City Slickin' in Buenos Aires!

NOTE: As of June 28th, I totally forgot about this final post from Argentina & it is incomplete. What lies below is mostly how Buenos Aires went :)

Upon landing in Buenos Aires and getting our bags, we called an Uber to Paulo & Hugh's house! Isaac had met Paulo a few years ago at his sister & Gina's wedding, and ended up staying with him in BA with Justin after their last trip to Patagonia. Both Paulo and Hugh were home when we arrived and after some hugs and introductions, did a little house tour and dropped our bags in our rooms. Isaac had told me that their house was incredible & that I'd love it, but WHOA it blew me away. It used to be an embassy building and over the previous 4 years, Paulo and Hugh had turned it into theor dream home. Tall ceilings, incredible artwork, detailed woodworking on the doors & trim, and beautiful tile and wood in every room. Incredible. Not to mention the pool & garden in the backyard! They have two dogs, Tonina and Pangui, who were a bit nervous when we first came in but VERY quickly turned into the sweetest & most friendly pups around.

We got settled, showered off, and got dressed for dinner. It was probably 8 or 9pm at this point, which is apparently fairly early for dinner here, but Paulo & Hugh were up for dinenr and we walked a handful of blocks away to Madre Rojas. Argentina, and Buenos Aires specifically, is known for it's "parrilla" restaurants -- essentially meaning "steakhouse" or a place with grileld meats (vs. the backyard barbeque term "asado"). The meal was unbelievably good. We started with some wagyu empanadas & wine, with a main course of a whole spread of grilled cuts of beef, salad, and some papas fritas. Plus another bottle of Argentine wine somewhere in the mix. It was such a blast sitting around for a long dinner with Paulo & Hugh and getting to know them! Paulo is originally from Paraguay and Hugh from Ireland, but they've both lived in Buenos Aires for a long time now. They also run a travel company together where they plan trips of various lengths & group sizes throughout Argentina and Latin America. Anything from city visits to horsepacking trips in Patagonia (where Hugh's background in horse ranch work must come in handy). After stuffing ourselves with meat & wine, we went back to the house and stayed up WAY too late drinking many beers on the roof and talking about all sorts of things. Such an amazing first night in the city -- I can't thank Paulo & Hugh enough for welcoming us into their home, showing us around, and spending so much time with us. Sometime between 2 and 3am we finally stumbled off to bed (which I was very ready for by that point lol).

We woke up late the next morning feeling a bit hungover & tired, but ready to make the most of the day. Paulo gave us a few recommendations & Isaac had a few ideas from his previous two trips to the city, but we decided we'd hang around the house for the morning & get brunch with our hosts before we set out on our little outing. We drank lots of coffee, sat around in the beautiful backyard, and went for a swim in the pool before Paulo & Hugh were up and ready to get going. They'd had a long week of work which included hosting a family of 12 people from Texas (whom they planned/organized a trip for) for dinner in their own house before they set off to southern Argentina! The relaxing morning was much need and the warm & humid weather felt so nice after the windy & chilly Chaltén weather. I could've lazed by the pool in the sun all day to be honest. But with only 3 days in the city, we eventually got things moving and went out for an incredible brunch.

With Isaac & I's obsession with chipas, we asked Paulo about his recommendations for the best chipas in the city. He told us that the chipa is origionally from Paraguay, his home country, and that the original shape was more of a small donut style. He also told us about this other thing called mbeju, which is essentially a flattened chipa, almsot pancake-like, with toppings on it! This sounded epic, and the brunch place had mbeju on the menu -- Isaac & I both ordered one with hummus and sauteed mushrooms (with other seasoning/sauce as well) and WHOA it was insanely good! I could eat that every single day. Such a great texture and so so much flavor.

After brunch, Isaac & I left Paulo & Hugh to head towards the coast. Our first stop was to check out El Caminto and La Boca, a colorful part of the city which sits on an old shipping port along the Riachuelo just before the river htis the ocean. We didn't end up staying here for too long, but we took a nice walk around La Boca so that I could see the wildly colorful buildings -- apparently this used to be a much more impoverished part of the city, and the homes/structures were originally made from giant slabs of steel which were taken from deconstructed ships at the port. The residents at the time (according to Paulo) would take the ship paint from the harbor to paint their homes, leading to a really cool & colorful neighborhood that is now a very touristy spot. Once we'd had our fill of walking around, looking at the markets & stalls, and generally getting a good feel for the place, we decided it was time to head to stop #2 for the day: The San Telmo Market.

We caught another Uber (they're SO cheap here!) up to Plaza Dorrego, an open-air market right next to San Telmo and walked around a bit looking at the stalls before heading inside the big market. San Telmo Market was originally built in the late 1800s as an indoor market for meat, produce, and other goods. Today, the building seems to be primarily filled with small restaurants, bakeries, and bars with a handful of stalls for produce & other goods. Isaac had been very excited to head to San Telmo to get a choripan -- a chorizo sandwhich that can be made all sorts of ways with different salsas, sauces, and cheeses. Although we weren't super hungry yet, we decided this may be our best chance at getting a really good choripan so we found a good looking (and good smelling) spot to get one! We'd had some pretty good food on the trip so far, but this was one of my favorites. Incredibly flavorful chorizo and some really flavorful salsa on it! I also got mine with provoleta, a strong flavored hard cheese. After the choripans, we wandered around the rest of the market looking at the various stalls full of pottery, clothing, leather goods, and all sorts of sweets.

From San Telmo, we walked a handful of blocks north to go check out the Plaza de Mayo. I wasn't totally sure what this would be, but Paulo recommended checking it out if we were in the area. It was a pretty sweet plaza/square -- a huge park surrounded by some old, european-looking buildings including a cathedral, some government buildings, and a museum. We sat in the sun for a bit here watching people skateboard before working our way towards the water. On the map, it appeared there was some sort of canal/port which separated us from the ocean, and it looked like it had some walking bridges going over to the strip of land that was on the coastal side. This was a pretty cool zone and I'd love to read up on what it's deal was -- it appeared to be a set of small, man-made loading/unloading zones for large ships that reminded me of the intercoastal zones in Florida. We walked across the bridge, checking out a really cool ship sitting in one of the mini-ports, and called an Uber home once we made it to the other side.

FAST FORWARD TO SUMMER: Well.... Unfortunately I left this post in draft mode for about 4 months, and I'm just now getting back to it in late June after Emily & I's South Dakota road trip. I'll add a few additional details below, but the memories hath faded slightly & the little details are gone.

That night, we went back to Paulo & Hugh's to relax, swim in the pool, and after a nap, go out for dinner & some beers! We found a sweet Argentine/Peruvian fusion restaurant and ate some seriously epic food (along with a few pisco sours).

The next day, we had a real slow morning drinking coffee by the pool, reading, and just hanging out. Around lunch time, we took an Uber to go check out the Museo de Arto Moderno. We actually meant to go to a different art museum, but the two were right next to each other (which we didn't know) so we just walked into the one that looked like a museum. It was... A very interesting place. We both appreciate art to some degree, btu this may have been a bit above our pay grade as far as abstract art goes.

Honestly not sure what we did that night, but I think we went out for dinner? Not positive. Either way, the next day was spent hanging at a climbing gym and (for Isaac) attempting to get wifi to work a little bit. As I took the month off, I was reading & trying to do a little blogging. We bouldered at a cute gym for a while, got some pastries at a bakery, and went home to clean up before dinner. Paulo & Hugh offered to make us dinner and were inviting a friend over too! In short, the last night was awesome -- lots of wine & beer, great homemade food, and plenty of laughing and socializing for the final night of the trip. Our flight was actually at 1am that night, so once dinner wrapped up & we said our final goodbyes, we got a ride to the airport and were on our way home!

I'm going to add some additional thoughts here about the trip as a whole once I work on the South Dakota writing, but for now this is it :)