For our final full day in Argentina, we channeled our inner-rednecks (after all, we did attend N.C. State where we learned from the best) and headed northwest 150 kil. out of the city for a day on the farm. Three of our friends from dinner Monday night joined us—Dan, Warren and John. Things started off well enough. We had a driver pick us all up at our respective apartments in the city and make a quick stop at Starbucks. Shortly out of the city, however, our driver pulled into a Turnpike-esque service station where he proceeded to pour water from a plant pail on the engine. That is a gesture that transcends language barriers for sure—shit has hit the fan. Two more stops and a fancy new Mercedes mini-bus later, we were on our way to Estancia del Ombu de Areco.
We arrived just in time for a lunch with the gauchos straight off the barbecue. More meat. Thankfully none of us ate a ton, because after a short demonstration by the gauchos with their horses, we mounted our own caballos for a post-lunch ride. After our ride, we took a quick dip in the pool before the sky fell and we headed back to the city.
Growing weary of Spanglish, we were ready for a feast with some fellow Americans. Lucky for us, a group of four friends touched down in Buenos Aires Monday morning. We broke down and headed to the uber-touristy Cabana Las Lilas, although, as Fodor’s puts it, “if you’re going to fall into a tourist trap, this is the one to fall into.” Bec abandoned her disgust with the idea of a tourist trap after reading countless reviews of this eatery being home to the best steaks in Argentina. I mean, the resto has its own farm where it raises the cattle.
And then there were 6 of us… our buddies Dan and Warren, along with their friends Richard and John, landed in BA on Monday for a month-long jaunt and joined us for dinner. Hilarity ensued as we waited for each other at different restaurants, but thanks to WiFi, we eventually found each other. Many bottles of wine were consumed over copious amounts of red meat. “Best steak in the world,” according to Bec. And considering her past travels and award-winning ability to consume the cow, there’s no reason to doubt her.
For the sake of everyone’s online reputation, we’ll conclude this post here.
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The rain continued all afternoon Sunday, so we decide to take a respite on our 7th day and do what we typically do on Sundays in the fall…nap and watch the Redskins play like crap (well, at least in this case I didn’t have to see it, but was still able to listen to Sonny & Sam over the streaming radio feed…god bless the internet!)
Sunday night saw us heading out to Gran Bar Danzon, a really swanky wine and tapas bar in the financial district. Arriving at 10 p.m., you’d think the place would be jumping but as per usual the rules don’t apply down here (even on Sundays!). We settled in for a few drinks with a quite friendly Argentinian-American bartender who chatted us up and showed off his cocktail skills and gave us some great recs for the rest of our trip. This was probably our favorite destination bar of the whole trip to this point. Check out the wall of wine below.
For dinner, we headed to the Palermo Hollywood ‘hood which is the entertainment industry area of the city for dinner at Olsen - a Danish/Scandenavian take on traditional Argentine cuisine that they pulled of perfectly. Oh, they also have more than 100 vodkas in their vodka cellar (yes, a vodka cellar) and apparently their Sunday brunch goes until 8 p.m. At this rate, we are going to have to work harder at pretending to be portenos. I won’t bore you with another pic of Bec’s filet, but I will show you how creative some of the resto’s are down here w/ their bread - they give you a tower of fresh out of the boiler bagels to chow on while you’re ordering!
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We started the morning off at La Recoleta Cementerio, where Evita Peron’s body rests. Going along with the theme of this trip, this cemetery was unlike anything we’d seen before. Expecting to see a cemetery like those in the States, we were surprised to find 13 acres of elaborate vaulted tombs and mausoleums in the middle of the city. Here is where Evita rests:
We wandered through a typical market right outside the cemetery and picked up some art for our place. This man provided endless entertainment as he slowly danced the tango by himself.
We decided since we missed Black Friday in the States, we’d have our own day of shopping on Saturday. First up was Recoleta, which we liken to the Upper East Side, or as they say here, the Paris of South America. We were quickly disheartened to find that designers and major labels actually list prices in American dollars. No fun. We stopped in the Palace hotel for a glass of vino and a beer in hopes of gaining liquid courage for shopping. (If you buy it but you don’t remember, does it really count?)
After realizing we still couldn’t afford stores like Hermes, we headed back to Palermo to hang with the cool kids in our neighborhood. We found some seriously cool shops where the stores themselves were actually more interesting than the wares within them.
BREAKING NEWS: Bec went a day without a steak and instead went with a slice of cheesecake the size of her head. Please be kind to her when she returns to the States several sizes larger than when she left. We went to Mark’s deli in Palermo Soho and felt like we were sitting at a coffeehouse in Soho New York. We kept expecting friends to walk in. They even serve iced coffee. In a country where you have to make a special request for ice, that is HUGE.
After we landed and were thankful we survived our round-trip flight on Aerolineas Argentinas, off to dinner we went. We went to Sucre, which was a resto we’d been wanting to try since we got to town. It seems it’s where the posh Porteños go to play, and it’s known for its cocktails.
Matt again tried something new and got the lamb special, Bec sort of branched out and got the flank steak (hey, it’s not a filet). You can just see her cholesterol rising.
On our final morning at Iguazu, we ventured out to walk the third and final trail that takes you along the top of the falls before heading back to the airport. Naturally, jump shots ensued.
