- The Argentine Way

Well I've been back for awhile but haven't blogged about my trip although I did post a lot of shots to flickr with little stories. I'm re-inacting that here with this numbered mosaic.

1) The first meal upon arrival may have been the best. We had lunch at:

EL TRAPICHE
Paraguay 5099
Palermo
Buenos Aires
Tel: 4772 7343

just giving you some info in case you're ever in Buenos Aires (and you should be if you haven't been). Be prepared to spend about $12 for a nice meal...and that's for two people. We both ordered the sirloin/chicken skewers and fries. It was really the first moment of settling ourselves, sitting down to relax and biting into some of the most tender perfectly cooked pieces of steak I've ever had. It was one of those unforgettable dining experiences, our expressions of pure joy were apparent upon each bite.

2) Fidel Krieger. This was actually taken on the last day of our journey. Two cigars were purchased from a small smoke shop in the San Telmo section of Buenos Aires. The proprietor tried pushing some cigar from Switzerland on us but we insisted to smoke something made locally. I hadn't smoked a cigarette in a few weeks at that point but decided to have a cigar anyway (and haven't smoked anything since). It tasted ok but nothing special. This photograph taken by Jordana is much cooler than the actual smoking of it was.

3) Despite some wise ass comments I wasn't shooting this old woman's breasts..I was just trying to get a cool shot which I think I did with this. I love the lighting here. Jordana was talking with this older woman at a market while I was sitting on a bench surveying the scene, shooting a bit. Locals are called "Portenos" there so that's my title of this one.

4) Mate is a potent tea drink which is quite popular in Argentina and apparently other parts of South America. The process of preparing mate is an arduous task but the final product is worth it. Shown here are the cups used to drink the Mate. The stuff is like crack as we found out, with locals carrying around their cups and thermos filled with hot water during the day to feed their habit. I'm drinking it right now as I'm writing this actually. To learn more about Mate go to Argentina..or a quicker way actually might be to read this.

5) Uruguay for a day. If you do make it down to BA I suggest taking a day trip to Cologna, Uruguay. A three hour boat ride (similar to the three hour Gilligan tour but we actually made it there) took us to this small beautiful but beaten down village where we did a few things. So here's a little list within a list.
1) Rented a Ninja/Vespa type vehicle that I promptly crashed us into a sidewalk a few feet away from the man pictured here. We ran into him again (no pun intended)later in the day and he directed us to some out of the way local architecture to check out. He was a sweet old man who told us if we needed anything just stop by his home and he/his wife would take care of us.
2) We ate this massive meal named Chivito which consists of ham, steak, and fried eggs served over a bed of french fries. It was a bit much for Jordana but for a professional eater like me it was smooth sailing. She actually ordered it without ham (to my chagrin) but they managed to slip on some ham steak regardless..those slippery Uruguayans.
3) We got a back massage at this resort in town which seemed like a great idea but halfway during mine a large group of businessmen there for a conference got into the pool outside of my massage room and started making so much noise I couldn't enjoy it. They were kinda short and stocky so I think it may have been a chiropractors conference. I actually got off the massage table, put my clothes on, and walked out to the main desk and basically demanded my money back. It was hard to speak to them until they got a guy who spoke English so ole Danny-one-language could verbalize my fury. They gave me 10% off which was bullshit. Jordana enjoyed her massage so I wasn't as upset as I would have been. Still though.
4) At the end of the day we went to return of the ninja/vespa/moped the place looked closed. Finally the guy who ran it came running up asking why we were so late? We looked at my watch and said "What it's only 7:30?" which is when it was due. He corrected us saying, "No it's almost 8:30," which is when our boat was leaving, which was the last boat of the day. I had forgotten to correct for the one hour time difference. We had no clothes there, no room, nothing. We would have been pretty screwed. We started running for the dock. We barely made it on the boat and got a few firm headshakingsat, But we made it!

6) La Boca, a South American version of Disneyland. A tourist area if we ever did see one while down there. Obviously not our favorite portion of the journey but they did have some amazing colors as can be seen on the houses.

7) Uruguay again. This was an old car overlooking the ocean. Jordana and I ran took a lot of shots in this area. This version isn't the greatest because it was cut off but you can see the original here.

8) Jordana at a large outdoor flea market in San Telmo. We both purchased a mask and a few other great items hand made by this artisan. He had this great serenity about him as many people there did. The product of his labor was beautiful and each hand made mask was priced between 3-5 dollars. Can you believe it!??!?!

9) A kiss on the beach. Me and my lady.