Some Final BA Remarks

La Boca- To be honest, I was a bit underwhelmed. Even previously aware of how touristy it is, I was blown away by how touristy it is. Regardless, the colors are fun and you see some cheap tango. I enjoyed a choripan (sensational Argentine sausage sandwich)at a parilla and also checked out the Fundacion Proa's collection and magnificent rooftop cafe. 





Ponderer and Ombu

BA Street Art

You could walk around the city your entire time there and leave with new knowledge and new beauty. 

who doesn't want to see hugging kangaroos on their way to work?

Shopping in Buenos Aires..

It was usually both charming and complicated. On a slow agenda-less day, the plethora of specialty shops was charming. A shoelace shop? I kid you not, it exists three blocks from my apartment. On a get-things-done day, it could be frustrating. For example, I needed butcher paper for an art lesson one day and there is no such thing as an Office Depot. When the AHA! moment struck, and I headed to a butcher shop, it was of course closed for 3-hour siesta. 

Grocery shopping in Buenos Aires was a delight. As mentioned in a previous post, I was consistently charmed by the convergence of the old-fashioned with the modern urban. Above is a typical fruits and vegetables shop. Clearly, none of the occasional supermarkets could compete. These little places speckle the city and most present their goods in an aesthetically pleasing way. For me it was another kind of street art. 


They also sold eggs.

I had a lot of fun with this one.

If you want a cup of coffee, cafes are completely mundane compared to the other two popular options. One is a bicycle stand. The man above is just one of the many you'll see in parks or on the street mixing two-peso hot drinks. Also, gas stations are completely normal places to sit and have an expresso. Many are equipped with wifi. 

Other shopping...

Running low on lacy lingerie? Would like some input from complete strangers? You're in luck because at least three mats like these are within a 2 block radius. Magical city. 


Flower Stands: I thought it was quite quaint and a bit strange that flower stand on the streets remained open 24 hours. Then I found out that they sell drugs, hence the generous hours. 

Some Buenos Aires favorites:

• Cat restaurants- 
• The Gato Viejo is a must. I can't fully describe the experience so I will type out the night's highlights: bar, restaurant, art gallery, art studio, where artist Carlos Regazzoni cooks all the food while his family serves and either a jazz group or an opera-singing transvestite take the stage.  
• La Gata Nueva in La Recoleta has the best empanadas in life.  
• Tango
• Café vinilo provided my favorite Tango music experiences. Quaint, intimate, twinkly candles. 
• Sunday activity- La Recoleta Feria. It's an artisan fair where you can leave with art beauties and art friendships. 
• Church- La Iglesia de Pilar. The adoration chapel is the closest I've ever felt to Heaven. 
• Music- Aqualactica. I came upon them walking home through the Recoleta, cried after two songs, bought the CD, and adopted it as my life soundtrack. 
• Comoviajo.com for public transit directions and WhatsupBuenosAires.com for city events are excellent. 
• Art-The art scene here is quirky and splendid.
• Museum- El Museo de Bellas Artes. Terrific modern stuff. And free.
• My favorite Argentine artist is Veronica Gomez, who draws scenes of what it would look like if beavers took over the world.

Castores Atacan Buenos Aires (Beavers attack Buenos Aires) 

http://www.veronica-gomez.com.ar/se-castor.html

·      

Oh how sad. The Argentina chapter now ends. 

Onward. San Francisco writing is to come. 

Argentina. It was good for me.

Hasta~

Arroyo Verde

Arroyo Verde

There is this place in Patagonia where real cowboys live who won't let you call them cowboys because that's how real they are. And rare colors exist exclusively. And artists and riders and hikers and climbers and boaters and writers and thinkers and listeners and lovers and all of their friends will find themselves and lose themselves and perhaps find themselves again in all the beauty. On my second day there I told God that if I get a say, this is what I want Heaven to look like. 

 

If you're in the area...You should go.

www.estanciaarroyoverde.com.ar/

Yerba Mate

YERBA MATE IS TERRIFIC!

   I adore the Argentine yerba mate tradition. Every day everyone everywhere was drinking yerba mate in Buenos Aires. I would walk anywhere in the city and spot people clustered around a mate (gourd)and bombilla (straw). 

   I was dazzled by the "ceremony" around yerba mate. When a group shares mate, a host fills the gourd with the tea, hot water, and the bombilla and passes it to the first drinker. When the drinker empties the gourd of its liquid, he passes it back to the host, who refills it with water and passes it to the next drinker. Yes. Everyone sips from the same straw. Sick, healthy, you don't ask. You also may not know everyone you are sipping after, which I find the most endearing element of the tradition. It immediately establishes connections between individuals and can bond a group in such a simple and beautiful way. I appreciated this most when joining the Arte Para Todos volunteers for meetings. Rarely did everyone in the room know each other. 

In the States yerba mate bears these strange dreadlocked hippy connotations but in Argentina it's definitely the drink of all people. In my first meeting with the members of the city government social service branch, we all shared mate as we discussed installing Arte Para Todos in the trailer for the homeless kids. 

Make sure you say it with the Argentine accent, where "y" and "ll" are said as "j" (jerba). Otherwise, a request for "yerba" will lead you to marijuana. 

Because I'm a nerd and this is my new hurray, I pasted some exciting, probably exaggerated tidbits about it, if it is of interest: 

http://www.taooftea.com/shop11-Yerba_Mate.html

The leaves of the rainforest mate tree naturally contain 24 vitamins and minerals, 15 amino acids, abundant antioxidants. In fact, The Pasteur Institute and the Paris Scientific society in 1964 concluded "it is difficult to find a plant in any area of the world equal to mate in nutritional value" and that yerba mate contains "practically all of the vitamins necessary to sustain life."

There are many legends surrounding yerba mate, and it's known to the Argentine Gauchos (cowboys) as their "liquid vegetable", and to the native forest peoples who have survived periods of drought and famine by drinking yerba mate as the “Drink of the Gods”.

Yerba mate contains caffeine, theophylline, and theobromine, well-known stimulants also found in tea, coffee and chocolate.  The caffeine content varies between that of green tea and coffee.  Unlike tea, yerba mate has a low tannin content so it can be strong like coffee with out becoming extremely bitter.  Unlike coffee, yerba mate is not oily and acid forming, so it is less likely to cause stomach acid and jitters.

Yerba mate leaves and stems contain 196 active compounds compared to the 144 are found in Asian green tea (Camellia sinensis)

Yerba mate has significant antioxidant activity. In a study published in 1995 by Biochemicaland Molecular Biology International, researchers concluded that water extracts of yerba mate “were more potent antioxidants than either ascorbic acid (vitamin C) or butylated hydroxytoluene.” A few years later, a group of researchers embarked on a study to again investigate the antioxidant properties of Ilex paraguariensis infusions. Those findings were published in March of 2000 in the journal Biochemical and Biophysica Research Communications. Their results suggest “that ingestion of extracts of Ilex paraguariensis could contribute to increase the antioxidant defense of an organism against free radicals attack.” In a more recent study, published in the November 2001 issue of Fitoterapia, researchers took a look at seven different plant species in South America. They found that yerba mate “contained a higher content of flavonoids and caffeoyl derivatives than any other assayed species.”

The indigenous of South America traditionally use yerba mate to treat gastrointestinal disorders as eupeptic and choleretic agent. Research conducted by a team at Catedra de Farmacologia in Buenos Aires, Argentina found that yerba mate does in fact induce an increase in bile flow and enhance intestinal transit.