Oh Buenos Aires, the memories I will never forget. Some good, some not so good, and some downright terrible. Let’s start with the good. We took Spanish lessons for a week at the Ecela School. Our teachers, the staff, and the fellow students were great. However, a week isn’t much time, and I still feel like I know next to nothing. The school organized a few activities for us as well. We saw a very cool drum show called “La Bomba de Tiempo” at a hip venue. We walked through the Reserva Ecologica. I am not sure what that means in English, but it is a place that was once a dumping ground for construction waste that was slowly overtaken by nature and is now a public nature reserve. We went to an “asado” at one staff member’s house where we got our first taste of the delicious meats and wine that Argentina is famous for. On our own we toured the Museo Evita (that means Evita Museum) and the botanic garden.
That first week in Buenos Aires while we were attending classes, we did a home stay in which the school arranged for us to stay with a local family to both practice speaking Spanish and for safe, inexpensive lodging. Our “family” was Christina, a very nice older lady. This was a much better experience than we had in Florence, Italy. She talked with us, wanted to know about our day and us in general. Christina is retired, but still seems to work a lot as a psychologist, seeing patients at her home. We tried our best to speak with her in Spanish, but she couldn’t understand what we were saying, despite using the correct words. She must be hard of hearing. Breakfast and dinner were included as part of the home stay package. The food was… OK. Nothing terribly different from typical United Statesian* food, except for the coffee. The coffee was made in a typical Mr. Coffee style drip make, but was very strong, and very good. In general, the food in Argentina has a strong Italian influence. Pizza is common as well as something close to chicken parmesan. Empanadas are also very popular, and we would pick some up from the local bakery as a quick snack or meal. We had some really good gelato and some pastries from the bakeries. Most of the pastries had dulce de leche, a creamy type of caramel. Jesslyn couldn’t get enough of it.
We were not too impressed with the neighborhoods in which the home stay or the school were. They are fine, but kind of generic. There are a lot of nondescript buildings filled with chain restaurants and stores. They are kind of dirty, and the sidewalks are minefields of dog poop. After completing our week of Spanish classes, we moved to an Air B&B apartment in a different neighborhood called San Telmo. Right away, we could tell that we liked San Telmo much better. It was still a little dirty, but it worked. This is an area that was once wealthy, then rundown, now coming back up (sounds just like so many other places we like including our former ‘hood in Brooklyn, Park Slope). San Telmo is full of colonial style buildings from the mid-1800s and the cobblestone streets are lined with interesting cafes, bars, antique stores, bakeries, butchers, and fruit vendors. One of the squares is host to a large market on the weekends where people dancing tango can be found any day of the week.
This second week we did a lot of planning for our upcoming trips to Chile and Bolivia. We also did a few more group activities: a tango show, a bike tour, and a very unique show called Fuerza Bruta. The tango show included dinner in a very intimate setting in a cafe at the rear of a bookstore. One thing I know less about than speaking Spanish is dancing, but I was very impressed with the fancy footwork and the sexy señorita wasn’t so bad either. At one point, Jesslyn leaned over and whispered to me, “I just want to touch her”. I kept my mouth shut. The bike tour was of the barrios of San Telmo and neighboring La Boca. La Boca is home to the very popular futball club, Boca Juniors. It is also famous for a small area called Caminito, where the poor dock workers once lived. They constructed their homes from scrap material and painted them in a variety of bright colors with paint scavenged from the docks. Today, it is a bit of a tourist trap, however on the bicycle ride back to San Telmo, I was taken by the physical aspects of the area away from the tourists of La Boca’s stadium and Caminito. There were mid-1800s colonial buildings similar to those in San Telmo, but lacking the restoration. These buildings were intermingled with ones made up of scavenged material like corrugated metal. This neighborhood felt authentic. There were some vendors set up haphazardly on the sidewalk selling fruit. There were no cute cafes, no antique stores. Just real people living real lives. This was pure gold for a photographer. I had to come back here with my camera. More on that in a bit. Fuerza Bruta was awesome. We went on a recommendation by some fellow travelers, and purposely didn’t research it to see what it was all about. I am glad we didn’t. The show originated in Buenos Aires, but is also showing off-Broadway in NYC. Go see it.
OK, OK, now, finally the “bad” part of BA. Remember that neighborhood with interesting mix of buildings and people? Well, it turns out the people aren’t so great. Well, to be fair, at least two of them. As I was walking down the street in the late afternoon, stopping frequently to snap some photos, two men approached me. One of them pulled out a gun and put his finger to his lips and gave me the “be quiet” shhhh. I was stunned. I froze. I started to back away slowly while the other dude grabbed the camera strap around my shoulder. I started to yell “fuck, fuck, fuck…”, which prompted more shushing, but I continued to yell. Dude number two was still yanking at the camera, until I had the sense to lean over so it would come off. I continued to back away and yell until they took off. This was at 4pm in broad daylight. There weren’t many people around, but the streets certainly were not deserted. Yeah. As you might imagine, I have been experiencing the full roller coaster of questions and emotions. Did I do the right thing? Should I have fought back? Was the gun even loaded? Well, there were two guys, so they could have beaten me up and taken it any way. What would have happened if I turned and ran? Should I have not even been in that neighborhood by myself with my camera in the first place? I immediately walked very briskly back to the apartment. Jesslyn and I went to the closest police station to report the incident, but they told us we had to go to the station in La Boca. Screw that, it was getting dark now. So we went the next day. The police were very professional and nice, but not a bit surprised at what happened. They said that thefts occur all over the city, but armed robbery is rare, except in La Boca. OK, I blame myself for not doing my due diligence before walking around alone with my camera. When we rode our bikes through there, it seemed OK, but what do I know? Even the two guys didn’t look sketchy. Since then, I am more cautious, paranoid perhaps. Always looking over my shoulder, always aware of what valuables are where, always suspecting passersby. I can’t shake the image of the gun being flashed in front of me. I know it will fade with time. I suspect that we may go awhile with no incident, during which I will start to feel comfortable and safe again, probably too much so, until we we have another incident. Anyway, I am not too bitter. I chalk it up to a life experience. I would rather go explore at some risk than to sit on the couch. We have already replaced the camera and will be filling out the insurance forms soon.
All in all, BA is an interesting place. San Telmo was fantastic, and I recommend checking out La Boca with the accompaniment of some armed security. Buenos Aires was the only place in Argentina we went. We really wanted to go to Patagonia, but the timing just didn’t work out for us. It is too cold and snowy this time of year to do much hiking or fishing. We will be back to visit the far south of the continent on a future trip.
- Jake
* Many South Americans take offense to the use of the term “American” to mean from the United States of America. They claim that people from all of North, South, and Central America are Americans. In Spanish, the United States is “Estados Unidos” and people from there are “Estadosunidense”, a term we don’t really have an equivalent for.
Sorry I don't have more pics, they were in the camera when it was stolen :(
La Bomba de Tiempo
Tango in the square
Some spectators took to the dance floor to show of their own tango moves