3 Vineyards and an Olive Oil Factory

Our day wine tasting was probably one of my favorite days EVER. The morning began with the four of us enjoying breakfast on the rooftop restaurant of our hotel. We drank our morning coffee while gazing at the Andes.

The bus picked us up around 9:30 and we headed off to the first vineyard of the day called the Navarro Correas Bodega. Our tour guide Fernanda explained that this vineyard was owned by the London based Diageo company. In addition to producing wine, this company is known for making Smirnoffs, Johnnie Walkers and Baileys. Upon arriving at the vineyard we noticed that it had a very modern feel. We toured the cellar and learned that wine should be stored at 11 degrees Celsius and that the kitchen closest is probably the worst place to put it (oops!). The actual wine tasting was  included a sparkling white, a young Malbec and an aged Malbec. The older Malbec had an oaky taste and its flavor was more robust. All in all, it tasted very different than two buck chuck from Trader Joes!

The second vineyard we visited is called Bodega Luigi Bosco. In contrast to the first vineyard, Luigi Bosco was founded in 1901 by the Arizu family. The family continues to run the vineyard today and are known to produce some of the best wine in Argentina. Before tasting the wine we picked grapes off the vine. They were probably the sweetest and most delicious grapes I have ever tasted.
 We tried another sparkling white,a Cabernet Sauvignon blend and a Cabernet Franc Malbec blend. The tasting finished around noon. As you can imagine, we were pretty sleepy at this point.

Stop number 3 was my favorite. We made a new friend from Chicago named Jim who joined us for a picnic lunch at the Bodega Lagarde vineyard. In addition to delicious food prepared by the vineyard, our picnic included  blankets, pillows and two bottles of Altas Cumbres Malbec to share between the five of us. After we finished eating, we walked around the vineyard and ate more grapes and tomatoes off the vine. We all agreed that this was the best picnic we ever had. 

The last stop of the day was the Pasrai olive oil factory. They brought out a table full of bread and soaked it in olive oil infused with garlic, rosemary and more!

After a day of drinking and eating we were all excited to crash on the night bus! We miss you all and wish you could have enjoyed the day with us. 

Besos!

Graffitimundo: The One with Mostly Pictures and Some History

After seeing graffiti and what we now know is termed “street art” throughout the city of Buenos Aires, we discovered an official tour led by British and Irish ex-pats known as “Graffitimundo.” Last Wednesday, we took their tour of the northern neighborhoods led by an Irishwoman named Circa who gave us a thorough understanding of the importance of street art in the culture of BA.

We started in the Colegiales neighborhood in the western part of the city at a house formerly owned by Tec (one of the artists) that now serves as the Graffitimundo headquarters. Several years ago, Tec invited his artist friends over for a barbeque (“asado” en Espanol) and they spent the evening eating,

Tec's house.

drinking, and painting the exterior of his home. The culture of the street art movement began in this form and became popular in the early 2000s after economic collapse in Argentina in 2001 led to unrest amongst the citizenry. The people used street art and graffiti as an expressive political outlet, a purpose for which the art form still exists today. As the popularity of the movement grew, citywide respect for street art also grew and commissions were sponsored by various home and shop owners to prevent the random tagging that was also increasing in popularity; a home that was made into street art was less likely to be defaced by random graffiti artists than a plain white façade.

We saw three more sites in the Colegiales neighborhood including one of these commissioned storefronts,

A commissioned storefront by Gualicho.

a large wall where a street art festival had brought huge murals to the neighborhood, and a playground wall depicting a very important image of Argentine culture: the “panuelo blanco.” The extremely short version of this piece of Argentine history is that the last military dictatorship (1976-83) kidnapped more than 30,000 young professors, doctors, and other liberals who opposed their mission. The mothers and grandmothers of these “desaparacidos” (literally “the disappeared ones”) began to demand answers from the government about the whereabouts of their children. These brave women would silently march in the Plaza de Mayo (near the Argentine president’s office) carrying signs and placards regarding their missing children and wearing white scarves around their heads (the “panuelo blanco”). Any depiction of this image is extremely significant and resonates strongly with the people here.

Los Panuelos Blancos. 

The tour then moved into the Palermo Hollywood neighborhood, an area of the city that became

Lara poses with stencil
art by Cabaio.

rapidly gentrified over the last 10 years. Here we saw our first glimpse of the use of stencil in street art, which has become an important tool for some street artists. We also saw a statement piece by artist Finton Magee called “homeless bound,” which depicts a man carrying his house on his back (a custom amongst the poorer Argentines who had been removed from Palermo by the gentrification process). Political statements like this are common throughout the city.

"Homeless Bound"

We wrapped up in the Villa Crespo neighborhood, where we saw several collaborative murals. One of the most interesting things we learned on this tour is that these artists are not just from Argentina, and many come from around the world to paint here. They use different techniques including spray paint, oil paint with large rollers, and even watercolor. These collaborations often result in some of the most striking and beautiful public art in the city.

        

Collaboration piece.

Billy with stencil giraffes. 

The tour ended at Bar Post in Palermo above which sits a gallery where these artists work and sell their art. 

Billy, Bar Cat, Angela, Emily, Lara.

This tour was one of the best things we’ve done here so far! If you want to see more: http://graffitimundo.com/

Daily potable: Fernet con Coca, 2 liters of Quilmes.

Emily and the Fernet con Coca.

Em

Mendoza, Part I: The Night Bus

When we first booked our tickets on the Night Bus, my brain kept picturing a train car like the ones we slept in on the Eurail. I imagined our own glassed-in car with bunk beds and unintelligible but cordial Germans, and maybe a trolley selling pumpkin pasties (They do like their pumpkin down here - we've had it no less than 3 times pureed into a dip for bread). After several reminders that it was in fact a BUS, the picture changed to something more Harry Potter-esque: four-poster beds with hot chocolate spilling everywhere as the vehicle lurched dangerously along the streets.

Reality turned out to be somewhere in between. The beds are seats that fully recline (if you splurge the extra $20), and there really is a bus attendant who might bring you hot chocolate if you ask. She brought us wine (two glasses of Malbec and one of champagne) in preparation for our arrival in wine country. Everyone has his or her own screen on which to watch movies or listen to music. The beginners (Emily and I) watched American movies with Spanish subtitles while Billy and Lara enjoyed Blended (or "Family Honeymoon," as it was so accurately translated), apparently one of the few films deemed worthy of dubbing.

The best Night Bus custom has got to be Bus Bingo. The attendant comes around and hands everyone a small square of surprisingly durable paper printed with numbers along with a flimsy plastic stick. She then introduces the rules of Bus Bingo, which some non-Spanish speaker or other will inevitably not comprehend ("What do you mean I don't have a bingo? This whole line is full!" ...Ok, I'm guilty) before proceeding to read out 70+ numbers in a row. If one of your numbers matches, you stab through it with your tiny stick. It's a great way to practice both your Spanish numbers and the art of avoiding needle sticks! Unfortunately, my stick broke three times during our second round of Bus Bingo. Fortunately, that didn't matter because I am currently living with the multi-round champion of Bus Bingo: Emily Reeves. She didn't want to tell anyone until we got back without her, but I guess I'll break the news that she's dropping out of med school to join the Bus Bingo circuit throughout Argentina and stockpile cases of Chardonnay. Because Bus Bingo is not just for fun - it's for prizes! Wine prizes!

The winner and wine

Her first round bus bingo prize

To be drunk poolside

On the roof of our hotel

Until someone gets hurt - oops.

Sadly the Night Bus is not all fun and games. We first discovered this as we waited patiently to be served our nightly champagne. The attendant slowly climbed the half-spiraled staircase to the second floor, a tray full of shimmering glasses of champagne balanced in her hands... only to suddenly trip or lurch with the bus and lose control, spilling plastic glasses and champagne all over the floor of the bus and the first available passenger - Billy.

A shaky bus and a clumsy attendant are not the only hazards. The bathroom, for example, is an unexpected challenge with a very sticky door. If you manage to get inside, you will likely hit someone with the door on the way out when it finally unsticks and springs open, and that someone will probably be the poor champagne-soaked attendant. Lara also discovered that the door is not quite sticky enough to prevent walk-ins. Too panicked to conjugate "Someone's in here!" or "Get the heck out!" in Spanish, she was reduced to the universal language of screaming.

Mendoza at last!

13 hours later, as Billy's shoes began to dry out and the attendant woke us up to steal our blankets and provide us with watery coffee, we arrived in the paradise land of Mendoza. We had survived the unexpectedly adventurous journey that is the Night Bus.


Potables: Unidentified Malbec, Norton Chardonnay

Much-needed coffee
As the real journey begins:
Mucho wine ahead.

To Uruguay and back!

Hello from Buenos Aires! It is hard to believe week 1 has come to a close. I can truly say that this week was excellent. Yesterday we took a ferry across the Rio de la Plata to the Uruguayan town of Colonia. This  small town was was founded in 1860 by the Portuguese. For many years, Colonia's ownership was hotly contested between the Portuguese and the Spanish due to its close proximity to the river and use as a port. Today it is a charming tourist destination and UNESCO world heritage site. 

Compared to the hustle and bustle of Buenos Aires, Colonia is tiny and very peaceful. The streets are made of cobblestones and are lined by small homes each painted a bright shade of purple, orange or pink. Soon after arriving, we found a restaurant with outdoor seating and had lunch with sangria before setting out to explore the historic area of the town. 

The historic area is just a couple of blocks long but has lots of small shops filled with antiques and a couple of museums. It was once surrounded by a gate and today one of the entrances remain.

While walking around the town, we stumbled upon several random objects including  It is also filled with an old fashioned 30s styled car overgrown with flowers and salon style hairdryers. 

In the afternoon and early evening we went to the beach! It felt amazing to go swimming and to relax on the sand. We can't say that we miss Philadelphia right now but we do miss all of you! Please leave us comments. They make our day. 

Besos - Lara

February 4, 2015—sitting at the living room table

Today is day four of our month-long adventure in Argentina. I have essentially been going non-stop since arriving at 3:45am Sunday morning after an uncomfortable 10.5-hour flight from JFK. I can’t imagine wasting one minute watching TV or napping while there is so much going on here. This city is a unique and beautiful place that has taken its European roots—which are a serious point of pride for some locals—and established its own vibrant and interesting culture. Some neighborhoods (“barrios” here) remind me of Rome or Madrid, with their classically influenced architecture; some have a distinctly modern feel. The city isn't huge, but it has such an eclectic ambiance in each barrio that it feels as if it’s several cities at once. Since we've only been here four days at this point, we have a lot more to explore in Recoleta, but we've done a lot in a relatively short amount of time thus far.

Buenos Aires is as far South of the equator as Virginia is north, and February here is like August in the mid-Atlantic. Because Buenos Aires is on the Rio de La Plata, the heat is bearable and it hasn't yet felt like we’re walking through water from high humidity. Uruguay is across the river and we plan to take a short ferry trip to one of its more historic cities and nearby beach. Argentina itself is a massive country, extending from the Tropic of Capricorn almost to Antartica.

Our apartment has three bedrooms with air conditioning, a very tiny kitchen, a sauna for a bathroom, and a cozy living room with a two-person loveseat that Billy managed to sleep on Sunday morning after our night of disjointed and poor quality airplane sleep. It just goes to show you, exhaustion really lowers your standards for comfort. Our housemate is a very sweet Brazilian girl named Thais who was brave enough to come here for two months on her own to learn Spanish so she might increase her chances of getting into grad school. She spoke absolutely no English when we arrived, and poor Lara was forced to act as interpreter until we picked up a useful amount of Spanish (which has actually happened in our 4 days). We have since taught her some important phrases about Harry Potter and tuberculosis.

Our apartment is located at the edge of the barrio Recoleta (in the north central part of the city, near the water) and technically may be in the barrio Balvanera. Recoleta is the Eagleton (Parks and Rec reference) of Buenos Aires—after the European colonists invaded and settled in the area of La Boca, they found it to be overcrowded and smelly, so they moved north and west and Recoleta was born. It has several nice restaurants, beautiful buildings, a large park area composed of several smaller parks, and a huge cemetery with hundreds of mausoleums and crypts. Eva Peron is buried there, and her grave is a massive tourist attraction. The country has mixed feelings about her in their history. She was a champion of the underrepresented, and the wealthier stakeholders in the government felt she was not of noble enough birth to merit her popularity. She died young from cancer, and there was a huge fight over whether she could be buried in her family’s crypt because her father was married to another woman and had a “legitimate” family when his affair with Eva’s mother occurred. The locals we have come across so far generally feel she is an important icon and think fondly of her.

Roommates in El Cementario de la Recoleta: Thais, Emily, Angela & Lara

Floralis Genérica

Sunday we spent the day wandering around Recoleta, including a long walk around the cemetery where we saw tourists from just about every country. We explored the parks around the cemetery and saw the famous Floraris Generica, a mechanical metal flower which has been broken for about a decade, but is still beautiful. It is sort of like the Bean of Millennium Park in Chicago. That afternoon Billy’s friend Pablo—a native of Buenos Aires--visited us at our apartment to sketchily exchange USD for Argentine pesos at the “blue market” rate. He made us an authentic cup of mate, which is a quintessential local tea. He told us that if someone gives you a cup of mate that is too hot, it’s an insult and they want you to leave immediately. We then spent the evening walking around the barrio Palermo Soho with Pablo, which is probably most similar to the Washington Square Park or Rittehouse neighborhoods in Philly. There are restaurants with outdoor seating lining every street, a mix of upscale and more affordable shops, and lots of families playing in the park. Palermo itself is a huge barrio and includes a large central park with a rose garden and a few distinct regions that have a different feel than Palermo Soho.

Mucho dinero

Monday we took a humiliating oral Spanish exam indicating that Angela and I know next to nothing. Meanwhile, Lara is basically a pro. Morning Spanish classes consist of 2 hours of conversation class where we learn the basics of actually using the language to communicate. These classes are followed by 2 hours of Spanish grammar. Angela and I are in the basic/beginner/know nothing level of class with another American who works as a sommelier and is in Argentina for four months to learn Spanish and study wine in Mendoza. The other student is a German girl who is a camera operator for film and TV in Cologne. We are all similar in age, which makes us feel less terrible about all our difficulties learning a language as adults. Our conversation teacher is a journalist by trade and our grammar teacher is a full-time Spanish teacher. Lara is in a more advanced class with two other Americans and another Brazilian girl who also speaks no English.

Tuesdays and Thursdays, Angela and I are spending our mornings shadowing residents at the local children’s hospital in their well-child clinic. Argentina’s medical training system is very similar to that in the US where residents are overseen by chief residents (in their fourth year of training) and attendings. We aren't totally sure how their years of training break down, but it is a similar system in which medical education falls between university and residency, and the residency training is required and typically of a few years’ duration. The clinic itself resembles something we might see in North Philly and our patients seem to have the Argentine equivalent of Medicaid. There is another medical student from Australia in the clinic trying to accomplish the same goal of learning Spanish in a medical context. The major difference between the Spanish here and at our school is that the residents and patients all speak SO MUCH MORE QUICKLY. They’re probably speaking at a natural pace, but I’m picking up about 20% of the conversation if I’m lucky. The medicine itself is really similar, including follow-up recommendations and vaccines. We have our second day tomorrow, so hopefully it’ll go a little more smoothly. Or at least my blank stare will be less noticeable. On the days we work in the hospital we have two hours of private Spanish lessons in the afternoons. Since these are private we can choose what we want to learn on any given day, including any medical Spanish we want to brush up on. Yesterday we chose to go by the book and learn more about the verbs for “to be” since having a conversation without being able to say “is” is rather difficult. See?

Our afternoons and evenings have involved subway trips to various parts of the city for exploration. A more detailed list of restaurants and neighborhoods will follow when I am less tired to make it. For now, Angela has finished designing our blog page and I need to shower, so we’ll wrap up for today. 

- Emily

upsidedownexclamationpointHola!

Hello friends and family, and welcome to our blog! We have named (and hashtagged) it EL BABA, an acronym which we will hopefully not discover in the coming weeks has some terrible and inappropriate meaning. We will be cataloging our month in Buenos Aires together and sharing our stories and photos with you here. We will attempt to stay updated and welcome your comments.
Hope you enjoy our journey half as much as we plan to!

- Angela

Daily Potable: Portillo Malbec 2013

Find the Billy