Sunday, December 03, 2006

Moving Down South

Finally, we're moving the blog from Roatan, Honduras south of the equator to Buenos Aires, Argentina. This is our first time in the Southern Hemisphere; for those interested, the water drains counter-clockwise in both the tub and the sink. Please try and contain your excitement.

There are several important yet simple improvements in Buenos Aires over Roatan. First, you can drink the water right from the tap. Second, you don't have to worry that everything you eat will give you the trots. Third, when you do go to the bathroom, you can throw your toilet paper in the toilet -- what a concept! I'm sure it's not news to anyone that you can easily judge Western standards of progress when traveling by how you are able to eat, drink and use the toilet.

How did we end up here in Buenos Aires? As we were planning our trip, our friend Lisa Laursen (of the Gilroy, California Laursens) sent out an email about a trip to Argentina. She had swapped her SF house for a swanky apartment in the very posh BA neighborhood of Recoleta. This was just the push we needed to choose Argentina for part of The Big Trip.

As an aside, and heck, isn't this whole blog just one big aside, there is a funny story about the gentleman who owns the apartment here in BA. He was on the 70s TV program Emergency! about the LA county fire department. Here's a link to him on the invaluable Internet Movie Database.

Lisa invited a bunch of friends to BA and more people than you might expect found a way to make the trip. Lisa arrived with Saida. Next, her sister Jen and "officially recognized Laursen sister" Keri arrived. After another day, Lisa's youngest sister Kristen and her man Octavio joined us. Lastly, our friend Tracey arrived and our group from SF numbered nine. But our total group was ten people, for we mustn't forget BA's most fashion bar owner, Fernando Julia.

Last year Lisa visited BA for the first time and became friends with Fernando. She even went for a ride on his naked boat. (More about that in another post.) We met Fernando before our trip when he visited SF in Septerber. Pictured above in front of his bar UnoSieteSieteUno (the street address), Fernando has been the do-all, do-everything host of BA. Very funny, very generous, and very sleepless, Fernando has helped create an incredible time here in the city.

Our trip began as we exited the customs area of the BA airport. We were immediately greeted by Fernando, who had slept perhaps three hours in the last 24. We waited for Lisa and Saida as they were arriving only a few minutes after us. We piled into Fernando's father's car, a four-door Ford Focus hatchback, which is one of the larger cars you see on the road here in Argentina. Fernando drives about the same as most Argentinians: ignoring lanes often, changing speeds wily-nily, and generally not paying attention. There's plenty of honking, but surprisingly no road rage here. People simply just don't get mad. They honk, and move on.

After dropping off our stuff, Fernando took the four of us to our first Argentinian meal. My mouth is watering just remembering it. We went to Siga la Vaca in the barrio of Puerto Madero, a port neighborhood in the midst of a revival which will eventually make it look similar to SF's South Beach. For a fixed price of around U$10/person, we had an unlimited salad bar with side dishes a-plenty, wine and bottled water and, of course, grilled meat. Here's us at the restuarant below, that's Saida on the left and the fabulous Fernando on the right.
I know this post has blown far past 500 words, but please allow me to indulge you a description of meat in Argentina. All beef is free-range and grass-fed. This is not because of the slow-food movement, or hippie communes or famous chefs. This is a huge country with plenty of grassy pasture land so there is no reason to pen the cows in a giant muddy pit (think Harris Ranch on I5) and no reason to feed them corn. Plus, they aren't pumped full of steriods or antibiotics. What does this mean? The beef here tastes better than nearly any steak you've had in the states, and every restaurant, whether fine dining or lunch counter, has good steak.

Getting back to Siga la Vaca... to get your meat, you get on line in front of the grill where a man with a big knife will cut you pieces of any of the meat you see on the grill before you. We learned quickly that they enjoy their beef medium to well-done here so you have to specifically ask for it bloody if you like it that way. For that first meal, we ate and ate, and it was good. If there ever was a place for the Atkins diet, this is the place.

The blog won't be going into detail on every day and every meal, but I know we are far behind and there is lots more to say about BA, so stay tuned.