Hotdog Condiments

Hotdogs get a lot more attention in Argentina than they do in the states.  The most basic hotdog comes with at least 5 or 6 condiments.  We haven't gotten the chance to try one down here yet, but we'll give you our feedback when we do!

This was about half of the display, all exclusively for hot dogs!

Mannequins of Mendoza

Getting all Manga on us, creepy!

We're in Mendoza

36th Annual Buenos Aires Book Fair

One of our tour books highly recommended this Feria de Libros as not to be missed.  It occurs once a year and apparently librarians from far and wide travel to Buenos Aires for the event.  We were quite disappointed upon arriving at the festival to find a glorified Barnes and Noble that you had to pay to enter.  All the books were new and overpriced and the fair seemed to be run by large book stores who had shelled out an unnecessary amount of money to create mid-sized commercial bookstores throughout the massive event space, much of which was catered to children.  Here are some photos of our experiences in the fair...

Apparently, we missed all the drama: later that day, violence broke out at the release of a book by journalist, Gustavo Noriega.  The book's controversial subject matter (which apparently criticizes the corrupt government statisticians) provoked some 10-15 people to begin throwing chairs into the audience.

Casa de John

John (friend from high school) has generously let us crash with him for the three weeks we've spent in Buenos Aires.  He lives in an amazing group house in the congreso neighborhood.  John and, believe it or not, his twenty roommates along with a handful of squatters like us inhabit a complex of three connected houses.  The setup of the house is tough to capture in photo, but here are some highlights...

One of the houses' three kitchens seen from the roofdeck

Inside one of the kitchen/living rooms

View of the cathedral across the street from John's roofdeck

Beautiful rooftop garden

This one's a bit confusing.  It's the view down into John's house and into the house below as well-- there are lots of roofless open areas like this in the complex.

Another kitchen/living room

Gonzo

house pet/devil-cat

Carne

Argentinian meat is said to be some of the best in the world. The high-quality beef that's omnipresent in Argentine restaurants and supermarkets is famously hormone and cruelty free, and is extremely lean due to the amount of exercise that the cows receive in their open pastures. Given the fact that Rives and I watched Food Inc. the night before we left for South America, and have more or less sworn off American beef, we've been extrmely happy to indulge in Argentine carne. Some of our favorite meat-speriences:

Jumbo parilla in Montevideo's Marcado del Puerto, a charming, enormous marketplace filled with open parilla restaurants. (Technically in Uruguay, not Argentina, but close enough!)

This waiter was trying to explain the different cuts of meat to me, but I got a bit distracted.

Huge delicious steaks (ojo de bife and bife de chorizo) at Rosalia, a traditional parilla restaurant in Palermo, Buenos Aires. We requested that the steaks be "jugoso," or "juicy."

Brochette de lomo at La Cabrera, one of the most excellent (albeit, tourist-filled) steak houses in Buenos Aires. If you go here, get this. Service includes a bounty of outstanding free side dishes.

Choripan was our street food of choice in BsAs. Juicy chorizo, fresh crispy bread, and chimichurri. que rico.

Supertourists: Iguazu Falls, AR

On Monday we headed to Iguazu National Park with our friends Katie and Lea. We spent the day exploring the Iguazu Falls, which are taller than Niagra falls and twice as wide. Supertourism ensued. 

Landscapes

A view out the window on the busride from San Pedro de Atacama, Chile to Salta, Argentina. This 10-hour busride takes you through the Andes and is known to pass by many beautiful landscapes...lush ones, barren ones, colorful ones like that pictured, we even passed through a violent hail storm.

Couch Surfing in Salta

Happy Easter, everyone! Buffy, Granddad, Pam, Mom, Dad, Mooch, Neen, Chloe- wish I could be with you today. Here at Iguazu Falls, things aren't very festive, though we may make eggs for lunch in honor of the holiday... anyways... hmm... let's talk Salta...

I've been a member of couchsurfing.org for a few years now, but, in Salta, I finally had my first CouchSurfing experience! A little about CouchSurfing, from their website:

CouchSurfing is an international non-profit network that connects travelers with locals in over 230 countries and territories around the world. Since 2004, members have been using our system to come together for cultural exchange, friendship, and learning experiences. Today, over a million people who might otherwise never meet are able to share hospitality and cultural understanding.

CouchSurfing members share hospitality with one another. These exchanges are a uniquely rich form of cultural interaction. Hosts have the opportunity to meet people from all over the world without leaving home. "Surfers," or travelers, are able to participate in the local life of the places they visit. We also give more people the chance to become travelers, because "surfing" lowers the financial cost of exploration.

In fewer words, the website lets you search for generous people all over the world who have some free space and are down to host travelers.

My search for a CouchSurfing host in Salta led me to the profile of Luciano Paludi, a couchsurfing.com member offering up an extra bedroom in the home, right in the heart of Salta, that he shares with his mother and his dog, Duke. Rives and I were ecstatic when Luciano promptly responded to our request to stay with him for a few nights. We were in!

Luciano on his balcony (taken from his couchsurfing.com profile, since Rives' camera is AWOL)

Even though our bus got in a few hours late, Luciano was all smiles when we arrived at his doorstep last Monday night. Our private room with a double bed was absolutely ideal, and we were also allowed to use the family's kitchen and laundry room! During our four days in Salta, Luciano showed us around town, took us to his favorite empanada* spot, played us excellent traditional Argentinian music on his guitar, and walked with us up the 1070 steps of Cerro San Bernardo hill, which overlooks Salta from 883 feet above.

View from the hilltop

We couldn't have had a better experience, and we're totally sold on the CouchSurfing project. Hopefully, once we're back in Seattle (or Brooklyn this summer??), we'll be able to return the karmic favor and host some surfers!

*One aspect of Rives and my journey that his, shockingly, been omitted from the blog thus far, is our empanada habit. We're total empanada junkies. Empanadas are about 30-50 cents a pop and are available on almost every street of almost every town or city we've visited. Rarely does a day go by without at least one empanada purchase. I'm getting hungry just writing about them. Expect a full post about them soon.

Ham Crackers

We were served these ham-flavored crackers on the bus to Salta, quite unusual.  The crackers were the same pinkish color as the packaging...they come in hamburger-flavor as well.