Weekend

This weekend was busy, in a productive way!

On Saturday, Jamila and I braved the rainy weather and took a bus to the Mueso de Bellas Artes in Recoleta. It's on Avenida de Libertador, a beautiful long avenue of gorgeous apartment buildings and tree-lined lanscaping.
The museum itself was alright. It was free, a plus, and poorly curated, a minus. Rooms seemed to be organized with no rhyme or reason, mixing eras and origens. The best parts were the Pop Art section and the Argentinian art section.

After artwork, we went with our friend Mariah and her host sister Jimena to café La Biela, a classic café that overlooks the famous Recoleta Cemetary. It was a very nice merienda (snack), with delicious coffee and scrumptious bittersweet chocolate accompanying our drinks.

We then headed on to a birthday party of another person on our program, Chelsea. Her host mom (and host aunt) planned a pizza birthday party, cooking 4 different kinds of pizza (the best was by far spinach and ricotta), a brownie cake with dulce de leche, cream, and merengue, and birthday hats. It was really fun and super generous of her to host us all.


Today Jamila and I went to the San Telmo fair. On Sundays, it seems as though all the streets in the neighborhood are lined with vendors of antiques, artwork, handicrafts, you name it. When we got tired, we took a break in Pride Café, a small café with great vibes and delicious and inexpensive food. http://www.adondevamos.com/bares/Pride-Cafe/1529/?b6=11&js=0 I got Caprese Brusqueta and Jamila got a walnut brownie with a class of milk. We shared both of them.

Besides enjoying the city, Jamila and I have both been busy doing research for our independent study projects, conducting interviews, and writing a LOT in Spanish! I'll let Jamila post about her topic later, but my topic explores identity formation in the Sephardic Jewish communities of Buenos Aires. As some of you may know, Buenos Aires has a very large and diverse Jewish population. The Sephardic members of the community are descendants of people from the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and from the Middle East. The majority of people I have interviewed have been of Syrian descent. It has been a very interesting research process and I will happily show the final product to anyone willing to read over 20 pages in Spanish!

This week, my parents and sister come to visit me in Buenos Aires. It will be a nice excuse to do any touristy things I haven't yet done and eat some yummy food!

Delicious Food

Last night we had an incredible dinner with Ellen at Lelé de Troya, a beautiful restaurant in Palermo. The food was Mediterranean, but simple, classic food. We were served bread with a delicious spread of carrot, ginger and honey. We got some "cheap" rose wine, but it tasted delicious to us! For our main course, Jamila ordered an incredible lamb dish with a rich chocolate sauce and a nice tomato-mint-basil salad. I got Salmon Rosado, a great piece of fish with a ginger/coconut milk sauce. Ellen also got the salmon rosado. The food was rich and complex and completely delicious. The restaurant also had great vibes- it's in an old mansion, and each room is painted a different color. We sat in the red room, on relaxing couches. For dessert, we ended our incredible meal with a chocolate volcano and white chocolate ice cream. Ellen also got a chocolate dessert, and hers came with a dessert wine! Overall, it was an amazingly lovely night. It was a little more expensive, but super delicious and a great ambience.
http://leledetroya.com/

Compared to one of the other fancy restaurants Jamila and I went to with a group of our classmates, Quimbombo ( http://www.quimbombo.com.ar/ ), the food at Lelé de Troya was much better. Quimbombo was more trendy and tried to do middle eastern/Indian fusion food, but fell short on some of the flavors we were used to. To them, curry was mustard.

We've been really fortunate to eat at some of Buenos Aires's loveliest restaurants, and will keep updates on any other food adventures.

Grafitti Mundo

Before leaving for Iguazu, Jamila and I, along with some of our classmates, took a tour of street art in Buenos Aires with Grafitti Mundo on Thursday. http://graffitimundo.com/en/
It was a cool opportunity to see lots of different street art, a lot of which was political, of many different aesthetic influences. We also walked through some cool neighborhoods, boutiques and restaurants. It gave a different feel of the city.

The photo above was probably one of my favorite works.

Food You Must Eat

My former employer told me the only updates that matter are those about food/drink.

In honor of Dan Kully, here is a list of food you must eat when coming to Buenos Aires. A list of cool restaurants/bars are up next!

• Medialunas (croissants)
• Churro relleno (filled with dulce de leche dipped in chocolate)
• An amazing lollipop called Pico Dulce
• Chocolate Marroc (Like Reese's kinda)
• Submarino (hot milk + chocolate bar)
  
• HELADO (Tramontana, Dulce de Leche granizado)
• Empanadas (carne is best)
  
• Alfajores (sandwich cookies with dulce de leche)
  
• Parrilla (barbecue! meat!)

....And wash it all down with some Malbec from Mendoza!

Last Thoughts

We stayed at Hostel-Inn in Puerto Iguazu, which was amazing. It is also known as the "Club Med of Hostels". It was gorgeous and only $10USD a night! I would highly recommend it: http://www.hihostels.com/dba/hostels-Puerto-Iguaz%C3%BA---The-Hostel-Inn-Iguaz%C3%BA-002092.en.htm
Here's a picture of the pool.

Also, at the Argentinian Park, there was a gigantic hot water heater to drink maté, the national drink. Only in Argentina would there be a demand for hot water in 90 degree tropical weather!

Foz do Iguaçu

After going to the Argentinian side, on Sunday morning before our bus ride back to BA, we went to Brazil (thanks to our visa that we already had from our trip this summer).
It was amazing to be back in Brazil and interesting to see how quickly languages changed across the border.
This view was very different- not as up close and personal, but an incredible panoramic view. We saw waterfalls we didn't even know existed and from afar, it looked as though the Argentinian side was untouched. We couldn't even see anyone walking around.

Garganta del Diablo (Devil's Throat)

All of the guide books recommend that tourists save the best for last.
In this case, the best was Garganta del Diablo. The name may seem strange, but it's for a good reason. Many waterfalls collide creating steam, foam and lots of noise. It was such a force! And if anyone were to fall in, it would not be pretty.
We went right after our rain storm, but even in the clouds, it was an amazing sight.