Events

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A Very Argentine Vacation!

A few weeks ago my friend Cecilia asked me if I’d like to go to Miramar. As I’ve said before, the only thing wrong with Buenos Aires in my view is that it doesn’t have a beach, but there is a series of ocean resorts on the coast about five or six hours from here that are very popular vacation spots for Porteños. Cecilia and I went to Mar Del Plata a couple of years ago, but I’ve never been to Miramar, so I was up for it.

Her cousin, Carlito, was coming up from Neuquen province to join us, and I also invited Venetia. So that was it originally — four people. Then there was the possibility that Carlito’s daughter would come. But that was it — five people.

Then we started to look for an Air BnB house. It had to have an asado so that we could have the traditional meal at least one of the nights. We needed three or four bedrooms, depending on the distribution of the beds. Venetia did the original Air BnB research and sent some suggestions to Cecilia. Apparently none of them suited, for various reason, and she and Carlito took over the search. They booked us a house, two blocks from the beach with its own asado — and big enough to sleep twelve!

Apparently the word spread, and first Carlito’s daughters and one of their children were added. Then someone else — who the heck knows how it all happened. Anyway, we now have a house that sleeps twelve and it’s a full house. Twelve people — that’s definitely it. If anyone else joins us they’ll have to sleep in the garden.

When I told a few people the story, they all said the same thing. “Oh yes, that’s typically Argentine!”

I don’t know these people yet, but since they are family and friends of Cecilia, I know it will be a riot!

We’re leaving at 7 am tomorrow. I’ll post here to let you know (and see) how it’s going!

 

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Chinese New Year in Tigre

The Chinese New Year festival was supposed to be held in Tigre last weekend, but it was postponed on rumors of rain! Honestly, people are hothouse plants here, and things get cancelled and people stay home with just a little rain. Since I’m from Scotland and was born in the rain, I find this weird!

Anyway, I went to Tigre on the train with Venetia, Montserrat, Cecilia and two Mexican friends of Cecilia, Antonio and Lina. It was hot hot hot, and we watched only part of the show because we just wanted to get to a nice restaurant where we could sit in the shade and have a light lunch and a glass of wine.

We found a lovely old place called Vivanco that fit the bill nicely.

Since none of us could be bothered cooking when we got back to Buenos Aires, we decided to go to my favourite empanada place, El Sanjuanino — the last of the photos shows us relaxing there.

Fun day!

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Our Friend Sings at La Dama de Bollini

This week a bunch of us went to hear our friend Cliff Williamson singing at a lovely old local bar called La Dama de Bollini. It was a lot of fun. Cliff sings mainly American folk and country music, although towards the end we were all singing Beatles!

This video is a little longer than my usual, but it has three songs: Folsom Prison Blues, Shenandoah and I Saw Her Standing There.

Enjoy!

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Look at all this food!

I had hoped to send you photos or at least a report on the Carnaval, as Venetia and I went there last night. Carnaval in Buenos Aires is quite small in comparison to the huge events in other parts of the country, so it’s more small local events in various parts of the city. We chose San Telmo, but unfortunately it was a bit of a bust.

It was to start at 7.30 pm, but of course we knew it wouldn’t because nothing starts on time here. There was some acrobatic entertainment as the crowd started to gather, but after an hour with no sign of anything starting we decided to give up.

So we went to La Poesia, one of the great old cafes in San Telmo, for wine and picadas. I think the picadas were meant for more than two people! But we managed to eat almost everything, while washing it down with good old Malbec!

Picadas are a great way to eat here. They vary quite a bit from place to place, but basically they are tapas trays, with cold meats, cheeses, olives and more yummy things. I often have them if we’ve arrived at a cafe and it’s kind of late for a full meal.

 

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Bohemian Rhapsody

Last night Venetia and I went to see Bohemian Rhapsody. The movie received the Golden Globe Award for Best Dramatic Production and Rami Malek took the award for Best Actor. The movie received mixed reviews, some feeling it was light on fact and heavy on Queen music, to which I say, “And the problem with that is …?”

The movie was a homage to Freddie Mercury and Queen, and if you love their music, as I do, that’s all you need to know. From my viewpoint I knew it was a success when I suddenly realized that when I saw these four guys on stage performing, I forgot I wasn’t actually watching Queen.

If lack of historical detail or messing with timelines bother you, stay away. But if you just want a couple of hours of immersion in great music and great memories, don’t miss it!

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Zarate

No, that’s not some new Spanish salutation I’ve learned. It’s a new place I’ve visited.

Zarate is about 90 kilometres north of Buenos Aires, and Cecilia has a friend there called Maria Luisa. They have known each other for a very long time, and Maria Luisa told Cecilia she wanted to meet me as she had heard so much about me. So on Saturday, we set out with another friend, Sandra, on our day trip.

It was a beautiful summer day, and we went straight to the restaurant down by the riverside. It’s called La Querencia (which as far as I can understand means something like home), and it was beautiful. It had a lovely terrace, but we opted to sit inside for lunch as it was cooler. We moved out for coffee afterwards, so had the best of both worlds. We even sat and drank some maté for a while, which I love.

After lunch, we went down to check out the water’s edge and took the photos. The bridge is the one you take to go north, and Cecilia and I have done that on several of our famous aventuras. We loved this little miniature pony, whose name was Luca, so we couldn’t resist the photo op.

Maria Luisa told us there is a famous tango festival held in Zarate in February, so I think we’ll be going back for that.

By the way, I’ve resolved to pay attention to taking better photos so that you can see some of the places I go.

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New Year’s Eve Picnic

This year we continued our tradition of having a picnic in Puerto Madero. This area is full of expensive restaurants and hotels that ask exorbitant prices for their New Year’s dinners, but we have all the fun of the music, fireworks and company by having a picnic, facing the beautiful Puente de la Mujer.

Unfortunately, we lost two bottles of Malbec when an unexpected gust of wind picked up the picnic table and they rolled off before we could rescue them! Disaster! We had champagne, but we wanted to save that for midnight, so Viviana and I went over to one of the restaurants and paid through the nose for a replacement! It was disappointing at first, but we soon got over it, and it’s one of those incidents that will feed “Do you remember when…” stories in years to come.

Thanks for your company and the delicious food Cecilia, Venetia, Viviana and Sally — and especially Cecilia for bringing the table and all the extra stuff that made the picnic so festive! Check out the video and share the fun.

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After the Milonga

In the summary of the week’s posts I sent out yesterday, I mentioned I had gone to dance tango at a milonga but didn’t have any photos. That’s true, but here’s what happened after tango.

Lina invited Annie and me to have champagne and nibblies in her new apartment. She just received final approval of her residency application — hence the champagne. I had thought I would just head home after that, but no. Around 10 pm Annie said she wanted to go find somewhere to eat dinner, and we all ended up at one of Lina’s favourite restaurants in the ‘hood. It’s called Il Sorpasso, a great Italian place with a lovely hidden inner courtyard.

The food was great and we were just enjoying chatting, when suddenly we had entertainment! Some typical folkloric music started up, and a fellow launched into the chacarera. It’s usually danced in couples, and it was unusual to see someone dance it solo. I know the video is really too dark, but I decided to post it anyway just to give you an idea.

Yesterday afternoon I had lunch with Darren, a new friend from Toronto who was introduced to me by Lynne, a mutual friend. We were having such a good conversation we forgot to take a photograph — sorry, Lynne!

Then Venetia and Viviana invited me to join them at El Sanjuanino, one of our favourite little local spots for wine and empanadas. This time we had tamales instead — delicious little parcels of meat folded into corn meal and enhanced by the restaurant’s famous hot sauce.

I don’t know if you can see this, but the white jug on the table is in the shape of a penguin, so when we want red wine there (as, let’s face it, we always do) we order a pinguino!

So you might be thinking that I do nothing but eat and drink and carouse with my friends. Well, is that a problem?!

I will take photos of the New Year’s Eve celebrations and post them tomorrow.

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Can’t Keep Track!

This week has been full of social fun — as I’m sure it has been for you wherever you are in the world! I’ve been remiss in not posting to keep you up to date, so this post kind of has a bit of everything.

San Telmo Market

San Telmo is one of the oldest barrios in the city and there are so many things to do there. Every Sunday there is an artisan street fair and also the market. This past Sunday I went with my friend Viviana, who lives in San Telmo. Here we are enjoying lunch in the market.

 

 

 

 

Wine Tasting

Venetia and I went to a wine tasting sponsored by InterNations and met two lovely new lady friends. The place was called La Malbequeria (guess what the specialty wine is!), but we weren’t really impressed by the event. The place is cool and the waiter was cute, but we all agreed we’ve been at better tastings. But it’s always fun to meet new people and we enjoyed that aspect. Photos below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

La Poesia

Last night Venetia and I went to another concert at the Kircher Center, and ran into Lola there. It was the National Orchestra of Argentine Music, and as always it was a lovely performance. It was 10.30 pm when we came out, and as we hadn’t eaten we decided to take the bus over to San Telmo and have dinner. We went to a favourite old cafe called La Poesia (poetry). I think it’s about a hundred years old, full of atmosphere and the food is great. The lady in the photo is a fabulous tango singer who just walks in and starts singing! Came home on the bus about 12.30 am, and up this morning at the usual time to start work — that’s life in Buenos Aires!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s all for now. Going to two events tomorrow night, so I will post about that before I do my weekly summary on Sunday morning. I wonder if things will calm down after the Holidays — probably not!

Abrazos! (hugs)