The Provinces

That’s how they call the rest of the country here. My winning a trip from Bueno Entonces to Buenos Aires happily coincided with the 70th birthday of my father-in-law so my husband and kids also came to Argentina and have been spending time with my husbands family in Parana, eagerly awaiting me being fluent in Spanish. The birthday party will mainly involve eating a lot of nice meat, and nieces and nephews running around causing mayhem and some live music as Francisco's dad is a big music lover. I’m so happy to see my kids after weeks of Buenos Aires, I’m not used to being without them for that time. I’ve taken a bus up north, one of those big coaches with reclining seats and terrible sandwiches.

Before the big birthday however my husband Francisco has organised for us to visit the town where he was born in Corrientes. This is real gaucho country and it’s an amazing roadtrip, seeing the gauchos resting with their horses and cattle along the road. After stopping in his birthplace we go all the way up north to the Esteros de Ibera, a lake with a beautiful nature reserve where you can get real up close to the animals.



We have a stunning day out on the lake, watching carpinchos and yacaré’s. Carpinchos are very large rodent type animals, but they’re kind of cute and look like dogs. Yacarés are a type of crocodile, but really mellow fish eating ones, that sit out in the sun warming up. It’s exhilarating being so near the animals and seeing so many. Because animals haven’t been hunted here for twenty years they don’t mind the presence of humans at all. The kids are buzzing after our day out in the boat.

We stay along the lake side in a place with the most divine bedlinen ever and amazing food and even go for a horse ride, gaucho-style! Love this place and really can recommend the boutique rancho that is our home for two nights.

Oh, San Telmo...

Before I move on to telling you all about my time at the in-laws, I need to tell you about San Telmo how I love San Telmo and how I haven’t spent enough time there. Sundays in San Telmo are lovely.. they get a bit touristy but the street music and street theatre are just really charming. There’s a student orchestra that plays in the middle of the street in Defensa and I can listen to them forever.

San Telmo is very very tango, has gorgeous antiques and an antiques market on Sunday, but also a shop where I found my new favourite bag, made out of a recycled inner tube. It’s made beautifully and the strap is made out of a bicycle inner tube. Love this stuff, and goes well with my crazy bag collection.

While I’m here I’m also trying to watch ALL the Bueno Entonces episodes I have in my iTunes. We’re upto the telo part, which is very funny...

The Day of the Bueno Entonces Mexican Margarita EXTRaVaganza

After a few big nights I’ve had to do some recuperating to get ready for the Bueno Entonces Mexican Margarita Extravaganza.. you know ... I need sleep every now and then.. When do Buenos-Aireans sleep? On Sunday all day Martin told me. But is that enough for the rest of the week?

All I could muster lately was a visit to Recoleta to see Evita’s grave. Surely a must SEE... She died just so young! Recoleta is pretty cool anyway to wander around with your sunglasses feeling melancholy. The graves are amazing and monumental and if you’ve ever dug into Argentine history or have paid attention to the streetnames you’ll find a lot of big names there. I find out Carlos Gardel is in the other cemetery, must do that one next time.

But onwards.. David (el Productor) and Cori have organised a night with the entire cast and crew of Bueno Entonces. We’re going out for Mexican and LOTS Of Margaritas in Palermo.

Jimena and the other David (this is confusing I know.. but this is the one YOU know if you’ve seen Bueno Entonces) are there and they are awesome. Also the writer and educational brain behind BE, Florencia and Hernan. Have I mentioned Carolina the beautiful Colombiana already? They’re all just amazing and what really shines through in Bueno Entonces that this is a bunch of people clearly having a lot of fun creating something together, is also pretty clear from tonight. After that more going out, and being silly.

I’m missing the kids, who are in the provinces visiting their grandparents with their dad and I’m preparing myself for my own trip there for the big 70th birthday party of my father-in-law. They’re having their own little Spanish immersion with all their cousins and uncles and aunties so after this we should all be fluent. Although we’re hitting the past tenses in my daily classes here in BA and it’s pretty complicated... until next time.

Day 5 or 6 in Buenos Aires. Yeah, it's like that.

Ok, so... I’m having a hard time being coherent today because yesterday essentially spilled over in today and well, suffice to say that there’s a never ending supply of places to go out in this city and it never stops. I haven’t even made a dent in it, nor have I done many of the touristy things... I did see the big metal flower that opens and closes and is the place to hang out underneath and drink a mate in the sun. I also went to Malba which is a gorgeous art gallery and it has a great cafe.

Winetasting last night, and after that we went to a restaurant that’s so underground that it’s only open once a week and only twenty people know about it and the food is thai.. the best thai I’ve ever had.

We went to another bar after that, basically I didn’t sleep very much, so this morning in the bus I really wasn’t with it and almost got robbed in the bus. I was hanging on with one arm staring out the window in a full ‘colectivo’ and then got rather annoyed as a little man who kept kind of pushing upto me. I looked down and literally caught him red-handed with my bag clip opened and his hand IN my bag. I was so baffled I forgot all my Spanish and yelled lots of expletives at him in English. He told me "You’re crazy", IN ENGLISH and got off in a hurry. I stood there seething but figured out pretty quickly he didn’t take anything. When I got to my class my teacher was so kind to fill me in on what words I should have used to ‘make a scandal’, as they say here.

Day 3 in Buenos Aires

I’ve had an AHA moment today. My teacher is very cute. His name is Martin and he’s 're-argentino'. That means REALLY Argentino in Argentino. He spent a year in Ireland teaching Spanish last year and he missed Buenos Aires a lot.. We talk a lot about Argentina and about the culture, about the crazy chaos of it all, the subversive attitude of the Argentines towards politics, finance, all that jazz. The Bulgarian likes to talk a lot about the Argentine girls, I don’t blame him. They mainly have very very long hair and are very pretty.

Martin says Bien, Entonces.. a lot. Or Muy Bien, entonces... I ask him why doesn’t he say Bueno, entonces (like the name of the course of course) and he explains that “Bueno,” often is something you say when you’ve had a enough of talking, or have had enough of talking about a particular subject. He explains that when somebody starts going, bueno bueno bueno on the phone, basically they are telling you that the conversation is over and they’ve had enough.

Now I get it! That's why Jimena always says "Bueno, entonces..." Because she often has enough of David!

Now I’ve got to go because apparently, across town, some more meat is being prepared on a fire and more Malbec is being poured.

Day 2 in Buenos Aires

After class I meet the production people behind Bueno, entonces... in Palermo where they work. I’ve brought some chocolate all the way from New Zealand, which I think Corrie is happy about. It’s still surreal, can’t believe these people just brought me to Buenos Aires because they felt like giving away a trip. What’s more, I’m being spoiled rotten. Tonight more amazing Argentine food... has anyone told you about the food here?
Argentines like cow. They like to eat it, apparently per capita they eat something like 80 kg of cow on average a year. I find that hard to comprehend as a concept, but then again the beef here IS really quite incredible. The portion sizes are also quite incredible. When you order a bife de lomo you get enough to feed a small village back where I come from. It also turns out that the other David from Bueno, entonces... (el productor) knows a thing or two about wine and likes ordering really nice bottles of wine. OOOh this is heaven...mmmm Malbec.

Day 1 in Buenos Aires

I’m here! Finally... by myself in Buenos Aires. My classes start straight away and I walk in the pouring rain from San Telmo across the Plaza de Mayo to my school at 9 in the morning. It’s just me and one other student in the class, a Bulgarian who is based in London. Basically we get to chat in Spanish all morning to our teacher Martin, who is muy fachero, and who answers all our questions.

I still am jet lagged from traveling from New Zealand and am fresh as a daisy at 6 am. I realize this will need to change if I am to get in sync with Buenos Aires because everything happens kind of late here. After class David (that’s right famous DAVID from BUENO ENTONCES) comes to get me and we have lunch. I’m starving after all the grammar, (that’s my own fault.. asked for it) We eat some Amazing Meat from the parilla in a tiny grubby restaurant downtown. David shows me what a fake 10 peso bill looks like. (Easy spot if you ask me, it comes out of an inkjet printer!) and walks me through the essentials of life in Buenos Aires.