Dulce de Leche

It’s everywhere! And nothing could be better. While we have both had this tasty creamy, caramel-like deliciousness before, we found the Argentines perfected it. So far we have tried it the in the forms of pastries, coffee, ice cream and in giant sundaes. Check out the photo of Kevin indulging in the coffee drink he ordered without quite understanding the layers upon layers of cream, ice cream and coffee he would spoon through before getting to the dulce de leche at the bottom. Yummy!

Colonia de Sacramento, Uruguay

After Day 10 of being in this crazy city, we decided to escape to a small town just an hour ferry ride across the Rio de Plata. This river sure is something—you might have to look at a map to understand--it took us an entire hour to cross on the fast ferry and the regular ferry (for about ½ the price) takes 3 hours. We were sure we would find this river would turn out to be the Atlantic Ocean, but sure enough, per it’s name, it is brown, muddy and fresh water. Colonia is a picturesque sleepy town that was established by Portugese explorers in the 1600’s. There is a 6x6 block town square of cobblestone streets lined with sycamore trees and rows of pastel colonial homes. Here are some pics of the town.

Pizza, Pizza, Pizza

Although Americans have known it for years, BA has also discovered the best pizza in the world comes from none other than….KENTUCKY??? Check out the pic we took on one of the main stretches of town. We weren’t willing to run across 10 lanes of traffic to get a shot of the front, but there is an enormous flashing florescent sign advertising their world famous pizza that is even more absurd.

Thanksgiving With Steak

While everyone back home was enjoying turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and cranberries, we headed out to a pretty fancy restaurant in Las Canitas, our favorite barrio. Our Thanksgiving dinner included proveleta (fried provolone cheese), bife de lomo (filet mignon), papas fritas (French fries), grilled vegetables, and a bottle of cabernet sauvignon…all for only 150 pesos (less than 50 bucks)! And it was muy delicioso!

Palermo Soho

Friday we went shopping in the super chic Palermo Soho neighborhood. Basically this area has street after street of high-end clothing and design stores, mixed with bars and cafes. We saw more college students hanging out around there, so it must be the place to go. We plan on going back to eat dinner in one of the fancy parillas (grills) in the neighborhood…hopefully tonight.

Let's Tango

Wednesday night we went to a tango show called La Ventana. We had great seats basically at the front table next to the stage. The tickets included dinner with wine and dessert. The show really was a lot of fun and included not only tango dancing, but also Argentinean folk music and some amazing guy that played drums and performed some form of intense tap dancing while rotating these long sleeves with rocks in them at incredible speeds and yelling “Yaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!.” His act is really indescribable—I wish he were on You Tube (I searched but couldn’t find him). Luckily, we got a picture of him, although you can barely see the rotating sleeves because of the blinding speed at which he spun them.

Puerto Madero

We trekked down to a barrio that’s next to the water called Puerto Madero, which is an up-and-coming neighborhood for people with a lot of money. There are a number of high rises being built and a ton of condos. Along one edge of the port, there are about eight old industrial buildings that were rehabbed into restaurants, offices and residences. They stretch side by side along the entire edge of El Centro. On the water side, there is a long waterfront walk, about 70 restaurants with outdoor seating, and the ubiquitous Santiago Calatrava-designed bridge. This bridge is supposed to have been inspired by two people doing the tango, but we are skeptical, knowing that architects often make up metaphors to sell their ideas. We both agreed that it looks very similar to many of his other designs. Don’t get us wrong, it’s still really cool.

The best part about Puerto Madero was this awesome high-end hotel that was rehabilitated from some old silos. We were a little intimidated going in because we weren’t fooling the staff that we were staying there, not to mention there were BMWs pulling up, guys with huge rolls of cash walking around, and they were setting up for some fashion show. We thought we might catch a glimpse of Giselle or Madonna or someone. We scoped the perimeter, got caught trying to sneak in the residential end and then walked in the hotel side. This place was swank—they even had a picture of Duran Duran, who apparently stayed there. Despite the pretentious attitudes, the building really was well designed.

Rush Hour Commute

So, the mystery that we are trying to solve is: when do people in this city work? It appears that rush hour lasts from approximately 9 o’clock in the morning until 7 at night. We got on the subte today to head to El Centro (downtown) at about 11:30 and it was completely packed. Not only was it really crowded, but the cars don’t have A.C., so it was about 100 degrees. Yet, we looked around and we were the only ones sweating. Why is that? Anyway, we decided to hop off a couple of stops before we got there so we could avoid passing out, thinking that we would get away from the crowd. Well, we got to street level and it looked like the Loop at 5:00 in the afternoon…people and cars everywhere.

Mira Sabine Clark

Here's a little shout out to our new niece. Mira Sabine Clark was born as we were in flight to BA at 4pm on Saturday, November 22nd. We can't wait to meet her!

The Dog Whisperer

Today we checked out the Jardin Botanica and Jardin Zoological, and Parque Las Heras (all of these parks are right by each other) before making our way to the Las Canitas barrio. We felt obligated to spend time in Jardin Botanica because it was designed by Carlos Thays, a famous landscape architect from Buenos Aires. I guess you could say he was the Olmstead of Argentina, although this wasn’t quite Central Park. Anyway, there is a beautiful Art Noveau greenhouse surrounded by formal gardens, which is definitely the highlight of the garden. One thing to note about the parks in B.A.: people use them way more than people in the U.S. Actually, they use them to the point where some, like Parque Las Heras, are very worn looking because they never get a break. These parks act as the social centers for their neighborhoods, as the young, old, and everyone in between use them.

The best sight of the day was witnessing The Dog Whisperer in action. He was a dog walker walking 16 dogs of all shapes and sizes. You should have seen the command he had over these dogs. When one stopped to do their business all of the dogs, without a word from the walker, knew to stop as a pack and wait. While, we didn’t ever see another walker with 16 dogs, we learned this sight wasn't entirely uncommon. As it turns out, Argentineans love dogs as much as Americans.

All in all, we walked 6 miles on Day Two. With two stops for helados (ice cream, but like gelato) along the way, we are set to walk 3 more today!