mostly west of the East coast of North America. I couldn't have been more wrong, in fact most of the continent is wholly east of the DC area!)

When we last spoke I was in Miami waiting on the plane south. We did get away from the gate later than expected but it wasn't too bad and only resulted in a couple minute delay at the airport in Santiago and we made it so all is well.

The flight to Santiago wasn't too bad. We sat in the front row of economy behind a bulkhead so we had lots of legroom. Unfortunately we could see everything that first class had to offer but was just out of our reach. Of course they ate before us and my tummy was grumbling by the time we ate around 10:30. That was almost a disaster as they ran out of chicken but I think I came out ahead with the pasta.

Arriving in Santiago, we Amazing Race'd it to the connecting gate and thankfully the line had formed but not yet boarded. The boarding process was glacially slow with the back of the plane boarding first (good idea) but we walked down a jetway to a set of stairs out on the tarmac to a bus, which we took around the corner to a plane waiting on the tarmac not far away. This would make more sense when you see how small the airport in Santiago is!

Boarding in Santiago. DC got ahead of me and an officious airline worker held me in the bus until "congestion" eased on the tarmac.

Looking back, I believe that may be part of the Andes.

Finally boarded, we left almost an hour later than advertised, but we hoped the delay would allow our bags to also make the short connection. Up and over the Andes (very cool sights out the window!) we traversed Las Pampas (the Plains) and began our descent towards BA. Up to this point everything had been in Spanish first, followed by English. With my limited skills, I was pretty sure I heard "pesticidos" which was confirmed by the English announcement minutes later that a flight attendant would be coming through the cabin, spraying a pesticide! DC and I exchanged looks of alarm as he hurriedly covered the chocolate he had just opened and sure enough, a flight attendant came through with a hair spray type pump spraying something with a faint chemical odor. Great. In talking to others in our group, we were the only ones to experience the pesticide spray, something we chalked up to Argentinean disdain for the Chilenos!

A brief glimpse of the street grid from above BA.

Yep, had to declare my non-GSM phone, aka a paperweight.

In the final minutes of our descent, we were able to see lots of neat architecture including a giant train shed, a velodrome and lots of hi rise apartment buildings of varying architectural styles. Safely on the ground, DC and I negotiated Immigracion with relative ease. FYI, the Argentinians think of Patagonia as a region wholly in Argentina, something the Immigracion Officer subtly corrected me on. We won the lottery and both of our bags made the trip and we quickly sailed through Customs. One curious thing, Customs was particular about declaring your cellphone.

After Customs, we began a search of the airport for a SIM card for DC's phone and so began my experiment in remembering Spanish. I mutilated the language and pantomimed my way through a couple of vendors before we gave up and hailed a taxi. We were extremely lucky by picking a driver who was patient with my attempts to communicate in Spanish, taught me the correct ways and pointed out every tourist or historic site we passed. Once at the apartment on Uruguay Street, we buzzed the doorbell and JD came to let us it. Bienvenidos a Buenos Aires!

De-planeing in BA. Sooo hot and humid. Think a June DC afternoon.

It's hard to make out by this airport, the domestic one, is on the shore of the Rio Plate. And would you look at that, I caught a Land Rover in this picture!

 Next up: Lunch (Almeurzo), Recoleta Cemetary, Power Outages and an epic dinner.

Hasta Luego!

Comms Check

I'm sitting in the Miami airport right now so it's a good time to do a test post. The flight down from DC was uneventful until about halfway here when we hit "moderate" turbulence and the kid sitting behind me lost what little self control he may have had earlier in the flight. I thought the lady next to me, who was sitting in front of the kid, was going to lose it. Of course Dad was sitting a row behind the kid and was of no help. On the thoughtful side, the first officer came on the intercom and explained the different categories of turbulence and why we were experiencing "moderate" levels.
Lots of Spanish being spoken now, but it is Miami so that's not surprising. I'm trying to eavesdrop so I can practicar mi espanol.
It's raining in Miami now, hopefully something we'll leave behind. I'm typing this on my new iPad mini, so bear with me through the learning curve. Next stop: Santiago!

(We have a very tight schedule with only an hour from arrival to departure towards Buenos Aires, so the next post may have to be in BA.)