Highlights from Buenos Aires

Well, we’re back from our awesome vacation to Buenos Aires! We had a wonderful time and thoroughly gorged ourselves on steak, wine and alfajores (delcious chocolate cookies filled with dulce de leche).

Despite not having many “sites” to see, Buenos Aires is a wonderful place to go for vacation if you’re looking to really imerse yourself in the local culture and live life like a Porteno.

During our nine days in BA, we quickly got onto the Argentian schedule- wake around 10am, spend a leisurely day walking around the city, napping in the afternoon, heading to dinner no earlier than 10pm and finally calling it at night around 2am! Being a night-owl, this schedule was ideal to me!

We also noticed some interesting things about the Porteno culture including:

– Living in the now. Since Argentina’s currency is not secure, Portenos are known for living it up while they can.

– The abundance of dogs. We regularly saw dog walkers tied up to 20 or more dogs at a time! And some walkers were specialized, only walking Beagles ect.

– The people are known for being “image-obsessed” and from what we saw, the majority of people were fashionable and skiiiiiiny!

– Their interest in psychology. Argentina has the most psychologists per capita of any country in the world! This article explains more.

– When Portenos greet each other, it’s always with a kiss on the left side of the cheek. Men even do this during business meetings!

– Their crazy traffic laws, or lack there of. No one paid any attention to the lanes and there were almost never stop signs at four-way intersections! No wonder they have some of the highest traffic-related deaths around.

– Hairstyles were very unique, with a lot of jagged short cuts featuring longer wispy strands of hair. It sort of reminded me of the rat tail or mullet. lol.

– Despite being known for their meat, Portenos rarely use marinade or seasoning on their beef. It’s usually just salted and then topped with different sauces AFTER being cooked.

We took a lot of pictures and video during out trip-  I pulled out some of my favorites highlights from our trip below.

 
Our first night we went to a Tango show at El Querandi.

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I got into the Tango mood myself!

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The next day we headed to a real gaucho ranch called El Ombu. Gorg, huh?


It was so cool, I got to get really close to some untamed horses including babies not even a week old!

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It was Luke’s first time on a horse (even though he grew up in the country!) and his did not want to stay on the trail. He kept stopping off for a little snack.

 

After our rides, we were treated to an asado BBQ and some music from Oscar, the ranch’s head gaucho.

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The next day we walked around the streets of San Telmo where they have a weekly street fest. I bought some cute earrings here that I’m planning to use for a giveaway, so stay tuned!

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While walking around we happened upon an impromtu Tango dance. Love it!

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Luke and I stopped off for a photo near one of the beautiful parks in Palermo.


Afterwards I got a close up of a sweet family of ducks passing us by.

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Another day we took a cooking class “Cooking with Teresita,” which was in the home of the lovely Teresita. Here we’re making Chimichurri! I’m planning to post the recipe for next week’s Sunday Supper Series.

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The asado cooking at Teresitas. We ate soooo much meat on this vacation!

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Yup- this was our dinner practically every night. Good thing I like red meat!

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With some empanadas of course!

Phew! That’s about all I have to report on our trip. I hope you enjoyed the video and pictures. We’d definitely recommend you all visit Buenos Aires- especially if you’re a foodie!

I hope you all enjoyed the guest posts from my wonderful colleages (and friends!) Jenn, Guth, Amy, Gloria and Thi. Thanks again guys!