A day on the beach with surferdude

Buenos Aires nostalgia

The dog walkers in Buenos Aires ensure copiously distributed piles of dog shit on the pavements all over the city.

Oh, Buenos Aires, city of charms and wondering...

A walk with my man and my dog

Pipa has beeaAUutiful beaches

Living the hippie dream

We're staying with hypermedia friend Tatiana. And she has left the house to us while she's working in Salvador for some weeks.

Tatiana's eco-house is made using found wood and other sustainable principles. Plastics hardly enter the house, Nestlé certainly doesn't, fruit peels and leftovers are composted, there's papayas and coconuts in the garden and bread is homemade. Beautiful. Not always practical, but admirable.

Hammocks are everywhere, along with cats and the dog Buba.

Pipa, it's in Brazil

Yay, we're in Brazil! In Pipa, a sleepy village on the north-east coast close to Natal.


Our eco-house




View from the window

Bye Bye Buenos Aires

It's our last day in Buenos Aires.

One last Peruvian-Japanese maki-fusion roll dinner at Osaka tonight, one last yoga session at our yoga shala tomorrow, one last favourite breakfast on favourite rooftop, and we wave Bs As good-bye.

Autumn is beautiful here, sunny and clear blue skies although it's getting chillier. It will be sad to leave Buenos Aires which has taken so good care of us for months now - but we are also ready for Brazilian beaches. (Who wouldn't be?)

The last Buenos Aires video potpourri by Christian has been released.

Bye Bye Buenos Aires...

Orquesta Tipica de Fernandez Fierro

Photo by Caroline Bennett

Went to an amazing tango concert last night with an 11-man dreadlocked tango orquestra in a warehouse in Abasto. Four accordions, four violins, two bases, a piano and a dopey singer. A spine-chilling performance, actually.

Pampas, mountains and a lot of dust

Visited the mighty pampas and the Sierras Chicas mountains on my last Argentina weekend. Flew to Cordoba, took a minibus and ended up in La Cumbre, a small mountain town - which was a slightly random choice.

This is mountainbiker- paraglider-, horseback-riding country with rocky dusty roads, small ranches, blue skies and wide and far horizons. Spent two days roaming about the dusty magnificent countryside on mountain bike and(!) horseback. (The combination horseback-ride and mountain-biking on the first day was proving slightly painful for day 2)





I also tried cordobese alfajores, which I really don't like, I had lots and lots of fresh dusty air and valley views, I stayed in a windswept posada run by paraglider and skydiver aficionados, met very friendly people and slept in the very quietest of nights, out there on that pampas.


Posada Alma Guacha


More pampas landscapes here.

Queueing for the bus

The Argentines always form an orderly queue for the bus. Very nice.

Homes, Architecture, Bread

Going out in Buenos Aires (can be hard work)

So we went out this weekend.

Started at Gran Bar Danzon, a 'seriously sexy bar'. And it WAS. Cool interiors, nicely lit, interesting choice of lounge music, pretty waiters. Epitome BsAs. We'll be back.

Next on the list was Milion, that home of some rich guy who after the 2001 economic crisis no longer could finance living in in a 300 m2 house and turned it into a bar. So they say. Huge house with balconies, garden in the back and lots of rooms filled with... young-ish tourists.

If we saw too many foreigners at Milion, Palacio Alsina was a very different teacup. A massive queue outside when we arrived (although still quite early, around 2 am) but it turned out if we paid the entrance of 40 pesos we could walk straight in. 1000+ Argentine teens and a group of Japanese glowstick characters were filling the floors of the massive ex-cathedral. Impressive sight, but slightly scary with all these teenagers on techno. Seemed to be part of the local flavour to sniff something that was passed around in what looked like hankies. But we didn't feel it was the time to be culturally explorative.

Then of to Cocoliche which was a little too bunker-like basement room getting filled by boys and a heavy repetitive techno.

Hmmm, maybe something more main-stream would better provide for our Saturday party quest? We decided to head for Mint - The Super-Club. BUT arriving there it turned out that it had been closed down(?)

As a last resort and since we were in the area and nothing else is in that area, we turned to Pacha. Hmm. The car park outside was filled by BMWs and Audis and huge Mercedes(es). I even saw one with a waiting chauffeur in it. There was no queue. The clientele turned out to be seriously off-their-tits tourists in flipflops and shorts (think Scandinavian blondes and their bearded companions) stumbling around rich kid argentinos and the place was just strangely suburban and the music not really getting anywhere for very long.

A taxi-driver who surely is an F1 driver in his day-job drove us home in 12 minutes.

(And An, we went to Olsen for brunch on Sunday afternoon.)

Home

Home at the moment is on Angel Carranza 1727 in Palermo Hollywood.
The balcony is for surfing, reading and yelling at the neighbour's noisy dog. The sofa is for playing chess. The views from the third floor are over Palermo Hollywood backyards and building sites.

Pretty city

and the sun is shining

Still smoky

Too much.
The weather forecast for Buenos Aires still just says 'smoke'.

Hazy smoky Buenos Aires

The city has been full of smoke now for 2-3 days.

Farmers decided to burn fields or scrubland or something else, a lot of it, outside of Buenos Aires, while the wind was blowing the heavy white smokes this way. The streets have been looking hazy and the sun was dimmed by smoke clouds for a couple of days. We all smell like boy scouts on summer camp.

Now come on! that's just far out.

The government and the farmers are discussing why and what was actually burned: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7355723.stm

My Thursday in Palermo

Start the day with an iyengar yoga class and get stretched like crazy and leave happy. Our iyengar teacher Felicitas is superb. She now looks after our postures four times a week. It's a bit of an eye-opener to see what consistent practice with a great teacher can do to your stiff, aching body.

Then I do 2 hours of Spanish class with Marinita, who currently is teaching me the intricacies of subjunctivo and other fun fun grammar stuff. I still can't put many sensible sentences together but at least I know something about the exceptions to the irregular verbs and use of subjunctive modes. In theory.

I walk home to Palermo Hollywood, carefully avoiding any dogshits on the pavement. A bit of an achievement in this neighbourhood.

I buy a skirt in Palermo Soho shop that I tried on earlier. Ha!

At home it's time for a chill-out session on the roof. The sun is shining.

Later, while Christian studies something Java, I go for a late lunch at Providencia, a vegetarian restaurant around the corner. They treat me with an amazing polenta and roasted vegetables and a coconut 'budin' (pic left: eaten coconut budin).

I do my Spanish homework.

I then roll on to the gallery I was actually on my way to, Elsi Rio, further down the street. Art ok. Gallery guy very friendly and just normal and nice and informative (as opposed to what any London gallery guy would be).

Internetting time.

In the evening it's time for another yoga session, this time ashtanga. Mariana takes us through the full upward-downward-dog drills and then some. My back wants me to get out of there but at relaxation time I can feel another big smile coming onto my face.

I pick up torroncino and chocolate suizo ice cream from the local ice cream bar. A kilo, actually. The things Buenos Aires does to you...

Coffee time

I ordered a café cortado. 'Un cortado doble?' the helpful waiter asked. 'No, just a cortado (gracias)'.

Seemingly settling on our cortado (single not double) agreement, he turned his attention to one of his colleagues for a little while after which he turned around to me again confirming 'un cortado doble' before marching off towards the bar.

I surprised myself by letting go of a small yet determined 'No..!' shout that actually made the waiter turn around and look at me again. 'Un cortado normal' I said. Not a double. (ok?). Sure sure, whatever you say, lady.

Aahhh, four minutes later my coffee arrived. A nice and hot cortado doble.

BA streets

Weather update

The temperature dropped about 10 degrees two nights ago. It is fe-reeezing cool. Hot tea and blankets are issued and we better just stay in and watch the internet.

Weather predictions say we will get back to normal by the end of the week.

Saturday night

It's 21:00 on a Saturday night and there is No One in the bars and restaurants. I just passed six of them. Not a soul in sight, apart from the occasional waiter hanging around and getting ready for the evening to start.

Those Argentines *refuse* to go out for dinner before 22 at the earliest. And that's only if they have kids. Otherwise midnight is pretty standard time to have your aperitif as well.

I want to know what their secret power snack is.

Lady and dog

Very blue house with slightly scary lady and dog on Honduras Street.

Drum kit samba

On my way home tonight I heard twelve teenagers and a drum kit in a dark empty side street. Playing a loud slow samba.

Recoleta Cemetery - afternoon with the dead

In Recoleta Cemetery the dead have their own little town. For those who were rich and influential enough when they were alive to book themselves into Recoleta as the final resting place*. The place has streets and streets of stone mausoleums, often family mausoleums used through generations.

*Evita Perón is buried here. After her death in 1952 she was embalmed for public display, later 'disappeared' by the military dictatorship and not found again till 1971, when she was moved to Spain, in exile with her husband Juan Perón. In 1974 she finally returned to Argentina and was buried in the Recoleta Cemetery. Apparently her current tomb has been extensively secured to keep her there for good.

A stylish cemetery. And a beautiful afternoon.







I have just been recommended a visit to Chacaritas Cemetery if I want to see how the rest of the city dies. So, to be continued.

Concept food?

Ok, so people - cosmopolites reading this blog - are asking: "What the hell is a chile nogada?"

Well, in this case it was a green chili with a filling of walnuts and mushrooms. And a chile nogada with a raison d'etre it was too:

The dishes were introduced personally by the chef, Diego. This one he said was inspired by the Mexican Independence Day, which is actually on Sept 15, but since in Mexico the seasons are reverse to here in Argentina, in September they are moving towards autumn and winter in Mexico, and that's kind of like the time now in Argentina, in March, so... he was inspired to make this dish. Now.

chile nogada

Main course: the Chile Nogada

Went to a 'puerta cerrada' dinner last night. 'Puerta cerradas' (closed doors) are restaurants in private homes that only opens on certain nights - with set menus. We tried Casa Diego Felix, who cooks vegetarian and fish dinners only.