wk 5 – soho loft, empanadas & arteBA

Having a base for a month; we’re about half way through now, has been just brilliant; Buenos Aires is such a frantic, fascinating, huge, walkable city that there is always so much to see, do and stumble upon (would use serendipidous in some way here, but hollywood overused it). Carlos, the owner of the loft apartment we’re renting, gave us lots of tips and a superb map to start us off, so we’ve scribbled pretty much all over it, and it’s like a living record of what we’ve done, this is just a tiny cross section of Palermo:

I’m not sure where to start, so I think I’ll just ramble a little and see what comes to me, so in no particular order, these are moments from the last week or so of living in Buenos Aires on calle Thames in Palermo Soho.

• Local supermarket, just like it was in the old days, someone helps you at each counter, I’m now friends with the veggie guy who told me the word for basil is in fact not ‘basilico’ but something that sounds more like a type of llama, ‘albahaca’ and found us a huge fresh bunch of coriander for Loc’s curry making…beer bottles are exchanged for tokens and swapped for new ones to save on the glass cost, and it’s more if they are cold…
• Local laundry, also known by name now by the lovely ladies who run it, and at $3 a wash and dry to pick up next day I have hung up my my handwashing for the month yippee!!
• First ever attempt at making empanadas, they turned out fairly well considering, will repeat in Oz on return, good starter pre BBQ…
• Wine tour urbano, 15 shops along one street in Palermo, 15 wine tastings, cupcakes, recipe for the most successful hangover of the trip so far…a bit like the fed sq regional tasting, only you walk from shop to shop swaying a little more noticeably…
• La Cabrera, stunning steak, huge portions, 15 extra mini side dishes to accompany the cow, yum…
• Don’t even think about going out till about midnight, not too good at this, but managed a Saturday night out in Palermo Hollywood across the tracks, with a few cocktails, and a slightly earlier weekday in a stunning bar with amazing garden at ‘Congo’…just down from calle ‘Fitz roy’…with great music (90s britpop he he) and delicious caipirinhas

And from a bit of a more cultural view, we’ve seen some amazing and intriguing things, will start with a selection of shots from the arteBA exhibition, really diverse, and some beautiful pieces, think they were for sale, but most people just looking, like an immense, buzzing museum or gallery:

Despite the traffic being a constant humming background, due to the 10m people getting around the place, there are also some great parks, including one full of cats (no dogs allowed in, brilliant!) and a tranquil Japanese garden, so will finish with a few park shots; next week more on BA plus our stay on an estancia with 60 horses, 2 polo fields, library, dining room to seat 12, pool, a team of 10 looking after us, including a chef, and due to being out of season, only us staying, just outside of the Gaucho capital San Antonio de areco, in what has to be termed ‘extreme’ flashpacking…words impossible to explain, photos soon…