Kristen la Exploradora: La Segunda Semana en BA

Hola!

I'm back with a few more updates from our semana pasada! This past week... hmmm... Let me think back to what we did with ourselves. Right, there was quite a bit of spanish, lots of carne (steak), miles and miles of walking, some Tango here and there, rowdy futbol fanaticos (soccer fans), contemporary art, and the Buenos Aires suburbs. Quite a bit to cover, so I'll try to stick to the highlights. ;)

Los Alumnos

Dan and Kristen, the scholars. I mentioned that Dan and I have a rule between us: no english unless there's an emergencia, remember? Well, that was going great, but we definitely needed some professional help to round out our education. We found Los Ayres, a very convenient and quaint school of private spanish tutors in the trendy neighborhood of Palermo. Location couldn't get any beter - about a 15 minute walk from our departamento, and just about two blocks off of Plaza Armenia in the trendy Palermo Soho. Our instructora, Inés, was a huge help and no-doubtedly kicked our spanish skills up a notch! The ten hours went by so incredibly fast... already wishing we had more time with her!! More language classes may have to wait a few more weeks until we get to Bariloche.

We also attended another Spanglish mixer to mingle with a few more locals. This time instead of having the typical "speed-dating" type of format, the organizers held a Spanglish Trivia Night at a fun little bar in Palermo Soho. We were terrible at the trivia but made lots of new friends... some Porteños (people from Buenos Aires), a couple of Brazilians, father/daughter from Miami, and a young guy from Australia.

El Tango

Yes, the Tango returns to our travels!! Not only did we get to see a few Tango perfomances in the plazas around San Telmo, but we also attended a Tango dinner/drink show at La Ventana (means 'the window' but also just the name of the venue). It was a bit touristy, but the show was AMAZING, absolutely loved it... even Dan would agree! Later on during the week we took a second tango dance class with Rafael in his Recoleta studio. I have to say that our steps are starting to look more and more like a real dance! ;)

El Partido

INTENSE! Wow, I have never seen a crowd of fans so loyal to their team before! Dan and I bought tickets to the Saturday afternoon partido (game) between the River Plates and Hurucan... we thought it would be in our favor to root-root-root for the home team, which worked out very nicely with a 2-0 win for us! To fully understand the intensity of these games, you have to experience it for yourself. On our walk over to the stadium we saw several bus loads of Hurucan fans chanting their fight songs, escorted by a regime of police through their private entrance, to their maximum security cheering section. After we passed through three security check points, we finally make it to our seats, where we watched some 50,000 fans tie down their homemade signs. No joke, almost the entire stadium was covered in the signs! Throughout the entire game, loco fanaticos from both sides were screeming at the top of their lungs (sometimes to the tune of somebody's drum) their team chants. It was a great game, but the fans were real highlight.

Tigre

On our last day in Buenos Aires, we visited the suburb of Tigre, about a 45 minute train ride northwest of BA. Tigre was an interesting place... very beautiful town built-up around the river, but very touristy! We were their on a Sunday so their were lots and lots of familys their with screeming kids... probably due to the fact that the town had a Disneyland/Solvang feel to it - complete with a small amusement park! The main attractions for us were the river tours (which we missed!) and the Mercado de Los Frutos. We did a lot of wandering around, bought a few souvineers, then took the train back to BA right after sunset. All in all, very cute town. :)