La Bomba de Tiempo

For the music people: Amelia and I went with some friends to an outdoor concert called La Bomba de Tiempo. It’s a percussion troupe popular with foreigners and Argentines alike. A very lively feel with everyone dancing (or at least trying to). There was a guest cellist as well who broke up the drum tone nicely with some bass. My favorite part was when the crowd had to mimic the drum beat by clapping. The group runs a drum school here in BA too.

Yes, the name means ‘the time bomb’.

You can check them out on their blog which has YouTube videos at the bottom: http://labombadetiempo.blogspot.com/

¡Muchos perros!

It seems that everyone in this city (especially our Palermo barrio) has a dog and it’s necessary to get them out for a walk during the day. The dog walkers somehow manage 10 to 15 dogs at once! Everyday, I pass these large groups of dogs tied up to a street light pole while they’re getting another dog, or putting one back in. I know this practice is common in large cities but I have never seen it quite like here. It’s a good thing there are a fair amount of parks to take the dogs and most have fenced in areas to let them loose.

I realized I shouldn’t be putting my exact mailing address/location on the internet for anyone to find. Anyhow I’m in the area marked Palermo, near a lot of great parks and the horse racing stadium/polo field.

There is no daylight savings time in Argentina so it looks like I’ll be 2 hrs different from EST soon. They had a vote to implement daylight savings but some provinces wanted to do it and others didn’t…so they didn’t do it.

Nuevo departamento en Palermo barrio

Well, we’ve been in our new place for a week now. Did some spring cleaning on our patio today. We’re getting to know our roommate Loli better, but because of her work schedule we don’t get to see her too much. We can’t always find the right word and sometimes we have to describe what word we’re looking for, or consult the dictionary (did that with the word “crab” after we had named every other type of seafood in existence). But now we know- it’s ‘cangrejo’. Learning a new language is a great challenge that’s enjoyable each day because you learn many new words, phrases, grammar, and the like. The 1,500 page Spanish to English dictionary is my new favorite book to say the least. But trying to explain yourself is still my favorite and works most of the time.

The other day, Loli, Amelia, and  I watched the intense finish to the Argentina- Peru game, a World Cup qualifying game. It poured for the last 10 mins and things got pretty ugly. Peru found a way to tie the game at 1-1 with only 3 mins to go. Then with only 15 secs left, Palermo of Argentina scored the winning goal. The coach, Diego Maradona, ran onto the field and slid headfirst on the wet turf…went about 15 feet! It was a chaotic finish and Argentina’s 70k+ fans were on their feet as the team jumped into a pile as their hopes of World Cup play in South Africa 2010 remain alive.

Today is El Dia de la Raza- Day of the Race (just about the same as Christopher Columbus Day)- celebrated by some as the Spanish conquering South America (i.e. most of Argentina since they’re almost completely immigrants from Europe, like the US). At the same time, those indigenous groups left in Argentina (and the rest of South America), see this day as the end of their race- and look back on the extermination and quarantining of their people. So much that in 2002- Venezuela changed the holiday name to “Day of the Indigenous Resistance”. 

Nonetheless, most places are closed today and Argentines are still sipping their mate.

¿Donde está la red?

We moved into our new apartment in Palermo today and we don’t have internet so there will probably be more delays in between blogs.

I’m writing this from a Starbucks, which are very new here and also very rare. Havanna is the cafe that is on every other corner in this city. But good ole Starbucks charges the same ridiculous prices here as they do all over the world. I’m just here for the free internet to send a few emails. It’s 12:15AM and they’re still open and going strong. Not sure when they close b/c there are no hours posted. But considering porteños eat dinner at 10 PM I wouldn’t be surprised if this place is open until 2AM. EDIT: Found the sign and it says they close at 3AM. Other restaurants stay open 24 hrs. I guess that’s a benefit of living in the city.

Here is a picture we took from the old place of a sunrise over the Rio de la Plata between the buildings:

Palo Barracho

There are many great trees here in Buenos Aires. Thanks to Carlos Thays the city has a botanical garden and trees lining all of the streets as well as all the squares and parks- many were brought from northern Argentina but thrive down here to the south just fine. My favorite so far is the palo barracho which translates to “drunken stick”. They get their name because the trunk fills up with water (when available) and expands to some pretty wide diameters. They grow 30-60 ft high and get to be 20-40 ft wide. I’ve seen a few that must not have a good water source and aren’t “drunk” at all but most have oval shaped trunks. There are also thorns on the trunk that grow in the younger parts of the tree to provide protection. The huge espinas are over an inch long and sharp. In the spring, now, there are huge seed pods that are full of a cotton-like substance that protects and transports the seeds. The cotton is used for stuffing pillows and I believe it after seeing a park’s ground covered with the cotton. Later in the spring and into early summer they have large pink flowers. Should make for some good pictures. I’ll get a better picture soon to show you the spikes and cotton.

 

Here is a Uruguayan tribe’s legend of the palo barracho tree (they call it El Toborochi) which I found interesting and translated into english:

 El Toborochi (Palo Barracho en Buenos Aires)

“A long time ago, when gods lived on the earth with people, the evil spirits of Ana abused many of the first Guarani (people), assassinating the men and taking the women.

In a small town lived a woman named Aravera “of the sky”, daughter of the great leader, Condor. She had recently married the hummingbird god, Colibri, and wanted to have a son soon, would become the best Chaman of the region, who kills all of the bad spirits.

The evil spirits of Ana, learned of this news, and planned to kill her without thinking much about Aravera. On their horses who breath fire and fly they went to the small town, but Aravera escaped to the end of the universe.

Ana looked everywhere, in the deepest water, below the land, and above the stars. When Averas grew heavy with the baby she descended to the earth and went inside the Palo Barracho tree. Here inside, Aravera had a son. The son grew and came to the revenge of the evil Ana, but the mother is in the trunk until today. She leaves the tree every time the nectar leaves the flowers, feeding the hummingbirds.”

Asado = Argentine BBQ

Let me introduce you to the Argentine Asado. All over Argentina you can find parillas, a type of steakhouse that gets it name from the grill used to cook the asado. The parillas have taken the cooking style of the gaucho- the Argentine cowboys who roam the Pampas on their horses herding cattle. They cook the beef over a campfire or sometimes on a parilla, and in the country you can easily find the parillas by the smell of smoked beef. We have seen the parillas all over the place but finally ordered up an asado at a pretty nice restaurant while in Tigre. Like everyplace here where we’ve ordered food, the service was speedy and the food showed up before we even expected it. The asado is made up of a few pieces of meat from various parts of the cow (and can include other various meats) but I noticed ours had more pieces from the rib section. The asado is served on a parilla with coals to slow cook it. I read that it can take up to 2 hours to properly cook an asado.

Tigre

Yesterday was one of the nicest days of Spring so Amelia and I decided to get out of the city and head north to a town called Tigre. It’s located in the Paraná Delta- a wetland area where many rivers merge carrying sediments which have formed the many islands in the delta. This is the world’s only delta that merges with a river, the Rio de la Plata, instead of an ocean. 

We walked along the canals of Tigre taking in all of the action on the water- the many rowers, powerboats, tourist catamarans, commuter ferries, and an occasional sailboat making it’s way out to the more expansive Rio de la Plata further down river. What would normally be a “no wake zone”  where you have to keep under a certain speed, was a “do whatever you want zone” with boats passing each other and zipping around just the way taxis drive in the city. Luckily for the rowers, there was a creek that they could enjoy to escape all of the large wakes in the busier areas. Amelia and I took a local ferry to get a peek at the many islands within the delta and we were pleasantly surprised at the complex waterways intertangling all of the island “neighborhoods”. The waterways were lined with small houses, most with their own piers. The ferry driver would skillfully pull up next to the pier and a man on the stern (rear) would pull the boat right up to the pier to allow people on or off, or sometimes just to deliver something. The top of the ferry was used to store the cargo from dogs, water jugs, and luggage. Back at the main dock in Tigre, we noticed about a hundred water jugs chained to the fence. The residents have come to the mainland to take care of some business and before returning they fill them at the nearby spigot. 

On land, there are many restaurants with great riverside views, plenty of people having picnics, and a nearby market called Puerto de Frutos- an old fruit port that’s been transformed to sell all of the people’s crafts. There is also a very large art museum that we didn’t have time to visit yesterday but hope to later. 

As the day came to an end, we jumped back on the electric train Costa del Sur and connected to the commuter train to take us back to the main train station in Retiro, Buenos Aires.

Zoo

After today’s spanish classes with Sonia, Amelia and I decided to check out the Buenos Aires Zoo. 

What an experience! Before we get to the first exhibit, there are creatures that look like a mix between an otter and a large rat hobbling out of the pond and approaching anybody that walks by. There is a stand selling animal food- probably some sort of grass pellets- in a bag. We watch in amusement as everybody but us is feeding them out of their hand. Their huge yellow teeth didn’t look like a friendly match to fingers and I was amazed at the fearless feeders. They’re called coipos. I only saw a few at first but I soon realized they roamed all over the zoo. But so did some peacocks, the ugly geese that always show up, and patagonian hares who are about knee high. We weren’t sure if we were going to run into a monkey on the sidewalk but luckily for us they were still in their exhibit. Turns out though, they let you feed just about every animal save for the lions, tigers, and bears! Most exhibits featured a feeding shoot where you could roll the pellets down to the monkeys, buffalo, whatever was hungry. But there were a lot of exhibits that had openings for the animal’s heads to stick out and you can feed them right out of your hand. There were signs saying not to use unauthorized food but none warning of the danger of a bite! We were thinking lawsuits must not be as prevalent here, or maybe they have a disclaimer we missed for feeding at your own risk. Or maybe, the animals here are just nice and don’t bite. 

Besides the feeding frenzy, the zoo was larger than I had imagined and well maintained. Fresh moving water and clean exhibits surprised me after my initial experience seeing animals on the loose. They have everything from camels and rhinocerouses to the Peruvian llamas and Argentine pumas. They had an aquarium, reptile exhibit, and a 3D show as well but we didn’t pay extra for those.

Take a look at a few of Amelia’s pictures.

I’m back…

I caught the flu last Saturday evening when Amelia and I were checking out places to live next (our 1 month studio rent ends Oct 2nd) and felt awful through Monday morning. I didn’t go to the doctors so I can’t be sure if it was of the H1N1 variety or just the seasonal flu. The only way you can find out which type of flu you have is by a test but it really doesn’t matter in the end. Spring just started on Monday so the flu season is still in effect here. I was originally thinking I could escape the flu by heading to the southern hemisphere but I came early enough to enjoy the end of their flu season.  

So then as soon as I got well- you bet, Amelia contracted it. 

We’re all recovered now though and life in Argentina can resume.

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I have to say it was entertaining converting the centigrade to fahrenheit to figure out what the heck our temperatures were.

Starting to get the centigrade thing down though with the daily temperatures and forecasts though. 20 degrees is a beautiful day!