What Treasures Awaited Us In Recoleta

Anna planned our journey into Recoleta the night before, remembering the market in this area, while relaxing with a glass of Uruguayan white wine.  Her hard work paid off.  We spent our first couple of hours in Recoleta wandering through the stalls of hand crafted art and bought all kinds of wonderful things:  paintings, handbags, woven shawl, barrettes, two lovely ceramic plates and a Che magnet.  The paintings we bought are done by a sweet artist named Ana.  She had her fans/friends unroll her canvases for a gallery display of her work on the sidewalk in the sun of Buenos Aires.  We made our selections and moved on.  For lunch, a required break before exploring the cemetery, we ate “seis” empanadas with a very cold Stella.  Yummmm. 

We entered the cemetery formerly the gardens of Franciscan Monks known as the “Recoletos”. The cemetery itself was created in 1822 as the first public cemetery in Buenos Aires. It has 4,800 vaults over 13 acres and of course this is where Evita is now buried under the vault of the “Familia Duarte” her maiden name.

We were in awe of the spectacular displays of each of the mausoleums and quickly discovered that the bigger the display (and some are enormous!), the more important each of these people or their families supposed them to be. There are many famous dictators, presidents and military generals buried here as well as other key players in Argentine history.

The cemetery itself seems like a small city with paths with its gothic and roman architecture. It was beautiful and serene and a fabulous place for Christie to take some gorgeous pictures.

A typical tourist day in Buenos Aires

Another lovely day in Buenos Aires.  We lunched from a guide book recommendation, shopped for souvenirs, took in the sights and ran into a protest.

It is quite normal for Argentines to start a protest, anytime, anywhere. Yesterday, Traveling Gals got a chance to see one develop.  A big one.  Thousands of activists turned out in protest of a shooting death during a violent show down the day prior. We only saw the beginning of the protest as we thought it was a good idea to get out of their way.  After all, some of the protesters were masked and carrying police batons.

Click here to read the story:  Breaking News

Lucca watches the protest start

Later, thousands of protestors gathered in Plaza de Mayo, the same square where thousands gathered to show support of the (in)famous Perons.

Eating Traditional "Parridilla" in Caminito

Warning:  this post may not be suitable for the weak stomachs of vegetarians.  Just the last bit anyway. 

The only way to get to Caminito in the La Boca barrio is by taxi.  The only recommended (and safest) way.  La Boca is very sketchy and not a place for Traveling Gals to get lost.  Period.  More about our evacuation plan later. 

We arrived in the pedestrian only alleys of Caminito and thought, “Wow, this placed is a tourist mecca”.  All we saw were sweaty tourists with cameras strapped around their necks and fists that clenched guide maps.  Yikes.  Just one glimpse and sound of tango dancing, however, we relaxed more.  We had changed our minds.  This was not a place to be missed. We immediately fell in love with the cobble-stoned streets, wood and corrugated tin houses with shaky balconies, brightly painted houses, and tango dancers at every turn. 

As is our way, we hit the streets hard and explored every nook and cranny of this colorful neighborhood.  We took a bagzillion pictures, of course, and managed to buy a very rad print/silkscreen of the neighborhood.  We came across several tango dancers who wanted to dance with Anna (they could tell Christie has two left feet – needn’t bother), an old soccer club/playground, perros, cats, and accordion players. 

This all exhausted us so we stopped at the historic “La Perla”, a 1920’s cantina, for a pick-me-up.  The walls were covered with paintings and old black and white photographs and old colorful seltzer bottles adorned every table.  Through the windows we watched the bustling Caminito neighborhood as locals and tourists strolled by. 

Ready for the rest of our visit, we hit the streets again.  We realized we were hungry and were lured by a local to stop at their parilla to eat traditional Argentine barbeque.  “Visit our place and enjoy a traditional meal” peddled their flyer.  Christie peered around the corned and was apprehensive.  “It’s an alley with tons of BBQ smoke bellowing” she thought.  Anna, the brave one, said “Let’s do it!”.  So, on we went.  Into the alley.  We were pleasantly surprised by the dining oasis that awaited us;  linens dressed the tables in a backyard courtyard, lots of customers, and a tango guitar-singer entertained the crowd.   Our waiter’s name was Maxi and he helped us order the “parrillada”. All of this in our broken and very bad Espanol. Our order arrived on top of a portable, table-stop grill and smelled delicious.  Pork, chicken, bife de chorizo (steak), ribs, sausage, entrails and pigs snout.  We went for the familiar stuff first and after enjoying the chicken and pork, Christie chose this moment to be brave.  Entrails, really???  She did and said she liked it but not enough to finish all of it.  We decided “no” on the pigs snout.  “I cannot eat a piggy’s nose”, Christie kept saying. 

Time to leave Caminito and hail a cab.  Our taxi driver must hail Mary all the time, given the religious icons all over his cab, including a very large sticker on the back windshield.  He took us straight through the sketchiest parts of La Boca.  We got a little nervous but only because it seems that all of the crime shows we watch start off with dead bodies getting discovered in areas like this.  Christie whispered to Anna “what is our evacuation plan”?  Anna could only reply “que?” 

Traveling Gals arrive in Caminito

Tango in the streets!

Colorful Caminito

Historic "La Perla"

Smoky grill and a singing Argentine

Traditional "Parridilla" or Mixed Grill

Oh yes she did!  Entrails!

What's our evacuation plan?

Tango!

Hola!

Yes, they dance the tango in the streets here in Buenos Aires!  Check out this video clip!  Your Traveling Gals greet you towards the end.  We especially love the bit about the children chanting in Spanish "one more time, one more time" after the dance!

Click here for Tango Video

Ciao!

C&A

Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay

WOW! A few hours outside of BA and we were truly relaxed. We caught the Buquebus (the ferry company) across the “river of silver” to Uruguay for one night.  Once at the ferry station, we were shuttled like salmon up a river into the terminal where the adventure begins. The journey was only an hour yet these ferry folks were serious about the ride:  picnics opened up, mate was poured, duty-free shopping was done and tons of pictures were taken of family relaxing on this boat ride.  And, relaxing it was.  Christie snoozed and missed out on the amazing views of this murky brown river.  Hmpfh. 

Once in Colonia, we were stunned by all the pounding we heard and saw.  Passports?  Stamp, stamp, stamp!  Tickets?  Stamp, stamp, stamp!  The other ticket?  Stamp, stamp, stamp!  These Uruguayans are very fond of stamps and inkpads.  Once approved for entry, we caught a Taxi to Casa de los Limoneros (House of Lemons) for our one night stay. We arrived and were immediately charmed beyond belief that we landed in our own fantasy island! It was perfect and beautiful!! The house seemed old and charming and the hostess who welcomed us spoke no English yet we managed to understand that this place was “muy tranquil”.  Ponds, “perros”, daffodils, chirping birds, lemon groves, a pool, garden benches and flying green parrots.  We then walked out to the pool and relaxed for a while and immediately decided one night would not be enough. We set off to the house to check about extending our stay. No problemo!

We then set out to explore Colonia del Sacramento which is a protected World Heritage Site by UNESCO.  We hit the streets hard and fell in love with this town, full of old world charm:  tree lined cobble-stoned streets, old American cars, lampposts, brightly painted buildings, cafes, old motos and beautiful views of the river.  We did this each day of our Colonia del Sacramento adventure and never grew tired of it.  And each night, since there was no TV, no radio, no English, nor bookshops, we drank wine, noshed on cheese and salami, practiced our Spanish and wrote poetry.  Seriously.  We did. Albeit terrible poetry yet we felt special.  We fell asleep to the sound of rain tapping on the tin roof of the patio.  Es muy bien! 

Our trip to Colonia was not complete without our host Sergio and Coco, the lost “perro” of Buenos Aires. We learned a lot about Sergio, Coco and Buenos Aires.  First, Sergio loves Coco who is his soul mate.  A woman from BA, however, claims to be his mommy and this suggestion has greatly upset Sergio.  Second.  Coco is adorable yet was not allowed to play with the other perros of the property.  Third.  Gay men in Buenos Aires party hard! 

So.  There you have it.  We loved our stay in Uruguay! Muchas gracias!

Casa de los Limoneros, Uruguay

Streets of Colonia

Christie by the Silver River

Coco y Sergio

Old car in the streets of Colonia

Anna loves Colonia!  

Christie y Casa

Grande. Everything today was grande.

Starting with Plaza de Mayo, the main and grande governmental and political square, we looked for Eva Peron.  Well, for the balcony on which Evita gave her famous speech and from where Madonna made famous the song “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina”.  The guidebook says it’s the balcony that faces the square.  Standing in the middle of the Plaza, we saw SEVERAL balconies facing the square.   “Which one is it?” we asked each other!  It’s a good thing we were not in the Amazing Race and our task was to sing the famous song from Evita’s balcony.  We would have fallen into last place for sure.  We decided the best way to find it was to tour all of the buildings in the Plaza.  One of these will surely mention this significant event and highlight the famous balcony. 

Building #1.  Carolos Gardel House Museum.  Heavy security and absolutely no cameras.  Hmpfh.  This couldn’t be the building that houses Evita’s balcony.  Building #2.  Some random building with massive columns.  Definitely not here.  We discovered a church when we walked inside.  Building #3.  Casa Rosado.  “Could this be it?” we asked ourselves.  We don’t remember Madonna singing on a pink balcony.  Christie read the guidebook’s description of the building…”legend has it Casa Rosado was painted with a bull’s blood…”.  How disgusting.  Evita would not speak on the balcony of such a gruesome place! We elected to learn more about the Pink House and took a tour.  These Argentineans are serious about security.  They never let us stay too long in any given room, quickly ushering us out.  We soon realized we were touring the presidential work house and saw all kinds of important things:  Eva Peron’s desk, the current prez’s desk complete with a vase of white flowers, the room in which they signed the Argentine Constitution, and a room completely dedicated to the women of Argentina, including one Mrs. Eva Peron.  “This is the building”, Traveling Gals decided.  Way cool. 

Enough of Evita, we were hot and hungry so it was time for lunch and drinks.  Traveling Gals began their search for the area’s best empanadas.  “The city is strangely quiet”, thought the Traveling Gals.  They marched on until they found the address.  Closed.  Major bummer.  It was about this time that Traveling Gals realized that folks in South America also celebrate Columbus Day – everything was closed! 

Then we ventured back to the only open restaurant we saw. Sat down, waitied for 20 minutes to catch the waiters eye and get served…ANYTHING. During this time we watched several locals get up and leave after not getting any service…..but we persevered. Finally…order fast before they never come back! I would like a Copa Vino and a Stella Artois. Christie says I must write this “the waiter muttered something in Spanish and we nodded in agreement”.

He returned another 10 minutes later with our drinks…..our GRANDE drinks.  No seriously, he returned with a 953cm3 bottle of Stella, or close to a liter of beer, and a whole bottle of wine! “Shit, we’ll be here for a while” we thought and we really weren’t sure we wanted to! We then waited for our pizza which turned out to be tomatoes, eggs and spinach…interesting…..but not terrible.

We ate, drank more than we needed too and left with out leaving a tip. Neither one of us can remember the name because we don’t care!

Then it was back home and nap time before dinner.

Dinner was at Don Julio’s a block away from our apartment and it was a classic Parilla…or Steakhouse.  “This should be good”, we thought, “ no…this should be GRANDE”!  We ordered a lovely bottle of Malbec, ate the most delicious empanadas (finally), shared a wonderful salad and then the meat arrived.  Each of us was served enormous steaks, GRANDE steaks. We swear Anna pointed to the “thin” steaks on the menu.  Our waiter must have misunderstood.  Our steaks were at least an inch and a half thick.  Good grief.  Our grande bill?  Less than 300 pesos which is roughly $75 US. 

Ciao for now.    

Plaza de Mayo

Don't Cry for Me Argentina!

Grande por favor!

Really?

Discovering Buenos Aires Day 2

We spent our second day in Buenos Aires exploring the San Telmo area, in search of the famous Sunday market.  This involved taking the Subte for the first time.  But, we had to find an open station first which proved challenging.  We went to the first station, “cerrado”.  We went to the second station, “cerrado”,  Hmmm.  What on earth did we miss?  We sat in the park and crammed through our guidebooks.  Nothing.  Is it a holiday?  Noooooo…… According to our sources, the Argentineans celebrate Columbus Day with a focus on Argentina but not until October 12^th.   Not helping.  Finally, we mustered the courage to ask a lovely couple and the gentleman pointed across the street, “this one is open”.   We clamored down the steps and purchased our tickets.  10 viajes (trips) for $2.78 US!  Now that’s cheap for $.28 per ride….GRACIAS!!  The Subte is very easy to travel and we must have looked like experienced riders because eventually someone stopped to ask us for directions.  All we could reply is “no hablo espanol”.  

We arrived at our station, walked a few blocks looking for this great tapas and wine bar, recommended by our guidebook, on San Lorenzo.  As we turned the corner of the street, we came across Che Guevera painted on the brick wall.  Awesome!  This next to half naked people drinking bottles of beer, sunning and resting on a mattress.  We kid not.  It was weird.  Grateful to find the address of the great tapas and wine bar, we ducked into the restaurant.  Except, the restaurant changed and is now an Irish pub.  Not terribly concerned, we stayed any way.  That was a mistake.  The beer was great but the food was terrible!  De nada.  It was cheap and fueled us enough to begin our exploration of the San Telmo markets!

Although the markets are crowded with people, both tourists and Argentineans, it was very cool.  Local artists had their work sprawled on the streets and in stalls.  There was something for everyone.  Mate bowls, scarves, jewelry, leather bags, animals made of wire, t-shirts, woven bracelets, and a really great representation of antiques.  We purchased black and white photographs of tango dancers and felt like we ripped the artist off:  5 photos for $20 US dollars.  The artist is a documentary photographer and writes for one of the local BA papers “Tiempo Argentina”. He had lots of photographs that displayed many of the demonstrations that are popular here and of the homeless in BA. We walked away thinking wow……he was very talented and should charge more.  

Eventually, we got to Plaza Dorrego, the second oldest square in the city.  Here, there were many vendors selling antiques.  It was incredibly cool.  Christie wanted to buy everything and we settled on an antique soda water bottle.  The bottles used to be on the counter tops of every bar in Buenos Aires, back in the day.  At some point, we heard a crowd clapping and joined in to see what was happening.  Tango!  We watched a couple do the Tango (video coming soon), the dance of Argentina.  It was lovely.  

We headed home to sit on our fabulous balcony, sipping champagne and watching the sunset….yeah we know….wish you were here too!

Ciao!

Drinks on the patio!  

Lucca learns about BA

Bar food - yech!

Traveling Gals in Subte!

Famous Quotes About Argentina - #4

"They say if you come to Buenos Aires and you haven't danced the tango, they you haven't been to Buenos Aires!"  -Emilene Faria

Famous Quotes About Argentina - #3

 There`s a place called La Biela, it`s my favorite corner in the world. It`s a coffee shop near the Recoleta where Evita`s buried. You can go there and sit in the evening, at 3 in the morning there are hundreds of people in the streets. And you can get up at 8 and go back and have your espresso. Going to Argentina, going to Buenos Aires, I like it more there than anyplace else.  --Robert Duvall