Welcome to Amelia's 5 hour walking tour of some of the parts of Buenos Aires she has never been

Finals are over and I finally have some more time to enjoy the city stress-free, so I did what I've always wanted to do this entire trip- take the collectivo to a random barrio I haven't yet been, get off at a place that looks interesting, walk around wherever (get lost), and eventually attempt to find my way back. And it worked! (Obviously since I'm writing this)

I ended up taking the collectivo to Parque del Centenario in Caballito, a very porteño neighborhood that I have not yet had the pleasure to visit. I walked around a bit and enjoyed the circular park with a large central duck pond, what looked like to be kids on a school field trip, and used book vendors. The weather wasn't the greatest but it was still a nice way to de-stress and not think about Argentine history or Spanish literature analysis. 

Parque Centenario

Yeesh lose some weight, pigeons!

I began to walk down a busy street that looked like it would have interesting stores on it. It was mainly restaurants, bakeries, and supermarkets, so not very interesting. But again, just walking around in the neighborhood was relaxing (and it's not like I was going to buy anything anyway). I kept walking for maybe 10 or so blocks until on my right I saw a semi-slummy neighborhood over a bridge. Turns out it was Almagro. Whoops. I decided not to take the bridge and instead headed over to what I assumed would be a main street, which ended up being closer than I expected! Using my awesome city skills, I chose a collectivo that would take me to the center of town by the Congressional building, because that was one building I had not yet visited but wanted to since the architecture is pretty incredible. On my way over from Plaza de Mayo (with Casa Rosada and the Cathedral), I decided to stop in at a cafe and grab some tea and enjoy doing absolutely nothing with my day. I then made it to Plaza de Congreso, and got to re-create a picture I had found earlier online.

Plaza de Mayo, if you forgot what it looks like

The mounted police are in town

Search online and you'll probably find this photo as one of the top hits for "Buenos Aires"

Fricken pigeons are everywhere. 

After admiring the statues, flowers, and buildings around the congressional plaza, I caught a collectivo back home and enjoyed a tomato, basil, and olive pizza with the host family. 

I was no where close to the actually dangerous neighborhoods, don't worry mom and dad. 

The best (sushi) I ever had

25/5

I've been craving sushi, no surprise, and so I decided to splurge on a nice sushi restaurant in the city. After doing copious amounts of internet research, I found a very nice (and very expensive) restaurant about a 20 minute colectivo ride away from my house. I asked my LSA group if anyone wanted to join me and, also unsurprisingly, no one responded. (My LSA group is terrible at being an actual group.)

I took a shower, got all dressed up, and went out looking for this sushi restaurant in Colegiales, a neighborhood I had not yet explored. After using the address google maps gave me, I found out that the sushi restaurant had been replaced by a BBQ place. I was determined to get sushi, so I kept on walking around the neighborhood, which reminded me a lot of an outdoor mall in Southern California. I eventually found Ceviche, another sushi restaurant that was on the "Top 10 Sushi Restaurants" list in Buenos Aires, so I entered and got a table by myself on the top patio. 

So there I sat, completely surrounded by young couples filling every table around me. It was great people watching, because some women seemed like they didn't want to be there with their date. The waiter definitely felt bad that I was eating alone because he was giving me great service, asking if I wanted water or bread for the table and relighting the candle on my table (which blew out any time someone walked by). I asked for tap water because the water in this restaurant was bound to be expensive. My waiter brought me bottled water, but I didn't complain because tonight was my night to splurge! I ordered a salmon roll with avocado and cream cheese. The interesting thing about sushi in Buenos Aires is that nearly every roll has cream cheese included with it- a bit weird but I could deal. And when the waiter brought out my roll- which was a perfect rice to fish ratio- I was so happy to bite into the best sushi I've ever eaten. Maybe it was the almost excessive amount of cream cheese, but the sushi was soft and sweet and so good! I apologize that I cannot describe it better, but this is why I am not a food connoisseur. All I know is that I've had a lot of sushi in my day and this was the best I've ever had. So, if you're ever in Buenos Aires, make sure you go to Ceviche for some great sushi! I also hear they have stellar peruvian food.

Bottled water ended up being $2.50. Extremely expensive but the quality of the sushi made it almost worth it.

The Anthropologist's Perspective of Argentina (Fact 9)

It doesn't matter if you are a porteño or someone who doesn't understand a lick of Spanish, this guy is absolutely hilarious and captures porteño mannerisms near-perfectly.
(But it definitely is a hell of a lot funnier if you can understand what he is saying)

"Things Argentines Say, interpreted by a 'Yankee'"

Las Cataratas del Iguazú

19/5

This weekend the group travelled north to La Provincia Misiones to see Iguazú falls, the widest waterfalls in the world. Iguazú was one of the natural wonders of the world that I always knew about, but never thought I would actually ever get the chance to go see. So, this trip was pretty special for me! Our group flew out early Friday morning and got into the town of Iguazú around noon, giving us a nice chunk of an afternoon to spend learning about the wildlife of the area. We visited Güiráoga, a wildlife reservation that specializes in the rehabilitation of birds but also rehabilitates and breeds monkeys, tapirs, and other mammals native to the Misiones province.

Toucans!

People have been feeding the coatis for so long that they have started acting like dogs/domesticated monkeys, actually jumping on people and opening up their bags for food

Iguazú area birds of prey in their flight rehabilitation area

After this tour, we left and headed towards the center of town to La Frontera Triple, the location where the borders of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay meet. It was pretty incredible to be able to look over the river dividing the three countries and imagine yourself in a completely new country! Each country has its own milestone painted with the national colors overlooking their respective border, so that you can see all three milestones no matter which country you are in. I was tempted to swim over to Brazil but I realized I would have to go through all of the trouble of getting a visa, etc, and it wasn't quite worth it.

Paraguay (left) and Brazil (right)

Representation of the meeting of the three countries

Argentina's milestone

Day 2 was what I was looking forward to- the day we went to see the waterfalls! The day was filled with walking to different viewpoints, seeing incredible falls, and getting as wet as possible. We had the chance to go on a boat ride and get up close and personal with the falls for about $30, so we all took it. The ride wasn't very long but it was a lot of fun to get completely soaked. The sight (and sound) of such a large volume of water falling right next to me was simply awe-inspiring.

Devil's Throat Falls from above

A trip to some of the world's largest waterfalls is not complete without a proposal

SO many waterfalls!

Post-boat ride

Some of the falls from below

You may be asking, "Amelia, why is the water so brown??" Well, because humans are such great creatures and cut down trees from massive plots of land, this deforestation has resulted in soil runoff into the river, which gets exasperated at certain times of the year. Thus, in the fall, the water is transformed from a clear blue to a murky brown. 

La pizza

16/5

I was craving buffalo chicken pizza so I asked my mom if I could make dinner. I found blue cheese, green onion, and chicken but had no luck finding buffalo sauce. It still turned out to be pretty tasty and my parents loved it so much, they said I would be cooking from now on. Add some wine and it was a great dinner, if I do say so myself!

Chopping up the ingredients

Blue cheese chicken pizza before

Blue cheese chicken pizza after

Los Cartoneros

This is an excerpt from a recent presentation I did in class, but I thought it would be an interesting cultural addition to my blog. Obviously every assignment we have is in Spanish, but I took the liberty of translating it so everyone could understand.

"Cartonero" has two definitions: 1) the activity that consists of recycling cardboard, plastic, and other recyclable materials and 2) the person who engages in this activity. Cartoneros receive their name from the word "cartón" (cardboard), one of the materials they recycle in order to make their living. Typically, cartoneros involve the entire family: men, women, and children are all involved in looking for trash on the city streets. In 2001/02, a time when many citizens of Buenos Aires fell below the poverty line, working as a cartonero was the best alternative to stealing.

Cartoneros were first documented in Buenos Aires in the 1860s. At that time, the city was taking trash out to dump sites and burning it. Cartoneros began to come out onto the streets to recycle some of the trash before it went to the dumpsites. Many congregated around La Quema, also known as Barrio de las Latas and Barrio de las Ranas. In 1899 it was estimated that around 3,000 people lived in La Quema.

The laissez faire policies of the 1940s and 1950s in Buenos Aires resulted in villas being built around dumpsites. Thus, scavenging for trash became associated with the villas and lowest class of the population. When the dictatorship of the 70s took over Argentina, they passed the Municipal Ordinance 33.581, which criminalized all forms of waste scavenging in Buenos Aires not done by private companies. Thus, the cartoneros began scavenging at night in order to hide from the police.

The 1999-2002 economic and social crisis of Buenos Aires that increased unemployment and poverty rates also increased the numbers of cartoneros in the city to around 40,000. In 2002, El Movimiento de Trabajadores Excluidos, a social organization, formed with around 2,000 Buenos Aires. The MTE works to better the working conditions of the cartoneros. They have given cartoneros social rights and pensions. Today cartoneros are still a symbol of the fight for social justice in the city. Cartoneros receive support as members of the community by working with local cooperatives that give them decent prices. Additionally, local artists support them by recycling their materials and depicting their work conditions through art.

A La Boca cooperative that takes recycled cardboard and turns it into books

Artist's metal rendition of a cartonero

The Anthropologist's Perspective of Argentina (Fact 8)

When there is a bus strike (like the one that recently went on for six days and nearly had me stuck in Bariloche had I not dropped $350 on a plane ticket), the bus companies in Argentina do what they do best: blame it on the consumer. So, of course, it was my fault that the strike occurred, and they wouldn't let me return my prepaid ticket. Trust me, Via Bariloche, if I could give those workers their 23% salary increase, I would. But I'm pretty sure that's the government's job.

Traveler's Tip #1: Never plan ahead and buy a round trip ticket.