Backpacking South America

So close!!! It was the first race we were betting on.  We had watched the process and felt like we understood the race program well enough to at least put down a wager.  Based on our limited experience at the tracks in Boston, we knew we wanted an Exacta Box with 3 horses.

We picked our horses, but got a bit confused at the window and felt the pressure of the line behind us.  It turns out, we were betting a straight Trifecta.  Oh well, maybe we’ll get lucky.

The horses set off and we couldn’t believe it when we saw our three horses pulling away on the approach to the finish.  They crossed the line in a group – could we possibly have just gotten our Trifecta! We waited in suspense to see the final finishing order.

As they posted the results, we looked at each other in disbelief. We had the 2nd and 3rd place horses’ order reversed.  Had we boxed them in, that one bet could have paid for a meal!  We turned around dejected, but hopeful that we could actually make money in the evening… but it wasn’t in the cards.

Despite learning the lingo, and making our bets correctly, we just didn’t have the knowledge.

Buenos Aires is an incredible city that abounds with places to see and things to do no matter the time of day.  It is a huge city.  The closest thing we have in the States to compare it to is New York City, but Buenos Aires seems to be even more alive. It’s true that it is noisy, polluted, and massively populated, but it can also be very calm, beautiful, and you’re never alone.  It would definitely go into our list of the top places in the world to visit.  As we’ve moved on from Buenos Aires, we wanted to share some of our favorite things to do (in no particular order). 

1. Casa de Lili (aka living with a local) 

Some of our best memories were living with our hostess.  While not in the trendy or touristy neighborboods, we were able to enjoy and peek into the life of real porteño life.  From unforgettable, simple meals, late night conversations and afternoon mate with friends and family, our stay would not have been the same without our time with Lili. 

2. MALBA

A great introduction to the history and minds of great Latin American artists.  This museum was inspiring and captivating.  With a collection that is large enough to stretch your mind, but not so large that you feel rushed or overwhelmed. 

3. La Boca

While existing on the extremes of hopelessly touristy and extremely dangerous, La Boca was a surprisingly enjoyable visit.  While we can only recommend that visitors stay within the tourist areas or travel with local advice, it was fun to see the brightly painted buildings, the home of the Boca Juniors futbol club, and two wonderful museums (PROA and Belles Artes).

We have developed a small taste for empanadas.  Empanadas are essentially a small calzone-like pocket stuffed with different fillings, i.e., beef, chicken, ham & cheese, sausage and cheese, creamed corn and sweet potatoes, etc. 

During our stay in Buenos Aires, we soon discovered a popular lunch item among porteños – Empanadas.  They’re fast, cheap and filling.  We were soon addicted and began to search for restaurants with reportedly good empanadas and continued to return to those that did.  Eventually, I even learned how to make some of my own with our host, Liliana (video and photos below).

Empanadas were introduced to the Americas by the Spaniards, who incorporated the empanada in their diet during the Arab occupation of southern Spain.  In Argentina, empanadas take on certain flair depending on the region.  For example, in Salta (northwest corner), we’re told they’re spicy and very juicy.  In Cordoba, they are a bit sweeter with sugar and egg.  Tucuman includes raisins and olives and in Mendoza, they have equal parts meat and onion. Buenos Aires doesn’t seem to have a style of its own per se, but has taken aspects from the different regions. 

We’re excited to continue traveling through all the regions of Argentina so that we can taste and enjoy the many wonderful flavors.  I always find that one of the best ways to understand and connect with people is over food.  We agreed that we’re willing to sacrifice our trim physiques in order to experience the different variations of empanadas and to meet the people that prepare them.

It was a hard, but necessary realization that guidebooks aren’t always right and that hostels are more apt to give you the safest, but not always the best advice.  In Buenos Aires, we’ve learned how to balance the information from guidebooks, hostels and local residents to get out and see things that one, or the other, may not necessarily recommend. 

While there have been numerous examples, there is none more obvious than La Boca.  On our first day, our hostel strictly advised, only visit the two touristy blocks in La Boca.  The guidebooks stated the same.  One informed us that we would most definitely be mugged and the other said, “You might be tempted to stray from this touristy area and find the ‘Real’ La Boca: don’t.  The surrounding streets are notorious for violent crime, you will almost certainly be a very obvious target…”

So, we had written La Boca off the list of to dos until we moved in to our homestay.  Our host was insistent that La Boca and the area around the tourist area wasn’t so unsafe, just go during the daylight.  After all, it was only 8 blocks away.  After a couple of weeks, we worked up the courage and decided to go against the advice of the guidebook and hostel advice and consulted Lili on our route.    She made a few recommendations on places to see, told us to go in the early afternoon and to not carry our passports or much money (camera was fine).

We went to the zoo on Sunday and guess what we saw…Lions and Tigers and Bears…and lots and lots of kids…Oh My!

The Zoo in Buenos Aires is surprisingly large considering it´s right in the middle of Palermo´s parks. It would be very similar to putting a zoo right in the middle of Central Park. But what´s interesting about this zoo, is that a number of these animals have elaborate palaces for homes – well more like small mosques or temples and I guess it isn’t so glorious when you consider that they are in the zoo and not the wild.

The other very interesting thing about this zoo is that you can buy food to feed the animals and some animals you can get surprisingly close to…like bears. Other animals sort of run wild, like the muskrat and these other things that look like oversized rabbits. That just doesn´t seem safe.

When visting the bear he got up on his hind legs to catch the food zoo visitors were throwing to him/her. All that was separating the bear and us was a small fence and about a 7 foot wide moat – that doesn’t seem like enough distance, so we decided it was time to move on… quickly.