Patagonia or Bust

Argentina is huge. It takes 40 hours in a bus alone to get from Ushuaia, the southern most point of the country, to Buenos Aires, which isnt even the northern most point of the country(see map below). Since internal air travel is still absurdly expensive, buses have become the main method of travel for pretty much everyone in Argentina. At first when we were figuring out how we wanted to do our South American portion of the trip, the idea of spending so many hours on a bus sounded completely wretched. In fact, I believe there was a lot whining involved.



As I've learned since being here though, bus travel really isnt that bad when its not done in a Greyhound bus with no shocks or on a school bus when your friends stick a pen in your mouth if you sleep with your mouth open. Bus travel here is much more comfortable and enjoyable, since it has become a such an important method of transportation around this ginormous country. Depending on what bus company you decide to ride with, the buses have various levels of seating, ranging from normal bus seats to full out air-travel 1st class bed units. There is a waiter that serves meals, snacks, hot drinks, and adult beverages. You get all of this plus movies and a blanket for an extremely reasonable cost. It also becomes your hotel when you are going on overnight bus routes, which makes it even more affordable for a traveler. Since you cant beat that deal with a stick, the Shustrins will be busing around South America over the next 3 weeks:

Buenos Aires to San Carlos de Bariloche = 19 hours
San Carlos de Bariloche to Mendoza = 17 hours
Mendoza to Valparaiso, Chile = 8 hours
Valparaiso to Santiago, Chile = 2 hours

Our first bus ride.

It was pretty awesome. Bus left at *exactly* 3pm from Retiro bus station in Buenos Aires and pulled in about 45 minutes early to the Bariloche bus terminal. We decided to spring for the full 1st class sleeper units, (since realistically we'll prob never get to find 1st class units on an airplane for less than an arm and a leg) which were super comfy for the 9 hours of sleep we got on the trip.



There was plenty of wine, champagne, whiskey, and mate, which made the trip a bit more fun. The food though, was not the best. Our welcome snack was massive amounts of dulce de leche(aka sugar), and ham and cheese. Dinner was some weird unidentified hot stuff, with some ham and crackers and flan. Breakfast was toast and medialunas(mini croissants)with jam. So basically, ham and sugar. Our waiter must have known the food was bad since he was a serious grumpy bunny. At one point, he reached across both of us, mid conversation, to angrily close our shades. He also feverishly waved his hand in front of our ipod screen when we were watching Jersey Shore Deleted Scenes to get our attention when it was dinner time.


There were personal TV screens too. It seemed exciting upon arrival on the bus, until we learned that our TVs were the only 2 TVs on the whole bus that refused to play more than about 5-15 mins of each movie before freezing and restarting. We saw the beginning of alot of movies but the middle and end of none. Maybe on the next bus they will work, but frankly, it didnt matter in the slightest. Because when we werent talking or eating, or drinking, or sleeping, we were looking at this:

And This:
And This:

Dialogue from passing through the Andes:
Matt: Dude, this is awesome.
Annie: Dude.

So overall, I give the bus trip an A-. It was comfy, it went quickly, and we saw some amazing landscapes. And now, we are in Bariloche in northern Patagonia to snowboard at Cerro Catedral. We'll also hang out in the town and check out El Bolson. Its pretty cold since its winter, but Im ok with that since we'll be on the mountain soon enough.

La Parrilla

Classic Argentinian cuisine consists of a small set of staples, but the most important and most indicative of the country as a whole is the Argentinian grill - la parrilla (pronounced par-i-sha). Though very European, filled with pizzerias and pasta shops, Buenos Aires would not be Buenos Aires without the strong presence of the parrilla. So basically, meat. Lots and lots of meat.

When you sit down for a meal at a parrilla, the first thing to notice is the menu. In general, the main course section is a list of cuts of beef with a few chicken and pork choices thrown in. There is a long list of sides and usually salads (which are mostly create-your-own) and starters. There are many choices within these categories, but not much else outside them. When ordering a meal, one should also know that one order of meat is generally enough for an eater like me and an eater like my husband. Parrillas also run the gamut on niceness - some are 5-star affairs which require nicer clothes than anything that fit in my backpack for this trip and some are stands where you pour on chimichurri from a squeeze bottle and sit on the riverwalk. We've been to a bunch of different ones and they all have there own unique flavor of Argentina.

Over the last few weeks, we've figured out that a starter, a choice of meat, a side, a salad, and a bottle of wine is just fine for a meal where you are full but not in need of a taxi to get home. And what self-respecting Argentinian would even dare to leave a meal like this without a dessert (not Jorge).

I don't know if Ive had such good steak as I've had in Buenos Aires. Below is a list of our favorite parrillas we've been to so far.

T-Bone
Malabia and Santa Fe, Palermo

The steak we had at T-Bone was probably the most tender of all. It was cooked to medium, which is a hard goal to hit in Argentina as it seems most people like their meat much more well done than this. We also had a huge plate of fried potatoes and a provoleta, which is a small wheel of provolone cheese thats been baked with salt and served warm and gooey. The whole meal, wine included, was about USD$45.


Su Parrillon
Costanera in Puerto Madero

In general, I'm not a huge fan of eating street meat, but I decided to throw caution to the wind when we walked along the river in Puerto Madero (the really new modern section of BA on the river, lots of highrises). There were at least 20 different outdoor cafes, all serving similar style meats on the grill, drinks, and toppings. For just USD$7 total, we each had churrasquito (thinly sliced sirloin) and a pear soda. The sandwiches were gigantic, fresh, delicious, and slathered with chimichurri and pickled onions.


El Palacio de la Papa Frita
La Valle

This was actually the first meal we had after arriving in Buenos Aires. Our friend Jorge took us here as a welcome meal as they are well known for their papas souffle, which are cold thin cut potatoes flash fried in super hot oil until they puff up like pillows of air. They were a nice treat, especially since fried potatoes are like crack for me. This was also my introduction to real Argentinian chimichurri - made of parsley, vinegar, garlic, oregano, crushed red pepper, salt, and olive oil. Its so much better than ketchup. Who knew.


El Estrebe
Pena and Pueyrredon, Recoleta

We came here for lunch one day since it was a national holiday and everything was closed but restaurants. The thing that stood out to us about this meal was not only the amount of filet we were served as supposedly a single portion (both of us couldn't finish our halves), but how good the sides were. Instead of the standard salad and fried potato route, we indulged on a baked onion stuffed with ham, tomato, and cheese, and fluffy mashed potatoes. I was skeptical at first about the onion but seriously, it was awesome. I mean really, whats to dislike about onion, ham, and cheese.


and drumroll please....of course I've saved the best for last....

Don Julio
Gurruchaga and Guatemala, Palermo

This has been, by far, our most favorite restaurant in Buenos Aires. It is only a block from our apartment so we have no problem getting so full that both of us need to crawl home. We've been twice already and plan to go back once more before we leave for Bariloche.

And before I explain the food, just know even Matt said "Wow, this is awesome." So thats saying something.

The steak has been the most flavorful out of all that we've had. The salads are fresh and healthful and the chimichurri is spicy without overpowering the herbacious flavors. We've gotten the same wine both times as it is the most impressive bottle we've met thus far.(Its imported to the US, I HIGHLY recommend trying it)

For Aaron and everyone else who is curious, this is the wine:
Aguijon de Abeja

All for under $55 (seriously, i attached proof), we got: an enormous amount of skirt steak, a fresh green salad, warm fresh bread, chorizo with sun dried tomatoes, fried potatoes, a bottle of the awesome wine, flan, and a glass of malamado, Argentina's port-style dessert wine.



aaand proof. FYI, $4 pesos = USD$1

La Bombonera

I've been fortunate enough to attend many sports events over the years with rabid fanbases. I've seen a couple, albeit not enough, Jets playoffs wins, Michael Jordan play, Curt Schilling's "bloody sock" game, NFL games in different cities, Duke v. UCLA at Cameron Indoor Stadium in the mid 90s; but I've never seen a game with a crowd of fans so passionate about their team than after I attended the Boca Juniors v. Racing soccer game this weekend in Buenos Aires at La Bombonera. Boca Juniors are the most popular and famous of teams, in part due to being Diego Maradona's team, in the Argentinian national soccer league.

Boca's home stadium is situated, almost wedged, into the local Boca neighborhood



Tickets: Access to tickets was frustratingly difficult for me to figure out. No Ticketmaster? No Stubhub? No ticketmaster telephone numbers in far away states? my god.

Tickets are available through a few avenues (which took me a long time to figure out): To socios or members (basically season ticket holders), at the box office on the day of the game 6 hours before kickoff if any tickets remain unsold to socios, bought from scalpers on the street who apparently sell 75% fake tickets, or through an agency that gets you tickets, and transports you to the game.

We chose the final avenue as Annie was not pleased with idea of me waiting inline at an Argentinian soccer stadium hours before kick off.

Pregame Pregame- We booked tickets through my Spanish school who arranged for a pick up at the school with a few other students. We were driven to a pregame tailgating party of sorts 4 blocks from the stadium. The only way I can explain this is mix a backyard college house party, with a college football tailgating atmosphere, with Argentinian food, and place it in an area your mother probably wouldn't want you being in for too long. Our tailgating site included buildings which had seen their better days by the late 1800s and random dogs chained up and ready to attack anyone for a piece of prized chorizo. La Bombonera, similar to Yankees Stadium, and many older stadiums aren't in the traditional newest, and best part of town. However, on gameday, they are as safe as anywhere else in the city (unless you are wearing the opposing team's colors)!

Anyway back to the pregame, we drank Quilmes tall boys and were offered to purchase chorizo straight from their makeshift grill while the pregame played on some tv in the corner. On the way to the stadium, Annie bought a flag from a street vendor which we proceeded to wave until it broke only 10 minutes into the game.

Pregame mystery meat grill

Drinking before noon on gameday hasn't hurt anyone

I chose not to find out where these treacherous stairs led


Annie, proud of her new $2.50 Boca flag

The Pregame (at the stadium)- Entering the stadium I could literally smell the freshly cut grass we are used to seeing when entering down low at a baseball or football game. The stadium seats about 50,000 and probably had about 48,000 there for the game.

Our seats in the stadium were in the "popular local" section behind one goal. Basically it was the home fans general admission section (as the visiting fans are segregated into their own section in the upperdeck - which was surrounded with barbed wire...seriously). As it turned out both ends were general admission and we were in the tamer, although still insanely passionate section. The other end at one point opened up a flag that was took up the entire 3 levels of the stadium, and was passionately chanting the entire game, waving flags, umbrellas, and constantly drumming.



On to the chanting and the fans. Each team down here as their own chants and songs, and basically don't stop chanting, singing, and jumping the entire game. I was especially impressed that after both Racing goals there was maybe a 10 second lull by the home crowd, and then the fans would be up again chanting almost trying to will their team back into it. It was great to not see any of the disappointed cynicism we are used to in the states after our team screws up. There were a few comments when Boca players had clear errors, and fouls, but there was no stadium draining despair like after a home football team gives up an INT return for a touchdown. (as an aside, since only 2-3 goals are scored in most soccer games, what other sports equivalents are there for such a single momentum swinging play?)

One of the great joys of attending a game like this is joining in the excitement with the local fans. With the excitement, comes the hatred for the other team:

Everytime a Racing player lay injured on the turf (which happened quite often), there were many "Puto!!!!" chants. When a bad call was made by the referee? Another "Puto!!!!!!!" was needed. After another dive by a Racing player, I exclaimed "Puto!" as the player lay writhing on the turf. Annie warned me there was a 10 year old boy next to her. But as we looked over, he was already knowingly yelling "Puto!!!!!!"

Right on little Boca boy.

The Game- Boca got out to an early lead scoring in the 10th minute. The goal happened so quickly I almost missed it, but felt the energy explode throughout the stadium. I looked over and saw a 10 year old boy from several rows above who somehow basically ended up laying next to Annie as everyone surged forward with excitement.

Racing tied the game late in the first, and scored the winning goal early in the second. Boca was fairly sloppy and missed a few decent scoring opportunities. One of their better players who just signed a 4 year extension was out with a "knee" and Martin Palermo, their aging star, was noticeably slow and pushed around numerous times. Alas, Boca could not score a tying goal and lost 2-1.

If you ever find yourself in BA during soccer (futbol) season I highly recommend checking out a game. I'd imagine if you could attend a playoff or even championship match at La Bombonera in which Boca is playing it could be among the most exciting games to attend in all of the entire sports world. Based on their play on Saturday, they won't be in the championship this season, so if anyone goes in a few years, give me a call.

16 Days in Buenos Aires

After having lived in Buenos Aires now for over two weeks, I feel like we've started to get a grasp on what it means to live here. We've settled in to our apartment, which is quite spacious and comfortable. (its even got a piano, though they've locked it to keep wine lovers like me from serenading the neighbors late at night) We've shopped at the grocery store down the street, Disco, more times than I can count. We've even used 15% off coupons. We've gotten to know the subway system well, and know what end of the train to get on so you are closer to our street. We've become regulars at the gym - our gym's Spin instuctor knows me as "la chica de Nueva York." We've even got out favorite local bar and favorite local restaurant.

our apartment: view #1

our apartment: view #2

Daily life somewhat resembles life in New York. At first glance, you might say why did we fly 11 hours to the southern hemisphere to live the life we just packed up? But, what is so enjoyable is noticing and experiencing the tiny, and not so tiny, differences that exist for seemingly the exact same activities.

Schedule:
-People start the day off a little slower. Waking up early doesnt mean the same thing as it does in NYC.
-Lunch hour isnt an hour. I'd give it more from 1-330pm. Its not a siesta like in Spain, but it is definitely much more relaxed and sacred than it is in NYC.
-Work ends around 6pm, but dinner usually doesnt start til around 930. This leads the way for a 8-11ish happy hour.
-People don't go out to bars or clubs until earliest 1am. And on Saturday, people stay out until well past sunrise.

Food and Drink:
-I don't think I've seen a single to-go cup of coffee in this entire city. When you go out for a cup of cafe con leche, you sit there, you enjoy your coffee, and you enjoy the time you are sitting there. Its quite a process and its refreshing to see people taking a moment to slow down. And, you never just get coffee - you end up with this all for about $4:

2 cafe con leche, 2 tiny glasses of OJ, 2 tiny glasses for the water that's in the pitcher. 2 wrapped cookies.

-There really arent many bars. I dont know if its because people drink more coffee than alcohol on average or if they would just rather go to a club than just drink in a chair. We've had a hard time finding places that really are just there so you can get a good beer. They are mostly cafes, clubs, and restaurants. Bars are more here for foreigners or for indulging in foreign customs it seems.

- Its not "cool" to drink water in Argentina. I've not seen a single person drinking a bottle of water, unless it was in the gym. Everyone drinks expensive sodas instead of water. At home, I was accustomed to drinking water with every meal instead of sugary drinks and we feel a little uncool ordering water with lunch so we've compromised and we get sparkly water.

Other:
-You can not go to a laundromat and do your laundry. If you dont have a washing machine, you have the laundromat staff do the laundry for you. Score for me.
-If you have a dog, you are supposed to pick up the poo on the street. No one does. So be careful. Its like a minefield.
-Keys. The keys are awesome. Our apartment keys easily could have come from 1850. or 1750. definitely not 1950.

.-Farmer's markets actually ARE cheaper than the crap in the grocery stores. The below would have been at least $16 at the Union Square Greenmarket. San Telmo Market: $4.50:
We are in BsAs for 12 more days before we head out to Bariloche for some snowboarding. At first I thought a month could be too much time, but Im starting to be sad that our goodbye is so soon.

Markets, More Markets, and Mate

I haven't written since my trip to the gym doctor, so I'll try and do an update on our recent activities. Like most cities (not in America), Buenos Aires has a plethora of markets. The commerce conducted in these markets include many offering your standard tourist crapola, while others have genuinely interesting artwork, and others with "useful" household items or normal food bought by everyday citizens. Our first market was last sunday next to the Recoletta Cemetery. Recoleta is probably the nicest, wealthiest area of the city. Picture 74th and Madison avenue with snooty Argentinians in lieu of snooty new yorkers. The Recoleta cemetery is an above ground mausoleum filled cemetery with many famous deceased Argentines most notably Eva Peron. The market here was pretty huge, beginning around this insane tree and winding down and around several streets and small squares.

Overall what I liked best about this market was that the open squares were filled with bands or musicians and a crowd of people genuinely listening to them and politely clapping after each song. These guys were playing a sort of reggae ska sound that is pretty popular down here.

The next market we attacked with our hard earned tourist dollars was the San Isidro market. San Isidro is a town about 30 mins north of BA that feels like a mix between wealthy older Spanish colonial influences and modern California wealthy yuppie influences. Their market was based across from their church in town. We drove up with Jorge and his friend and driver Martine. Annie decided it was so cold in Buenos Aires (remember its winter here) she NEEDED to have alpaca socks (clearly they will come in handy in Bali...). These things are truly soft and if i didn't worry about my ego being bruised, I might wear my wife's socks tho. In the same day, we visited the Tigre market. Tigre is a town on the river that is another 15 mins or so north of San Isidoro. This was a huge multi complex sprawling market where anyone could buy desks, fruit, and the more traditional items.

San Isidro market in the distance with the church in top left. Alpaca socks nowhere to be found.


Finally, on Sunday we cruised through the San Telmo market. San Telmo is a part of town that is clearly "up and coming" but still rough in some areas, but has already been so gentrified that we head more english spoken in our few hours walking here than most of the rest of the time in BA combined. This market was like an odd cross between a tourist market and some show lot. On one end of the market there were kids just setting up their own blankets selling some odd wares they created, while others pushed coolers through the streets selling home made pan relleno, burritos, veggie burritos, and empanadas.

San Telmo market was huuuuge and stretched for maybe 15 - 20 blocks.

Got any extras brahs?


Finally, a note on mate. I know I have seen the phrase yerba mate, but previously I guess was not cool enough to drink it. Yerba mate is a tea drank here and its not unusual at any of the aforementioned markets to find groups of people (young to old), sitting in a circle sipping and passing a mate gourd. They take their mate drinking very seriously here and all rules must be strictly adhered too otherwise you might receive scornful looks from locals disparaging us naive americanos. Basically, the hollowed out fruit is about 2/3s filled with the yerba leaves and then a combination of a small amount of cold water and hot water is added allowing the leaves inside to "tea". Since you are potentially drinking straight leaves, you drink through a bombilla (fancy ass straw) that acts to filter out any of the leaves goo as nobody here has thought of tea bags. Anyhow, its passed and drank around as a communal activity like smoking a hookah opposed to a solo cup of tea. The strong tea is similar to drinking a stiff cup of coffee without any acidity or jittery-ness that comes with too much coffee. I see more mate being consumed by this household as the south american leg continues.


Sip, Sip, Pass

Off to Uruguay tomorrow for a day.

Toast. and Other Things.

I think anyone who knows me knows that I love toast. Toast for breakfast? Um, yes. Toast for lunch. Bring it on. Toast for dinner? Absolutely. Just give me some good salty butter, maybe a little cream cheese once in a while, or some yummy cheese and I'm a happy girl. In fact, It's 3pm in Buenos Aires and I'm sitting at a table in the cafe Piacere across the street from our apartment and I ordered a coffee with toast, butter, and jam. One of the things I love about toast is that its more of a preparation of food than it is a food item. Toast exists in so many countries around the world and in so many forms. Its kinda like beer in the sense that most countries have it and make it locally, even though it turns out different everywhere. In fact, since i love toast so much, I will take you all on a toast-crawl around the world since chances are, I'll be eating it alot. Thrilling for you, I know.

In Buenos Aires, the local toast preparation is exactly what i have in front of me. A slew of baguette toasts, accompanied by a pot of butter and a pot of strawberry jam. Of course, it mostly ordered with a standard cafe con leche, which is also accompanied by a really tiny glass of carbonated water. (Thats a whole other issue - dont Argentines drink water? I have never been so parched.)

Piacere toast - eating this as i write

toast at La Poesia in San Telmo

On to non-toast related items.

The other day, after enjoying the above toast and a brisk winter walk in a neighborhood called San Telmo, we bumped into the indoor local market. The market contained everything: antiques, small thrift booths full of old Argentinian wares, souvenir shops, farmer's booths overflowing with fresh fruits and vegetables, tables full of old watches, jewelers, and local artisans. The people at the San Telmo market were all extremely friendly and inviting, joking with each other even though all vying for the same customers. The produce was all organic and brought in by local farmers. The food stands served typical Argentinian fare to locals passing through and looking for a bite. I couldnt help but purchase bags and bags of veggies to take home and enjoy. Im looking forward to going back to enjoy the warm atmosphere (and i dont mean the air - its frickin cold thanks to an "Antarctic cold front") and bring home more fresh salad fixings.

Back the Truck Up.

So since we didnt post anything on here before we left, I thought Id go back in time and try to explain how we got here. And I'm not talking about a plane.

The Planning:
Leaving on a trip like this one isnt as easy as booking a plane ticket and a hotel. (i wish it had been, could have lost a lot less sleep). Just as there are with US life, there are many important components to planning the traveling life. There are many flights to book, itineraries to plan, insurance to procure, budgets to organize, and stuff to buy. Some of it is easy and exciting, some of it is more involved and serious.

While Im not going to go into detail about how we made the decision to go, just yet, I will say that looking at a world map and picking places to go and how to link them together to create your very own world tour is thrilling. Planning our path was alot of fun, full of good serious thinking, and alot of fantasizing. It took months to do and Im positive every minute of it will pay off.

The Stuff:
Oh, the stuff. One would think that its actually easy to pack for a trip where you only have to bring a backpack, but one would be mistaken. There are so many items that are specifically made for traveling - travel clothes, travel appliances, travel bags, travel tools... the list goes on. You have to be very careful about what you bring so your pack doesnt become to overbearing throughout the trip. One detail that often plagued me is that there are so many of things that should be purchased for the trip specifically to be more efficient in size and weight. Your average NYC woman's closet doesnt have everything you'd need. I love gear, so shopping for new stuff was a lot of fun, but budget friendly travel gear is hard to come by. Im not gonna post our packing list, but it does include cool stuff like water-wicking convertible hiking pants, a UV water purification and filtration system, and vacuum-compression packing bags. It also includes alot of regular things like flip flops, tshirts, and paper clips.

me and our stuff. no, im not nappin

Since we ever so smartly decided to plan our trip to go from winter to summer back to fall and winter, back to summer, then to fall, then back to summer, packing has a bit of a quandry. We couldn't just bring summer gear so we ended up with larger packs than the average world-traveler.
Behold the packs: packed, and ready for transit to Argentina:
Our packs contains everything we need and a few comforts from home. Our daypacks (much less exciting to look at since they are just normal daypacks) contain some other important travel stuff too, like passports.

The Moving:
The glory of moving. I thought that by giving myself 3 weeks to pack up our apartment we would have plenty of time everything to get it all done. I should have known better. Instead of doing alot of this in those 3 weeks:

There was a lot of this:


Needless to say, there was a lot of last minute packing and throwing things in various boxes. The move itself was fairly easy, thanks to a U-Haul sized parking spot on our block and a fortunately timed rain storm. Everything fit in Matt's parents house which saved the need for storage units. I will miss the comforts of our home this year, but it will all be sitting there when we get back from our adventure. Just maybe with a little dust.

More from Argentina in a little bit!