Late with the Argentina Trip Lowdown

This summer I went on a great family vacation, to celebrate my Dad's 75th birthday. It was him, my stepmom Ingrid and Mag and me. I didn't even know which country was Argentina on a map before I went, I didn't know our summer is their winter, I didn't know much except they have really good wine and really good dulce de leche, which are actually important things to know in my book.

So, here's a view of the Recoleta Cemetery which we could see from our sweet little hotel room window. (It wasn't a small room; the four of us shared the penthouse which had never been rented out before. This hotel is great and I have to recommend it here.

Just check out the pool and you'll see:

There's a lot to say about how great this country is. But one thing that amazed me was the homeless animals. Most every one we saw was well-taken care of and friendly. In the Recoleta Cemetery, there are about 40 cats. An overly friendly Policeman outside told us that two women come twice each day to feed them and they bring them in for shots. I loved this. I visited them a few times, and Evita. Except the last day, I just went there to say goodbye to the cats, not Evita.



But Evita is huge still. We spoke to half a dozen taxi drivers about her and they all love Evita dearly still. Wealthier people do not. The famous story about her is she would go to a _________ factory owner (bicycle, mattress, camera etc.) and say, "Give me 1000 __________s or I'm closing you down." Then she'd give the _________s to poor people. She'd also send every poor family a bicycle at Christmas. There is a city she started for children called Ciudad Evita. The promotional video we saw about it at Museo Evita made it seem like every child's dream. Yes it was propaganda but I think she and her husband also did a lot of really radical things for poor people.

The other famous story about her is that her body was stolen after she died by the military and kidnapped, mutilated, then buried in a grave with a fake name in Italy. Twenty or so years later she was returned to Buenos Aires and is now buried in Recoleta Cemetery. A girl giving a tour on the anniversary of Evita's death said this was her final shot at the rich, that she was poor and ended up being buried amongst people who had never accepted her. Now she is buried 80 meters down so she can't be stolen again. There were so many flowers and gifts for her on her death anniversary, and people paying respects or being tourists like us. I have heard she was friends with the Nazis and I have not looked into this. I obviously did not hear this from her supporters but from her detractors. She is still very much a part of Argentina. The current president is a Peronista but one taxi driver said there are no real Peronistas except the Perons.

So the food. There is a real Italian influence. The ice cream (helado) is the best I've had outside of Italy, and really I think it's as good as Italian gelato. There are six kinds of dulce de leche helado alone. (Dulce de leche is caramel. The variations on it are caramel ice cream with chocolate chips, or with a swirl of caramel sauce or a combination of the two or....) Dulce de leche is a central part of Argentine cuisine. I ate it 2 or 3 times a day usually.

Our hotel had a large bowl of it each morning next to the jams. Here is our hotel breakfast area. Just perfect. There were even little birds that lived in this atrium area. I can't believe we didn't take pictures of the breakfast spread. But it had little pancakes and eggs and all kinds of breads and cheeses and meats and cereals and fresh juices and sweet tomato jam and of course dulce de leche and lots more.

These are facturas, pastries, that were served in a lot of places. These are from a steakhouse where we ate on our last night in town.

One day we took a day trip to Colonia, Uruguay, right across the water from Buenos Aires. We took a ferry. For $10 more, we got first class. See us chilling:

The first class decision turned out to be totally worth it because the ferry could not dock in Uruguay for hours and hours. The trip was one hour, but then we waited a hundred feet off shore for three or four more hours on the boat because the tide was out. Down in coach class, there was almost a riot or two. We literally looked over the railing at the masses surrounding the captain while we were drinking capuccinos.

Finally we got off the boat and took a cab around Colonia. It is such a cool town. Again, awesome homeless animals such as this one. (Nice photo Mag.)

This is a typical street in Colonia, all cobbles and small houses.

So, we took the cab around for one hour, and had to get back to get the ferry home to Buenos Aires. We wantd to stay longer but we'd been told there was no room on the boat the following day or the day after. ut after hours of waiting to get back on the ferry, we decided to risk it and stay the night. I had noticed this really cute little hotel during our whirlwind tour of the town and I called up and they had room.

Then we went to dinner at this restaurant called El Drugstore that we'd read about. It was so delicious. There was great live music and the owner was sweet. Dad and Ingrid shared a paella. They were psyched. Mag and I had yummy salad and I forget what else. Good wine and such a comfortable funky place.

Outside El Drugstore is this awesome old car which they use as a planter. There were quite a few old cars around town, a la Cuba. Some were in great shape like this pretty red one:

Okay I have to wrap this up. A few more things. We went to a locals only place near our hotel because I liked their sign. It turned out to be Ingrid's favorite place we ate. Rodi Bar. We went back there for our last lunch. The first time we went, there was a HUGE ASS hail storm.

Dad had this fish and potatoes thing that he loved too. Oh the wine in Argentina- you can buy the cheapest one (which is about a dollar a glass) and it's so good. You can buy the most expensive bottle on the menu and it's twenty bucks and out of this world. (This from a person who doesn't know shit about wine, but I know their wine is the best I've had.)

We went to the Modern Museum there (the MALBA) but it was closed, so we had lunch at their cafe. So good. I forget what we had but it's like a fancy museum restaurant in the States but much cheaper. Here's Ingrid and me there. We went back to see the art later and saw a Lichtenstein show. At another museum we saw an intense Diego Rivera exhibit.

There is a subway line that is these old old cars from the 1930s. Here's cute Mag on one of them. They even have the old ads they used to have.

Okay I have to stop this. It's getting tedious. But I'll put some more pictures up without commentary. The main point of this posting is

I love Argentina. I love it love it love it.