The City of Buenos Aires: Part 2

There is so much to say about this city so I will not talk too much trivia and there will not be much chronology but plenty of cool pics. I have to say that it seems to feel like one of the safest cities in South America to wonder around in generally, even in La Boca. I will talk about the home of S. America’s most famous football team later. There is plenty of police presence on the streets but most of the fears are petty crimes as far as I know and as far as the parts of BA Ive visited are concerned.

Colourful La Boca

In fact one should preoccupy herself/himself with not committing any linguistic or cultural blunders not just in BA but in most of Argentina. The spoken Spanish is very different from the Castillian style and loose jokes/words from Spain should be left where they came from unless you want a bar fight with angry Argentinian guys or, while we are at it, a slap in the park from an angry Argentinian girl. I found my Spanish phrasebook virtually useless here. The food and day-to-day vocab has variations and sometimes needs explanation even for fluent Spanish speakers. Get used to cheek-to-cheek embraces with BOTH men and women. One should not feel insecure, just go with the flow and you will have fun! They are just informal greeting styles and nothing more.

There is a clear stratification of society along economic lines. Where I was staying one would describe as a middle class area but I once had the discomfort of walking into a 40+ middle class style cafe simply because I needed the loo. To be polite I had a coffee. I was surrounded by pink polo jumpers and burberry. Need I say more? I will. Chaps were reading newspapers (no doubt the polo section of the sports pages), sipping latte and watching golf on ESPN. Any minute now a woman with gigantic shades carrying an ugly poodle would just walk in. After I paid my bill I awkwardly waited for my meagre change and but I realised that to save face I should just bail out! Otherwise most bars/restaurants are friendly (not like the morbid waiters of Madrid). Even the burberry place was fine but I was a complete misfit there in creased shorts and a fading shirt!

Avenida 9 Julio (9th July Avenue): 'Widest' Avenue in the World!

My favourite eating place is a simple sandwich bar near my hostel. I was there 3 times and the chirpy waitress there gave me good recommendations for a nice bite. She could remember what I ate the time before on my 2nd and 3rd visits! Talk about personalised sandwich service! Numero Uno just had to be the triple decker ‘lomo’ (steak) sandwich with salad and salsa....wait a minute, I already talked about this in a previous blog....but it was sooooo good!

K.