Following a well-deserved siesta, we headed out for Mexican. The place was incredibly kitch (Mexican wrestling masks on the wall, cactuses throughout etc.), the food cheap and the atmosphere great. However my initial belief that this was an authentic South American experience was challenged by the fact the Americans in our group reminded us that we are geographically as far from Mexico as Africa . Regardless, the tacos were great, the guacamole delicious and the spicy sauce best not touched! I had a drink called horcheta which was a rice-based milk flavoured with cinnamon and vanilla. Yum
Day 10
Today we headed to an area called La Recoleta (one of the poshest suburbs of BA). The absolute highlight was seeing the breathtaking cemetary where the city´s wealthiest have been building their mausoleums for centuries. It was more a city than a cemetary with streets and streets of multi-storey mausoleums all exploding with weeping angels, greeks columns and elaborate stained glass. Evita´s family mausoleum was surprisingly demure in comparison to some of the birthday-cake-esque creations. Pictures really cannot do the place justice.
Having worked up an appetite with all that grave-spotting we wolfed down our packed lunches and crossed the street to the art museum (Museo de la Bella Arte). This was a really really well put together museum which showed that you do not need to have the big important paintings in your collection to put on a good show. The highlight was the room of pre-Colombian Argentine art. What I found interesting here was the broad date ranges given to the artefacts (e.g. this was made sometime between 1500 BC and 1000 AD). This just shows how little is known about these cultures.
On the walk back to the hostel we finally indulged in a visit to one of BA´s patisseries. Entering the room we were confronting with a wall of Dulce de Leche - the soft caramel that appears to be as important to the Argentine diet as steak and red wine. Thus far Argentina has been a relatively expensive country, but boy were these pastries cheap! Giving into temptation I ate a little too many...
An afternoon of sunbathing on the roof terrace of the hostel led us to hear the rumours that Buenos Aires was having a carnival of its own that night. Not really knowing the time, place or content we grabbed the train to the town centre and followed our ears. After several false starts (and heading a long time in the wrong direction) we finally arrived at an explosion of scantilly clad, hip-gyrating, fiesta-filled fun. A little like the Notting Hill carnival but hotter, tourists, locals, young, old - all were bopping along to the drum beat. In what appears a local tradition, gangs of children ran around spraying shaving foam at anyone in their path. After lizzie and josie had been sufficiently drenched in the stuff, we declared war on the little brats and Michael reduced dozens of children to crying, foamy wrecks.
Day 11
This morning I finally summoned the energy to join the others on their morning run around BA´s parks. The act of waking up early was more difficult than the run itself, which turned out to be rather pleasant as we got to pass the locals doing their local things at the start of the day - the old doing aerobics, the nuns on their rollerblades and the dog-walkers walking. Obviously the fact I arrived at the hostel long before the girls reflects the fact I was so much quicker than them rather than my giving up half-way through.
After a well-deserved shower we grabbed a taxi to La Boca which is a rather run-down working class area with an attractive few streets coloured in pastel tones full of street music and tango. It is amazing how the dancing that I find so boring on Saturday night tv can be so gripping in real life.
A short taxi later and we hit the Sunday antiques market at San Telmo. As ever I wanted to buy so much but I had to be strong as it was tough to justify carrying that gramaphone with me over the next 5 months.
Maybe it was the running in the morning, maybe it was dehydration, maybe it was the shock at seeing just how short a pair of shorts Josie had bought that afternoon. Whatever it was, only a few glasses of Argentine Malbec at a cool rooftop bar that evening was enough to make me rather ´tired and emotional´. Even a kilogram of steak at the brilliantly named ´Minger´ steak restaurant wasn´t enough to prevent my collapsing into bed around midnight.
Day 12
Another run and another trip to the patisserie later we were well prepared for our evening trip to La Bomba De Tiempo. Everyone at the hostel was talking about La Bomba and the staff were literally dancing through the rooms singing about how great it would be. The night turned out to be an utterly awesome rave in a converted warehouse with the main attraction being a troupe of drummers who brought the crowd to an utter frenzy. We all got utterly sucked in and danced crazily for hours, with the dancing continuing into the street, onto the bus and back in the hostel. I know the last few days have only been an approximation of the bigger show in Rio, but my God, Carnival is amazing!
No comments:
Post a Comment