Argentina - Buenos Aires

By Brent

Round 1:

We got off our plane from El Calafate and stepped into the warm air for what seemed like the first time in a year (and was actually only the second time since we've been in South America). It was a relief knowing that we were finally going to be in a place where we wouldn't have to wear all our layers as we crawled into our sleeping bags.

Naturally, the first thing we did was wander over to the cemetary.

The gates outside the Recoleta cemetary - this is where anyone important in Buenos Aires is buried. Past presidents, military leaders, actors, and the most famous, Evita Peron, are all buried here. The tombs are impossibly ornate, and the space is incredibly limited, so to be buried here will run you a pretty high tab.

Here are a few of the tombs:

And the most famous of all the tombs here:

For those of you who don't know, Maria Eva Duarte de Peron (or simply Evita) is one of the most famous Argentinian politicians. The musical and movie "Evita" were both based (somewhat loosely) on her life.

The cemetary also was home to an elite group of pest control specialists who had many places to hide, shelter from rain, and occasional plates of food left out for them:

After leaving, we wandered around the area for a while and found a big street market.

The next day we walked to the Club Atletico River Plate (one of the two biggest soccer teams in Argentina) to buy tickets to the game and watch a first division game. Unfortunately, we had been given bad information, so we were turned away at the first ticket checkpoint.

Instead, we walked through a handful of the awesome parks near the Rio de la Plata shoreline.

There was also a major street that is closed to cars on Sundays in the parks. Every week people come down here to bike, walk, run, rollerskate, and rollerblade - all with varying levels of ability...

Buenos Aires has a much more European feel than any other city we visited while we were down here. Obviously, a large part of that is the immigrants who settled here and the very small percentage of indigenous people living there, but it's more than that. The important streets have a European grandeur to them, there are statues everywhere, and the buildings are definitely influenced by either Italian or Spanish architecture.

On the walk back to the hostel, we ran into this gigantic basket of bread.

Dana wanted to document the fact that I wore a bandanna into a nice-looking steakhouse in Buenos Aires. No one else seemed to think it was weird, and my hair was definitely worse than the bandanna.

 Flan is wonderful.

The following Monday we walked through some of the other plazas near our hostel - this is the UN Plaza and its famous flower thingy.

We also walked down a street with tentacle trees.

They were really weird and awesome.

The same street also has some of Buenos Aires's most luxurious houses.

That afternoon we headed to Iguazu Falls, then to Colonia del Sacramento before returning to Buenos Aires for another visit.

Round 2:

Our first (and arguably only) important stop here was a little restaurant called Siga la Vaca ("Follow the Cow"). It has very limited vegan-friendly options.

Just behind these doors is a mass of humanity that refuses to move to let other people add their names to the waiting list. Meanwhile, half the waiting area is empty because everyone is packed as close to the hostess stand as possible.

Siga la Vaca is essentially the Argentinian steakhouse I'd been looking for the entire time we'd been in the country. You walk in, and for a reasonable fee, each person gets a bottle of wine, a dessert, and an all-you-can-eat buffet. Oh yeah, Dana claimed there was a salad bar as well, but I didn't see the point in taking up that valuable stomach real estate with vegetables.

Besides, how could you eat salad when this was right next to you?

Brent - Round 1

Dana - Round 1

Brent - Round 2

Dana - Round 2

Brent - Round 3

Dana - Round 3

*Photo Not Found

Brent - Round 4

Dana - Round 4 (Brent's was basically the same)

After dinner, we got our deserts - both were fantastic.

Brent - Round 5

Dana - Round 5

We were just barely able to avoid a calorie deficit that day.

The following morning we went to a free tour of the downtown area of Buenos Aires.

It started at the Washington Monument, where Argentinians gather to celebrate (our guide claims at the end of the World Cup, there will be a lot of people here, but the Uruguayans in our group were wondering why Argentina would celebrate not winning the tournament).

A little ways up the road from the obelisk is this house. Apparently the owner of the factory it sits on didn't like having to travel so far to get home for lunch during the day, so he built a house a little closer to the factory.

The subway was actually somewhat interesting. Apparently up until 2012, they were still using the original 1914 trains that you had to manually open. They've been replaced now, but some trains from the 1940's are still in use.

The original Spanish government building (the Cabildo). It used to be wider, but was partially torn down to make room for roads.

The original church.

The remains of Capitan General D. Jose De San Martin are stored in a room inside the church. He's the biggest hero of Argentinian (and much of South American) independence. Apparently it took Argentina something like 30 years to get his body here, and they commissioned a magnificent sarcophagus for him. Unfortunately, no one bothered to measure his coffin, so the sarcophagus is a little tight. He's resting on an incline to make his coffin fit.

The Casa Rosada ("Pink House") where the president's office is. Apparently pink because it was a white building that was waterproofed with cows' blood, and they decided to keep the same color, though in a more bovine-friendly paint.

Symbol of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo. They still march every Thursday in rememberance of their sons, daughters, and grandchildren who disappeared under the military government of the 1970's.

Reminder of the days that Buenos Aires was controlled by the British. British control lasted 46 days before they were chased out of the city, and this church tower was damaged while the British were being repelled.

The remains of Manuel Belgrano (second most famous character in Argentinian independence and creator of the Argentinian flag) are in this tomb. It apparently took Argentina 80 years to get his remains here, and some of the diplomats who came to view the transfer of the body grabbed a couple teeth as fun little souvenirs. After a lot of scrutiny in the press, they returned the teeth, claiming they took them for "scientific reasons." I'm sure they really did it to promote science; everyone knows politicians are very honest and that the media tends to blow things out of proportion.

The tour eventually took us to the San Telmo Market...

...and the butcher (thought my dad and his siblings would appreciate this picture).

That night we watched this silent film with music played by a live orchestra. It was great from a musical standpoint, but the movie was bizarre. Like, one of the weirdest movies I've ever seen.

One of the coolest things about the location of the movie was a mirror that was angled to reflect the floor below it. The floor had been built to look like the side of a Buenos Aires building, so in the reflection, you could see people "climbing" up the side.

Unfortunately, this is the best picture we got - it was dark and the iPhone isn't perfect.

The next morning we walked to the Boca to look at a few of the typical Buenos Aires tourist attractions, most importantly the stadium where the Boca Juniors play (one of the most popular soccer teams in the country). What Lambeau Field is to the NFL, La Bombonera is to Argentinian soccer.

The Boca stadium - La Bombonera

One of the most famous buildings in the Boca. My favorite part is the pope sticking out of the upstairs balcony.

Years ago, the residents of this neighborhood (primarily dock workers) had almost no money, so houses were painted with whatever paint they could find at the port. One day they might find green paint, and the next day they could only find blue, so most of the houses in this area are very colorful. Many are still in use today.

That night, we had tickets to a River Plate soccer game through an agency that provided beer, empanadas, and transportation. We met up with the trio of Princeton grads we had met in Pucon and headed to the meeting point.

First we had a couple beers and empanadas...

...then walked through multiple police checkpoints surrounded by people wearing River gear (like this jersey)...

...before finally seeing Buenos Aires's largest stadium...

...and finding seats...

...tearing up newspapers that were used to make confetti (sure the janitors love this tradition)...

...noticing the visitors' section...

...and watching River pull off an incredible win to keep them in the running for the tournament championship!

The US has no equivalent for Argentinian futbol games. College football is the closest I've ever seen, and this is lightyears beyond that. Fans here are MUCH more into the game. The die-hard supporters are playing drums the whole time, leading chants and songs, and the stadium goes absolutely INSANE when the home team scores. For half the game, the stadium is shaking because all the fans are jumping up and down (UW's 3rd quarter "Jump Around" tradition only happens when the game is stopped and for a specific song). All this is without having opposing fans in the stadium to shout retorts to the home fans (apparently there was a death last year, so this year no fans from any team are allowed to attend away games - not sure how that's enforced, but I don't know how many people want to be surrounded by home fans while wearing the opposing jersey...)

River's keeper stopped a penalty kick in the closing minutes of the game to preserve a 3-2 win, keeping them tied for first place in the league with two games to go.

Post-game dinner! It was delicious and perfect after the game. If you're Argentinian, please skip to the next paragraph. However, it was not the best pizza we've ever had. The US (specifically Chicago) is much better at pizza.

Post-game drinks with a Dutch guy named Eram, who had been biking through South America and was headed back to Europe two days after we left. He was a lot of fun and had invited us to the silent movie the night before. Eram plays guitar for a living, and was amazing - possibly the best guitarist I've ever heard live.

That was our last night in South America for a while. The next afternoon we took a cab to the airport and flew home.

One last stop before heading to the airport to close out our wonderful South America trip.

It has been absolutely incredible to spend so much time traveling, and we had some amazing experiences that we never could have imagined before quitting our jobs. It was one of the most exciting and rewarding trips I've ever taken, but I am very happy to be home and surrounded by friends and family in familiar places.

I'm also grateful that I had such a wonderful traveling partner for the last seven months, and I'm looking forward to our next few months in the US before starting graduate school this fall. We have ambitious plans to travel around the States a little bit once we have solid plans for the upcoming school year, so we should still be updating the blog a few more times in the next months.