Back to school in San Telmo, Buenos Aires

We sell our camping accessories in Ushuaia and fly back to Buenos Aires with lighter bags and the intention of improving our Spanish.

Views around Buenos Aires

This time we have rented an apartment for 10 days in San Telmo, a southern barrio of the Capital Federal (near to La Boca and Puerto Madero). One of the oldest neighbourhoods in the city. 

Barrios of Buenos Aires

San Telmo

This area has got a bohemian-feel with pavement cafes, cobblestone streets, old mansions, quaint eateries, street tango dancers and live musicians.  Plaza Dorrego is a square where people tend to congregate in the evenings - watch our for the 100s pigeons though (rats with wings in my opinion). This neighbourhood was once home to the aristocrats of Buenos Aires up until 1871 when the yellow fever epidemic spread resulting in the elitists fleeing this southern quarter and relocating in the north-central neighborhood of Recoleta. The empty mansions were then renovated into “conventillo,” and became home to the fresh Italian and Spanish immigrants - transforming the once only-affluent district into a neighbourhood with an eclectic mix of folk!

 

Our apartment is cozy and comfortable, and there are a few Argentine essentials in the kitchen - mate, dulce de leche, coffee machine & biscuits. I feel a little bit less safe here at night than in Palermo or Recoleta, but we are staying in Paseo Colon which is a busy, well-lit street so it is fine. 

Our new home, San Telmo

One of the reasons for returning to Buenos Aires is to improve our Spanish and to get to know the city a little better. We have been recommended a school, BA Plus who work in conjunction with a company called I go Buenos Aires (entertainment company) - so basically we have got a package deal which includes accommodation, Spanish classes, various activities and some meals.

Kate (American) and Jose (Argentine), are our points of contact for the coming week - we are all the same age and get on really well, so it feels more like having two new friends in the city who can give us their tips and recommendations.

One of their first tips is to try choripán, an abbreviated name given to chorizo in a bread roll, best served with chimichurri. Chimichurri is a popular sauce served with grilled meat in Argentina, and some other South American countries. It is said that the unusual name comes from 'Jimmy McCurry', an Irishman who is said to have first prepared the sauce! He was marching with the troops of General Jasson Ospina in the 19th century, sympathetic to the cause of  Argentine independence. The sauce was popular and the recipe was passed on. However, 'Jimmy McCurry' was difficult for the native people to say. Some sources claim Jimmy's sauce's name was corrupted to 'chimichurri', while others say it was changed in his honor. 

Choripan

Chimichurri

Some of the upper-class in Buenos Aires frown upon eating choripan, given how cheap it is to buy on the street (and also it has been known to make people ill).  However......

Our school is located on Moreno 957, about a 25 minute walk from our apartment. Class is Monday - Friday from 1pm-5pm. Thank goodness we do not have morning lessons! There are five people in my class; a couple from Brazil, a Swiss and Danish girl. My class tends to be heavily focused on grammar :-(

Walking to school

Daily lessons, BA Plus

Cycling around the City

Kate and Jose organise for us to hire bicycles and a tour guide for the following afternoon (Bike Tours). I am not too keen at the idea of cycling around this busy city initially due to the intense traffic - however, I absolutely love the experience! It is a fantastic way to get to know the city quickly and also to learn a bit of the history. Tip: there is a lot less traffic on Saturday. During the tour we cover the areas of Palermo and Recoleta in more detail and visited a number of the parks. There are so many green spaces in the city, filled with sunbathers, rollerbladers and dog-walkers. 

One of the many pretty green spaces in the city

This flower closes in the evening and glows purple!

Obervations around the city

I continue to be enthralled with the city of Buenos Aires! We have stopped taking taxis for the most part, preferring to use the local buses known as Colectivos ($1.25 pesos per journey = £0.25p). When I get up early (not very often here!), my favorite thing thing to do is wander around the corner and pick up the local paper and sit in Il Forno (delcious bakery on Bolivar), drinking a cafe chico (espresso). There are a real mix of people; known as the melting pot of South America where immigrants have arrived from all over the world, with the greatest majority of Spanish and Italian descent. There are many strange sights to be seen. Old men sit around the streets in hoards, playing cards or commenting on the beauty of the girls passing by.  It is not uncommon to see a line of cars trailing after a speeding ambulance simply to avoid the traffic. There are people who wander the city with shopping trolleys which raid through the rubbish gathering cardboard (to sell). A few times, and not in any way amusing,  I have seen hoards of drunk male children (maybe 10 years) ploughing through San Telmo shouting, topless and waving their arms in the air (presumably with no homes?). 

Another thing, if you ask for directions in Argentina you will always get an answer. Hoewever, in many instances the person offering directions has no idea where the given place is (despite sounding extremely convincing)! I have spent a great deal of time in Argentina (and Chile) on wild-goose chases (mostly in the entirely wrong direction!). Grrrr. Beware. 

One thing I really like here is that people rely on supermarkets a great deal less that the developed world. In a more traditional style, people buy their fresh fruit and vegtables in the fruit shop, their meat and milanesa in a butchers, and medialunas (small, sweet crossaints) in the bakery. It makes the shopping experience a lot more enjoyable - interacting and gossiping with the locals (often little old ladies and gentlemen) puts me in a good mood for the day! It is a more time-consuming style of shopping but much more rewarding, and I am sure it leads to a greater sense of community and belonging. 

Buenos Aires has one of highest rates of plastic surgery in the world - a fact which is extremely obvious whilst wandering around. People are image-obsessed here and take great care with their appearance. Many of the girls are stunningly beautiful (although the men are not so visually appealing!). There are lots of pretentious clubs and bars in the city where the beautiful gather in hoards. There is even a group of society known as 'floggers', pretty men with long-ish, sweeping hair who blog their lives on a daily basis (there was a flogger attacked and killed last week apparently, simply for being a flogger). There is a word, careta (literal meaning = mask), to describe men who only go to pretentious bars and talk only with 'posh' ladies, a social butterfly of sorts! The word for a female equivalent is gato (literal translation = cat!). 

During class we convince our teacher, Alexandra to spend an hour of one of our lessons teaching us 'the language of the street' i.e. slang and common turns of phrase! It is fascinating and she gives us a good overview of the class system in Argentina (upper, middle & lower) and the language, customs and eating habits of each. Choripan, being typical food of the lower classes and things like sushi becoming increasingly popular among the more wealthy. There are new verbs being invented all the time, all of which end in -ar, whereas older, more traditional verbs end in -er and -ir. Argentine spanish, or more accurately castellano, has many influences from traditional Spanish, Italian and English. For example, shopping centres are know as 'El Shopping' and living rooms in homes are know as 'El Living'. Young people, especially the wealthy add emphaisis with 're-' (pronnounced ray)- for example, 're-linda' (very good-looking). Things that are popular are said to be in fashion - 'muy fashion' or 're-in'. When something has been popular, and is no longer fashionable it is said to be 're-out'!! 

Reggaetón is the music of choice among people our age - it is a form of urban music with Jamaican beats and hip-hops lyrics. Forced upon from every shop corner, radio and car for the past seven weeks we are now accustomed to it (and may even like it a little bit!). Seeing the locals dance to this music is one of the must-see city sights! 

The drinks in clubs are relatively expensive (£25 pesos = £5.00 GBP) so young people tend to gather in each other's houses for food and drinks before heading out. They number one beverage of choice among males and females is Fernet Branca, a Milanese brand of amaro, mixed with coca-cola (Fernet con Coca) - which to me tastes like some kind of poisonous cough syrup!

Another popular drink is vodka with Speed (an apple-flavoured drink with dangerously high leves of caffeine). 

Soccer

People are soccer-obsessed here, so it seems sensible to go and see a game!! Unfortunately, Boca Juniors are playing away this weekend so we go and see River Plate (the number 2 team in terms of popularity) play instead. Jose is our guide for the day, helping us to navigate the 1000s of adrenaline-fulled supporters in the 38 °C heat! 

We catch a crowded bus from San Telmo to the River Plate stadium which is close to the 'limit' of the city (1.5 hours on the bus). At the appropriate stop, Adam and Jose get off the bus. I am about to step out onto the pavement when the hurried driver accelerates and slams the door closed! This is not the first time this has happened so I shrug my shoulders and ring the bell for the next stop (at least I haven't been crushed by the doors unlike poor Irina a few weeks ago!). However, the other passengers are not one bit pleased with the situation and so begin yelling at the bus driver, some of them jumping up and down shouting in Spanish "she is a foreigner, stop the bus right now!!".  After a couple of minutes of excessive commotion, the bus grinds to a halt, everyone cheers and I hop off, giggling and embarassed by the attention! 

The heat is really unbearable (there is no shade from the sun which beams until 8.30pm!). We eat 5 ice-lollies each over the next few hours (there is no other way to cool). The match is fun, even crazier than a Premiership game in the UK - the fans sing loudly and consistently, playing drums, jumping around and shouting abuse at the players when the game is not going their way. I enjoyed the experience but I don't think I shall be rushing back to see another game, a little too claustrophobic from my liking!

River Plate logo

We have been warned not to bring an valuables (including camera) so no pictures of the game, however, we ask a friendly German to take a picture of us and email later....

Football supporters melting in the blazing heat

River Plate stadium

Tango

The city of tango is the perfect place for Adam and I to go for our first lesson! Unable to even attempt to tango in flip-flops, the first step is buying a shiny new pair of high-heels! Green for the luck of the Irish.....

Ready to show my moves on the dancefloor!

Our local, quaint tango club

After a couple of hours we are doing well despite my feet being BLACK AND BLUE from being trampled on!! It is so much fun and we meet a nice Columbian/German couple whi have given us lots of tips for Columbia (in particular which boat to chose when yachting from Catagena to Panama). Luckily, there are no action  pictures of us dancing! Afterwards, in the club there is a Milonga (basically a free floor for all those locals to strut their stuff and show-off their glamourous (and sometimes tacky) numbers. The girls tell me that one should try and dance with the oldest gentleman in the club because inevitably he will be the superior dancer! There is a lot of nodding and eye-contact when partners are pairing up - the female can chose to ignore the head-nod should she wish to decline the next dance!

Drinking beer on the side-line (avoiding eye-contact with tango-dancing men!!)

Fanny, our French friend who we met in Patagonia has invited us to an 'Empanadas and guitar-songs party' at her apartment in Palermo. Her parents are visiting from the south of France, and her father entertains us all with his Ucalaly and songs of the French revolution! We munch on empanadas, washed down with Malbec. Then, Fanny and her tango partner show us some steps. They tell us that tango dancing is all about being creative - the guy should create an impulsion to move and from there the woman can chose to do as she pleases with that impulsion (Fanny believes is is not a machismo form of dance where the male forces the woman in a given direction). This pair do not have set routines that they follow, inventing steps acording to the mood of the day.

Fanny, dancing some impromtu tango in her apartment

Leon, the coolest dog in Buenos Aires

Click to see Fanny tango dancing in her apartment, with Leon (the dog) singing in the background!

The Candilejas Tango Show in San Telmo is our next stop on our tango journey. The show is great fun,

the dances are highly choreographed and spectacular! The music is also fantastic, we especially fell in love

with the incredible harp player.

The highlight of the show, the incredible harp player

Click to see the traditional style of dance

Click to see a modern style of tango dance

Parties

Most of the rest of our time is spent socialising. This is one of the party capitals of the world - where the clubs do not open until 2AM!! So almost every night for the next week we visit pubs, house-parties and clubs; ranging from quaint little 'old-man' pubs, trendy bars, famous DJs (Michael Woods), anti-valentines parties at the golf-club and all-night dance clubs! We meet up with our various friends in the city for dinner and drinks - some of whom we have met during the last seven weeks in Argentina and some whom we have met in other parts of the world. For me, it was really fantasic to meet up with Rocio, an Argentine girl I met in London last year who organised a party for us in her new apartment and also, shows me around her favourite bars and shops in Palermo Viejo.

Dinner with Kate and Jose at Des Nivel, San Telmo

This grilled cheese was out of this world!

Later, I show Kate how to Riverdance (badly!)....

Synchronised Irish dancing!?

Hmmm, maybe it is better when we link arms?!

Kate at one of my favourite restaurants, Cumana (Barrio Norte) where traditional Argentine caseroles are served

New friends made at the Pub Crawl organised by Kate and Jose
Adam, Kate and I

Meeting up with Rocio (left) and her friends at her new apartment

Adam, Rocio and I

And Adam wonders why he never without a beer in his hand in this city of fun!

We leave Buenos Aires, a little tired to say the least. The Spanish course was really great and both are feeling more confident about our conversational ability! 

I pass! (Alexandra, my teacher on the left)

We have decided to travel to Uguazu next with two Australian guys, Adam (we met in El Chalten) and Duncan (we met in Buenos Aires). We sigh as our alarms skreech at 4.30am on our last morning in Buenos Aires....we are on the move again.