The Jetpacker

Today was our last full day in Buenos Aires, and it was a conflicting day.  Part of us wanted to hit the remaining major sights in one fell swoop and save our precious hours tomorrow to relax.  Part of us wanted to experience new restaurants considering there are literally thousands in the city, many of which offer world-class food at low prices.

Instead, we focused on a few sights we wanted to hit and resorted back to some our favorite restaurants.  I know, I know, you wanted to read about new culinary adventures.  But we discovered some restaurants we loved, and we have to get our fill now because who knows if we’ll return to Buenos Aires anytime soon?  Don’t worry — today involved an unusually large amount of eating, so we have some new treats to share with you.

Today we had lunch at Cumana again.  That’s the place with the fantastic baked empanadas.  Unfortunately they don’t deliver worldwide, so I had to load up and order 7.  They’re small but dense, so halfway through, it became a challenge to finish ‘em.  A delicious, life-affirming challenge.  I had the spicy steak, marinated chicken, cheese with onion, and corn, squash and cheese (by far my favorite).  Jackie had a couple ham and cheese empanadas and went with a cheesy grits gnocchi for lunch.

The dulce de leche dessert empanadas are supposed to be fantastic at Cumana, but I was too full to try it.  Plus, it was hot today — high 70′s, low 80′s.  And I didn’t pack for summer; I packed for a frigid winter (anything below 70 is Arctic to me).  It felt like a sauna inside our thick long-sleeve shirts, so we needed something to cool us down.  Luckily, we read about an ice cream parlor a block down the street that was said to be one of the best in the city.

We can definitely say Volta had some of the best gelato we’ve ever had.  The small cones were only $2.50, but the gelato is so rich, that’s all you really need.  Jackie got chocolate and I had dulce de leche and vanilla.  It was thick and creamy, and it tasted really fresh, not like the processed, freezer burned ice cream you get at unnamable ice cream parlors back home (it rhymes with Smashkins Bobbins).

The shop was a cool place to relax too; comfy seats and couches, tons of available tables, an outdoor patio, free Wi-Fi and free water.  Plus, they serve cakes and sell their own chocolates.  If there was a Volta near my house, I can imagine myself needing to enter a rehab program after a few months of daily visits.

Once we were one step closer to a cavity, we took a cab to the Abasto Shopping Center.  This mall is generally considered inferior to Patio Bullrich (the upper-class mall) and Galerias Pacifico (the other upper-class mall).  Maybe it’s because there’s a certain stigma attached to those malls.  Maybe it’s because they are a little closer to major tourist destinations.  But those malls are all about looking and not touching.

Abasto de Buenos Aires, on the other hand, is mall aimed at the middle-class (aka: just about everybody who actually buys stuff) and it’s well-worth a slight trip out of the way.  The architecture alone makes it worth it.  From 1893 to 1984, this humungous Art Deco building housed a fruit and vegetable market; ten years ago it was transformed into a spacious five-story shopping spectacle.

There are a few expensive designer stores selling shirts for 700 pesos ($175 American), but most of the stores cater to the average shopper.  But there’s a lot more to see than just stores.

I have this thing about not eating at any American chain restaurant abroad.  But today I made an exception.  In the Abasto food court there is a McDonald’s.  Not just any Mickey D’s.  A special one.  A unique one.  A kosher one.  It’s actually the only kosher McDonald’s outside of Israel.  I’ve gotta say… it was pretty good.  Some of the better McDonald’s fries I’ve had.  Most of the tables around us were occupied by Jewish men wearing yalmukahs, eating cheese-less burgers and reading books.

Another great sight is top floor, which is taken up by rides, carnival games and videogames as part of the Museum of Children.  There’s also a decent size Ferris wheel that overlooks the food court.

We didn’t do much shopping at the mall — I was able to pick up a few more movies from the list that that kind lady wrote for me — so we hopped in a cab and headed to Puerto Madero for a late afternoon stroll.  The ports of Buenos Aires were once dingy and run-down, but have since been completely revitalized and now it’s the hip place to go.  We’ve been around here twice already — once for lunch at Marcelo and once for dinner at Cabana las Lilas — but we had yet to wander the docks.

The most prominent sight in Puerto Madero is the Bridge of Woman (Puente de la Mujer), a pedestrian foot bridge that crosses the muddy waters of the Rio de la Plata.

The bridge is pretty cool, but the surrounding area doesn’t offer much in the ways of aesthetics; it’s full of high-rise construction, chain restaurants like T.G.I. Friday’s and Hooters housed in refurbished red brick buildings, very little water traffic (save for the occasional kayaker) and some old cargo cranes than still hang over the water.

There was, however, a sight that confounded us: a small piece of bridge, perpendicular to the main bridge, stuck in the middle of the water.  We’re not sure if someone made a mistake or if… um… no, that had to be a mistake.

Who put that there?

I do have to say that the Bridge of Woman lived up to its name — maybe it was a coincidence, but it was mainly women walking across the bridge, including a couple of large groups of teenage girls.  There was even a young lady in a photo shoot.

After a quick jaunt across the bridge, we paid 50 cents each to visit the President Sarmiento Frigate, a retired Navy training ship that sailed around the world beginning in the late 1800′s.  This is one of those sights where I only allotted a few minutes, figuring it was something that should be done but wouldn’t be interesting.  I don’t know much about boats or Argentine history, but walking around the ship turned out to be one of my more favorite experiences in Buenos Aires.

The ship has four floors, but visitors are only allowed on the top three.  That was more than enough to get a sense of what life was like on the high seas a hundred years ago.  I can’t imagine being stuck on this cramped ship for months, possibly years on end, especially at my height; I’m 6’4” and all the ceilings were less than 6-feet tall.  The only souvenir I’m taking home is a hunched back.

It's probably not a good idea to point a gun at a lifeboat.

The maze of rooms feature weapons and uniforms from the era, and some rooms like the captain’s quarters look as they did a hundred years ago.  Climbing up and down the steep staircases, manning the helm, and rotating the massive rifles made us feel like kids playing in a historical playground.

If only that was an accurate representation.

We exhausted ourselves to the point of being hungry (I have no clue how considering we ate a few times today) and decided to walk down to El Desnivel for dinner again.  When we went there a few days ago, I said I loved the provoleta (barbecued Provolone cheese) and the flan, but my steak had too much junk on it.  Tonight I went with a no-frills tenderloin steak and… and… sorry, I had to wipe the saliva off my keyboard.

It was absolutely delicious.  My steak was probably my favorite of the trip.  That’s a lofty thing to say considering we went to some expensive parillas, but it’s true.  It was cooked perfectly and seasoned perfectly.  We had to go with the provoleta and flan again.  And to think that even with an appetizer, two entrees, a side dish, a dessert, two bottled waters and a small bottle of red wine, the meal was less than $30 USD total.  I don’t think I can return home and step foot inside an Outback and not turn into a grumpy, bitter old man.  $30 for all that goodness?  Man, I’m gonna miss this place.

I don’t think we’ll be the only ones either.  We happened to sit next to the SAME guys that we sat next to a few days ago.  If that isn’t an endorsement to go at least twice on one visit to Buenos Aires, I don’t know what is.

Tomorrow we don’t have too much time to explore the remainder of the city before heading home, but a few hours is enough time to hit a few small things and the last major sight on our list: Caminito street.  We’ve been putting this off because we’ve heard nothing but horror stories about the La Boca district, widely regarded as the most dangerous area in Buenos Aires.  I’m counting on getting something stolen from me — most likely my watch.  But the joke’s on them — I bought a cheapo watch at Kohl’s before we left, figuring it would jacked at some point.  Ha!  All their efforts will be for naught.

Anyway, we won’t be able to update the blog until we return home, so you’ll just have to wait and see if I made it back with all my belongings.  If you don’t see a post in a few days, send a search team into La Boca pronto!

Two quickies:

–Last night before we went to bed, we were flipping through the news stations and saw a report about Argentina’s decision to decriminalize smoking marijuana.  The report was on a news station called Cronica.

–We have one of those old, open-air elevators in our hotel — the kind of elevator where you have to open and close gates manually, then slowly watch the floors pass by.  Well, today, when we returned to our hotel after our humongous dinner and walking 7 blocks to get to the hotel, the elevator was stuck on the 5th floor because someone had forgotten to close the gate.  There are only 6 floors in the hotel… and our room happens to be ON the 6th floor.  So we had to walk all the way up and shut the gate.  We were so exhausted, we took the elevator one more floor to the top.