The Swedish Housewife Presents

Thursday was to be our day to travel to Uruguay and visit Colonia a UNESCO city, but the weater looks risky, there are impending thunder and shower storms and I am not partial to traveling for an hour on a ferry if that is the case. We settle on Plan B to visit the Evita Museum .

Evita is as much a paradox as the country that loves/ed and hates her. She was a social climbing, stylish socialist from what I can gleam. She did wonders for Labor rights, women, children, healthcare, and education in a very short time. In my book she was kind of amazing, but she also did some not so nice things, like destroying a former rival actresses from her days of being an actress, once she was in power by banning her films and effectively destroying her career.

The museum had some of her wardrobe which I very much enjoyed seeing and various film clips that were quite engrossing and learned some the very unsettling information about what had happen to her corpse after it was taken away by the Military from the CTG hall (her former office) where her embalmed corpse had been on display for two years. Mutilation, necrophilia, and a 16-year international journey shrouded in mystery, including being on display on her husband’s dining room table in Spain before returning to Argentina and permanently entombed at The Recoleta Cemetery.

I could spend hours reading and researching the topic of Argentina and the cult of necrophilia, as it is a diverse tradition here. This is a country where dead bodies are used for political statements. For example in 1987 thieves broke into, Gen. Juan D. Peron (Evita’s husband) tomb, sawed off his hands, and demanded $6 million in ransom for them. Causing an obvious hubbub, his hands are still missing today.

From the museum we were go to go to the Japanese Garden on of the biggest outside of Japan, but the skies looked foreboding to me and we return to our home away from home San Telmo and went on an adventure close to home. I found a great lamp fixture for my dressing room and am curious how it will be trying to get it home in one piece as it is blown glass and hoping that TSA in Houston does no think I will try to do harm to an airplane with it, as I think the only solution is to carry it on board. We find an antique shop that has amazing turn of the century dresses and hats as well as pristine gaucho wear form the 30’s and 40’s. It is more like a textile museum and the prices are all in US dollars and spendy. We come home and change to go out to dinner with Niek, his wife and son for Sushi. I met Niek several years back in Marfa, Texas at the wedding reception of his niece Valerie, and Don my dear friend who formerly lived in Seattle. He is Dutch and has been living here for 22 years and is married to an Argentina. Sushi in Argentina leaves much to be desired, as I had suspected. Niek explains that you will not find Hamachi here as it is all sent to Japan and the US after being fished out of the ocean. One is limited to salmon, shrimp, salmon, octopus, salmon, the occasional white fish, salmon, and more salmon. Every once in a while you may encounter pink tuna!!!!

We have some ice cream next to the sushi bar to chat some more, as they are quite charming. I express an interest to have a great glass of Malbec before going home, Niek and Estella to tired to continue decide that Rachel and I should go to Cafe Danzon. They drop us off and we are at a swankyish pick up joint mostly patronized by locals.

As I sit and write this Rachel has been working on choreographing Coppelia for her 4 to 40 year old span of dancers at one of the schools she teaches at back in Seattle. She has her I pod attached to her head and her arms are gracefully flying about while prancing on her toes all while seated in a chair, on occasion she gets up and executes and arabesque. Adorable and hilarious! She tells me that it takes 1 hours to chorography one minute and the ballet she is working on is going to be 1 and half hours long.

Back to the bar! We meet an Argentinean gentleman who’s last name is Santorum and works for the UN in East Timor. He is home on holiday to visit family and friends. He winks a lot, Rachel thinks it is because he likes me. I think he has a twitch. After our wine and conversation we are ready to head home.

Friday we get up late, how unusual!
Rachel is meeting her friend Nate to discuss a project and I mull about until 6PM when Rachel and I are to attend our first Tango class at The Dandi Royal conveniently down the street from us. She has not returned and I decided to go on my own, the class costs $12 pesos for an hour and a half.
It is an international mix of students and I am a little nervous. I got through my first class it was fun and humbling all at the same time. I moistly danced with a middle-aged man named Hugo who kind of reminded me of Peter Lori. He stood about 5’4″ and I am 5’8″ in heels. He was very patent with me and wanted to practice his English between songs, which I was happy to do in exchange for his helping me tango. At one point the bartended decide he wanted to take me for a spin around the dance studio. He was quite an excellent dancer and I could not help but feel that he must have felt like he was navigating a truck around.

Later that evening Rachel and I go back to the great Thai Restaurant Lotus that we went to our first night here and after dinner at 1 AM we decided t make the plunge to go to one of the traditional Milangas at Confiteria Ideal. We arrive just as the band has ended but there are still dancers here. It is an older crowd with a few younger dancers say, in their short 30′s mixed in who are quite accomplished. Rachel and my favorite is this delightful older man in his long 70′s, in a very jaunty white Panama hat. He had such style and grace and just flowed over the marble floor. When at a Milanga four songs are played per round and I don’t remember what that term is, and then there is a break song that is not tango music but can be any kind of dance music of a different style and it is called a quartina, well the DJ played a Rumba and man oh man could Mister Panama hat work that beat.
Rachel and I both were asked to dance a few times and I felt like a butcher. But we both did get to dance with Mister Panama Hat and that was fun.

The next day we went to our version of breakfast at 3:30 PM to Cafe San Juan and it was great! Then we attend a 3 hour-long Tango class taught by Stella Barba my current favorite teacher. In our class there is a young man of 19 is name is Raphael and he is smitten with Rachel. The two short 60′s ladies from Switzerland and smitten with him. Me, I just enjoy watching the little dance they are all doing. But Raphael reminds me that many Argentineans have the most beautiful eye color, bright blues to the most unusual greens, his are of the blue variety. We rush home after class to met Niek and Estella for another dinner out this time a raw food vegetarian restaurant whose owner and head chef are one in the same named Diego. The food was great! But I am still in search of the perfect steak.

Observations:

Cars always pullover to the right for entering and exiting the vehicle. Not like NY where the taxi stops at an angel blocking the street. Most streets are one way. Kind of a good thing as Argentines are aggressive drivers and I enjoy that.

We have had very good experience with the cabbies here, they usually laugh at us and our primitive address giving.
My phone fell out of my bag in one car and the driver came up to the Milanga I was in to find me and give it back.

While driving down the Avenida 9 De Julio the largest boulevard in the world, I spot an aspiring drummer with his kit set up next to the street to practice. He has terrible rhythm and no syncopation, which leads me to believe that his girlfriend told him if he wanted to learn to play drums he needed to go elsewhere.

Monday is moving day and an odyssey it is, due to banking regulations in Argentina. The challenge: get $3720.00 pesos out of a cash machine or find a bank that will give us lager amounts at one time. We ended up at Bank National a public government run bank where after much shenanigans we find out that our limit is $1000 pesos ($300) each per day. It takes us about 2 hours to complete this task leaving us $1720.00 pesos short. Down the street we go to HSBC and hit the cash machines limited to $300 pesos per withdrawal takes 6 transactions. Oh, I forget to mention that adding to the task at and poor Rachel was not feeling well this morning and had to find bathrooms frequently. We finally have the money we need to pay for our apartment and when we arrive Mister Esposito is heading our and cannot meet us until 5 PM at the apartment, it is now 1PM. Off to find a vegetarian lunch and then back to the B& B where we are welcome to hang out till we can meet Mister Esposito. I watch the news while Rachel naps. There is a huge anti-FRAC demonstration in Columbia hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets and Columbians all over the world are out protesting, even in BA as one of the latest hostage situations included a girl from Argentina.

Finally we move to San Telmo the Avenue A (circa 84) of Buenos Aires. It also makes me think of photos I have seen of recently partially renovated streets in Havana. It is a neighborhood in transition just north of LA Boca, a neighborhood not in transition. There are lots of Antique shops and a big open market on the weekends. I am willing to bet that in 2 years this will be the most sought after place to live in BA. Lot’s of renovations going on but two of the supposedly popular restaurants we wanted to go to here have closed. I like this neighborhood, as it is still a neighborhood. I guess all my years living in NYC have left me liking a little grit in the ambiance. There are families, friends and lovers roaming around. Our first evening out we ended up a corner bar/restaurant. Rachel had a beer to settle her stomach and I have some a fabulous Argentinean white wine. We sat and chatted and made friends with a few locals, one who is a food stylist and gives us quite a few recommendations for other places to dine around the city. The other refers to himself as a surrealist poet and gives us a book. As I don’t read Spanish I would need to translate his work and that would take some time; and I wonder is it even possible to translate surrealist poetry?

Rise and shine time seems to be at 1ish PM and getting out into the world of BA takes us till at least 2PM. But we have been staying out till 3AM so it is not like we are missing out on the 24-hour city.

Yesterday we went to The Microcentro and it was noisy and claustrophobic. It left me feeling grumpy. Actually I was a little grumpy even as we headed out, so I was just even grumpier. We tried to go to two different places to eat and they were either closed (Granix) or there was a line (Cafe Tortino) so to ease the city pressure we went to Puerto Madero and enjoyed a breeze infused, patio late lunch dining experience overlooking Dique #4, where the Yacht Club resides.

After lunch we decided to cruise the hotel swimming pools for a future adventure. First stop and supposedly the most dazzling is The Hilton, whose exterior is a hostile grey metal and looks like it should be in and industrial business park between Stockholm and the Arlanda Airport. As we approach the door there are Business men some with families and other with their co workers . I spot two American Brooks Brothers Bobbsey Twins in their navy blue blazers, kaki pants, light blue shits, black belts and loafers. We venture in and feel that the view is nice from the 7th floor, but the place it self is lacking in any ambiance and the clientele is, well, traveling businessmen. From here we walk over to visit the Faena Hotel + Universal to check on prices for the use of their pool, ahem, it is US$300 per day to mingle at this exclusive Philip Stark poolside, but it is pretty. Rachel has come to the conclusion that is it too expensive to be hip, I couldn’t agree with her more. We stop and eat ice cream at Freddo, I have an amazing Dolce con Leche.
Puerto Madero is home to an expansive Ecological Reserve and we are intrigued, but to tired to adventure further at this time and also, it late in the day. Leaving the Puerto Madero district we cross over a bridge and spot hundreds of Police and Riot Squads lining the street for no apparent reason, maybe it has something to do with the Anti FRAC demonstrations? I thought the Riot Squad uniform were kind of hot, with their tough kneepads, but then that is me. We choose to walk along the Dique but a few 100 yards in we find the smell off of Dique #1 is not so good so we head inland.

This is the first I have seen of stray dogs. They seem well nourished enough and pretty happy, not like some of the tragic mutts that I have encountered in Costa Rica and Mexico. Street smart too! They hang out with the police, people working the gas stations or the casual park dwellers.

One we get back the apartment we have a little down time before we head to Bar Sur now in business for 41 years, we enjoy an intimate evening of Tango, Milongas, and boleros. In the windows there are photos of celebrities who have been here and that includes Liz Minnelli. I forgot to tell Rachel that the show is interactive and as there are only front row seats in this tiny bar it is hard to avoid getting pulled in to the act, as Rachel soon found out as she was promptly whisked away to tango with the very serious and intense looking dancer who stood just about as high as her shoulder. We seem to be the only Americans in attendance this evening, I only hear Spanish being spoken and most of the audience seems to know all the songs that are sung as they gaily sing along. The owner of Bar Sur is probably in his 70′s and asks one of his servers to come over and ask where we were from. He sat next to our table to watch the show as some other patrons had left. He never spoke to us but bought us a round of champagne at the end of the night. We trundle home to sleep.

Wednesday was declared Tango Shoe Shopping Day!
We dressed up to go to the most exclusive shoe shop Comme il Faut, where you must ring a buzzer to enter and give your shoe size, color preference and they bring out what they have that day. They receive new shipments every day and the designs are always changing. We spend about an hour here, Rachel feels a little envious as she is a size 40 and the selection for her size is limited today, even more so as she is interested in a higher heel. We do however manage to leave with 5 pairs of shoes between us. I was not allowed to take any photos in the shop.

Lunch! A long and arduous walk ending in a very disappointing salad at Cafe Bila, we decides to go the Museo Xul Solar located in the former home of the surrealist painter of the same name. Well, it’s as surreal as it gets, the windows are covered in brown paper and we can’t get in. Closed for Renovations! This seems to be a theme for many of the cultural activities s we have selected to participate in, as it is summer The Modern Museum in San Telmo is closed, many of the tango halls are closed, both Fuerzabruta and De la Guardia are on tour, and sometimes we are just up and out too late in the day and find that even the cemetery is closed! But we were able to walk into the beautiful church located right next to the cemetery whose name I never got, but the statues in there were gorgeous. It must be Ash Wednesday as I start to see multiple people with the equivalent of rather large ashen Bindi dots right in the middle of their foreheads.

We have dinner at Oviedo one of the best Spanish restaurants in town, where I am still not wowed by the food offerings. The wine however, GREAT!

We are tired and decide to make it an early night it is 11PM. We take a taxi home and receive a standing ovation from 4 men down the street as we exit the cab, for what we believe is an appreciation for our personal style.

Big, beautiful, sophisticated, modern, old and feels huge.
It’s hard to arrive in a new city and not look for the familiar in the unfamiliar. I see New York circa 1980′s, Mexico City current, Battery Park City (Puerto Madero) early days, and it was not until last night that I saw the Parisian aspect of this diverse and complex city. The climate is perfect, warm with the perfect amount of humidity and beautiful breezes. There is quite an extreme socio economic range here.

I am traveling with Rachel aka Lily Verlaine and find her to be an entertaining travel companion as she finds the humor in most situations and is very easy going. To her surprise and mine within 12 hours she realized her unknown hidden talent and ability for understanding and communicating in Spanish! All the years of French classes have paid off!!! The Spanish spoken here is more Spanish and Italian sounding than what I am used to hearing in North America.

Our first day we were a bit disoriented from the 17 hour flight and lack of proper sleep. We had those horrid seats that are right in front of the bathrooms, that don’t really recline. Miss communication about payment upon arrival for the apartment we are renting in San Thelmo, lead to us having to find other accommodations for the weekend and relocate our selves in Colegiales near the Palermo district. This has been kind of great as we have been able to focus on this Barrio for now. We have been staying at Despartes B&B that has rooms without windows and the beds are like lumpy marshmallows. The staff is more than great and the location good.

The money has been a bit of a challenge as Visa has an odd policy with Argentina or is it Argentina’s odd policy with Visa? That you can only withdraw $300 pesos per transaction. This means they collect multiple transaction fees and you lot of time at the ATM. Most placed do not take plastic, as Rachel says,”cash is king” here.

Our first night on our own we tried to find a Drag show and after much searching and driving around, we found the one we were looking for but not at the address where it was listed but several blocks away at a new and different location. This discovery was quite serendipitous as we had walked by it the night before and it had piqued my curiosity while strolling around with Rachel’s friends who live here and I had made a note to try to come back. Our outing stated by leaving our B&B around 9PM dressed up and ready for action, walking a few blocks to the closest main street to catch a cab. We hear drumming and the sounds of crowds and see flags waving and can’t decipher if it is a late night protest or parade? Upon closer examinations it indeed is a parade that must be sanctioned as the street is closed off and traffic is being diverted. We notice that the flags we had seen form down the block are of The Three Stooges ?!?!? The paraders costumes are white tuxedo style suites with tails and hats with sequin appliques of Rolling Stones lips and various Disney characters and more Three Stooges. We also notice that the many of the children are spraying people with shaving cream. Rachel smartly suggests we move away from the crowd and on to the sidewalk for safety, me in need to document mode, does not heed this wise suggestion and sure enough I get sprayed, as did Rachel, she had decided to follow me. We assume this was a carnival event of some sort and decide to leave in search the drag show.

Traveling to Argentina with a vegetarian would seem like a bit of an obstacle course, but actually is not. Thanks to our two travel books we have located some fine options like Bio offering organic vegetarian fare at it best. The Quinoa Blinis and the Quinoa risotto were amazing, as was the ginger lemonade. We ate at Lotus a great Thai restaurant our fist night here and the beef sate was the best I have ever eaten, must be that famous Argentinean beef I have heard so much about and have yet to really sink my teeth into. While on the topic of eating I had read about Thierry Pszonda one of the top chefs in Buenos Aires who has received many awards and is a new member of Maitres Cuisiniers de France, and so we trekked over to The Hotel Sofitel last night to dine at Le Sud. The atmosphere was a bit sterile, though the renovated Deco building beautiful. This is where we saw the Parisian architectural influence on the city in the barrio called Reitro, with amazing modernist apartment buildings mixed in. I had a salad that was overwhelmingly huge and a lamb dish that was half good (a ragout of sorts that had been slow cooked for 16 hours was exceptional, the flavor sublime) and the other half not much to talk about. This included a quite grotesque cheese platter not really worth mentioning other than to say it was not worth mentioning. I think my friend Juli Guillemette currently at Brasa in Seattle could show Thierry a thing or two about portions and presentation.

Yesterday we engaged in a day of extremes in Kitsch.
After having our morning tea at 2 PM and lunch (at 4PM) at Bio we took a taxi over to Tierra Santa the world’s only religious theme park. It is fiberglass homage to Bethlehem and Christ’s odyssey. My two favorite things were the Resurrection of Christ (which occurs every hour, not quite on the hour) of a 40-foot Jesus (out of a mound) with 36 mechanical movements, the eyes opening and closing was a highlight. The second part was observing the reverence and joy that some of the religiously inclined park dwellers were experiencing. The other adventure in kitsch was our late night romp to Philip Stark’s recently designed Hotel called Faena Hotel + Universe in Puerto Madero the new artist district.