The first thing we noticed about the city was how incredibly green it was. Every street had lush trees spaced every few meters, and most of the streets had planters. The city also boasts the most open space and parks--more than any other large city in South America! Also, there was a law passed a few years ago that banned unneeded signage: advertisements, bill-boards, and even road signs that weren't necessary--this gave the city a very clean feel, though made navigating it a bit harder!
After recovering from our bus ride, we walked the city and got our bearings of where our hostel was. Only two blocks away was Che's childhood house where he was born and raised! About 5 blocks from the hostel was the vast Parana river which snaked its way along the eastern side of the city (And all the way up to Brazil). The walk along the river was beautiful, since virtually all along the barranca was open park space. Kids cruised around on bmx bikes or skateboards, moms pushed strollers, people were jogging (even in the oppressive heat!), and numerous people enjoying mate (a wooden or steel gourd filled with the Aquifoliaceae (holly) tea leaves, and sucked out with a bombillo straw). We are definitely catching-on to the wonderful and relaxing habit of passing a guampa between friends and each taking a turn sucking the vegetal grassy tasting tea through the bombillo. Along this public thoroughfare, we encountered a huge flag monument that gave tribute to the revolutionaries who fought off the Spaniards and liberated the country. Supposedly, the location of the monument was the very first place the blue and white flag of Argentina was raised by Miguel Belgrano during those turbulent times. In the center of the monument is a huge torch that has obvious patriotic symbolism. (as an aside: after touring through Bolivia, a country with the most violent coups, uprisings, and convoluted leadership, the sudden focused patriotism of Argentina surprised us. We were impressed by the people's uniformity on many issues, and have heard many patriotic buzz-words that we are already very familiar with in the US. If you want to start a shouting contest, tell an Argentinian that the Falkland Islands.. we mean, Las Islas Malvinas... are indisputably British. The wounded pride over those islands runs very deep. After some research and quite a few conversations, it became quite clear that the island never really belonged to the Argentinians, and the British really do have the longest standing claim to it [don't let my hosts know we said this!]. As an example of their fervor, our hostal owner had it tatooed-not on his left posterior cheek-but over his heart, no less!).
Our second day in the city was a bit of a downer since it was raining buckets all day. However, we put on our rain gear and walked through the wet streets to a bunch of different parks and historical pit-stops. We even got to enjoy and traditional milanesa and fries. After 4 hours of walking in the rain, we found a great theater to enjoy the evening (only 10$ for 2 tickets and a giant bowl of kettle corn with soda!). The new Harry Potter movie was okay (according to Ivan), but entertaining nonetheless!
Nutritious Argentinian cuisine...
After it's one day vacation, the sun came back to the city with such renewed force, our sandals felt squishy under our feet. As a way of coping with the heat, we decided to take a short boat ride across the river and hang out on the beach. Fortunatley for Ivan, and unfortunately for Kristin (she obviously didn't get the memo to pack her thong bikini), all the women were sporting thong-bikini's, which they openly flaunted down the beach. It was truly uncomfortable seeing this festive butt-floss on mother's who were playing with their children--nothing against liberated moms, but imagine the family pictures!! Also on the river beach was a large group of kite surfers who were jetting all through the windy channel. Ivan is definitely excited to give it a try when he gets home! Some added drama: a large pit-bull attacked a group of the kite surfers and their dog, but was beaten with some drift-wood.... pretty intense!! After some fun in the sun, we returned back to our hostel to escape the heat and hang out with our goofy hostal owner. We gave in and bought a few Chilean Avos to make some fresh guac and share with our fellow hostel friends. To our surprise we weren't disappointed, but maybe we weren't expecting much from the small sunburnt avos. We truly miss the high quality Van Weenie Avos! Later we enjoyed refreshing cold shower, where Ivan discovered that his virginal feet were lobster red (though Kristin repeatedly told him to apply sunblock!!) and now he has a fantastic sandal tan line...
Later that evening we went to a street market where Kristin bought some new romping clothes for next to nothing--most important, though, were her "work" overalls that have already received some pretty hilarious comments (to be shared in next blog! :).
Another reason why we love Argentina!On Monday the 29th, we caught a bus to La Paz, Entre Rios, to start our stay at the Laguna Blanca Farm -- owned by Doug and Kristine Tompkins.
No comments:
Post a Comment