Despite the freezing weather and two days sick in bed, life in Buenos
Aires remains pretty enjoyable. Overall, people here are very friendly and it is
quite common to start talking to a stranger for a couple of minutes. That's how
I ended up watching horse races at Palermo
beautiful "Hipódromo" this weekend, just because a guy stopped to tell me I
could walk in for free.
Equestrian sports, and horses in general, truly belong to Argentinian
culture (think of the Argentinian gaucho riding his horse in the vast
grasslands of la Pampa!), and while football remains the most popular sport,
Argentina is above all the home of polo. Polo season runs from mid November to
the beginning of December, so I'm not sure I'll be back in BA soon enough to
watch the best players in the world, but I'll try.
As you can guess from the following photos, a picturesque sunset
watching horse races can be a pleasant way to end your Sunday afternoon.
Hipódromo Argentino de Palermo, main public entrance
Showing off before the race
On the finish line
Another part of my weekend was spent visiting la Boca.
A major tourist attraction of Buenos Aires, la Boca is located in a more
popular part of the town. More than a century ago, mostly Italian immigrants
used to live and work there, mainly doing maintenance work on boats during the
day and dancing tango at night. Paint leftovers were not thrown away but rather
used to add colours on the walls of la Boca, resulting in the bright and
colorful houses always associated with BA. The other major attraction is of
course "La Bombonera" (literally, "the chocolate box") home of the world renowned Boca Juniors
football club, where Maradona used to play.
Typical houses in the centre of la Boca
La Bombonera
Modern version of a la Boca-style house
My opinion? La Boca is clearly overrated. The main streets are crowded
with tourists, restaurants for tourists, shops for tourists... The whole thing
seriously lacks authenticity!
But then, if you feel confident enough to wander around (apart from the
centre of la Boca, which is full of cops, the area is not super safe), you can
find pleasant deserted streets, full of street art and graffitis, another
omnipresent characteristic of BA.
A few blocks away
And even further away from the touristic area
On Saturday night, I met Alexandre (who used to live with Jules Veyrat
while he was in BA, for those of you who know him) in a Palermo house full of international young guests. Drinking a cuba
libre in a cup made of a Coke plastic bottle while standing in their terraza
full of graffitis felt like living the Argentinian version of "L'Auberge Espagnole",
with people from all over South America, Europe and North America. That's about when
I realised that even if my Spanish is still terribly bad, I can sort of
communicate mixing it with a couple of other languages. Actually, knowing
Italian proved very helpful: not only does Porteños slang abound with Italian
words, but the tone is also very close.
Speaking of Coke bottles, Coca-Cola launched a few months ago
Coca-Cola Life here in Argentina.
In case you didn't know, it's a kind of Diet
Coke made of stevia, a natural sweetener produced in South America. And it actually tastes good. And as you can see from the picture, they played the Mac Donald's trick: replacing the red communist color by a
supposedly more eco-friendly green package. I'll leave you with the official
ad:
Fernet-Branca is another drink you will try if you visit BA.
Originally, it was an Italian liqueur mostly used as a hungover cure, and indeed
it tastes like a medecine. Fernet and coke is the gin and tonic of Buenos
Aires, and when you're not used to it, it's frankly disgusting. Not the best
thing Italian brought to this country! However, a strong Italian influence
means that you´ll find very easily a buonissima thin and crispy Italian pizza
or, from what I've heard, a delicious dulce de leche ice cream (I'm still waiting for hotter
weather before trying that!)
That's it for today. I leave you with the random pic of the week.
Un abrazo,
El riton
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire