Two Beers and a Pretzel

After falling asleep at 6 am, I somehow woke up ready to go at 10:30 am.  I changed my room from a single to a dorm with the Brazillians, and Israeli, and 2 Brits.  Then had a 2PM appointment for the 4 hour bike tour ($20).

While walking to the meeting point, I discovered that the Argentine police have a paddy-wagon that would make Mad Max proud.

We started the tour on the south side of town.  A pack of Aussies, a Dutch couple, a few Brits, and a lady from Miami.

We rode around Mendoza park, where the first failed attempt at founding the city occurred.

Then we left the park and came to another park with the local soccer stadium.  Apparently this is the most popular stadium because it was built on land ‘reclaimed’ from the river, so when the crowd gets jumping, it feels like an earthquake.  They say the stadium has a pulse.    The cross-town rivals have red and white colors, so when Coke sponsored this stadium, they told them they could use any color combo except red and white.

Then we rode on the the port side barrio where all the poor families used to steal paint from ships to decorate their shoddily constructed homes.  This was restored a while back, so it’s what you always see in Buenos Aires travel brochures.  There is a whole arts community, tango themed bistros, and a massive tourist trap.

I fell for the tourist trap.  $10 pesos for 5 picutres… it was worth it…

A little farther along, you reach the old port with the “2nd most polluted river in the world”.  It smelled pretty bad, and the picture doesn’t show all the floating debris.

We moved on to a nature preserve that was a project of the military government in the 70′s.  They tore down a massive number of old buildings and dumped the debris to ‘reclaim’ about 5 square miles from the river.  When they lost power, the project was forgotten.  Eventually the native plants overgrew the rubble, and in the 80′s it was made into a nature preserve.  Build on pulverized houses… kinda odd.

At the beach, instead of sand, there are the remnants of walls, windows, plumbing, etc.  Our guide said that people do not swim here because there is so much glass.  This is actually the river.  The widest navigable river in the world.  You can’t see the other side.  If you could, it would be Uruguay.

Leaving the preserve, we headed back to downtown to the 2nd port that was made in the late 1800′s and abandoned after 10 years because it was obviously too small.  This area is experiencing a real estate boom with prices around $3000 UDS per square meter – where most places are $1000 per square meter.  Here you can see the “Women’s Bridge”, named because all the streets in the area are named after important Agrentine women.  They also say that the far-leaning angle of the bridge matches a woman in certain a tango move.

Finally, back to the Presidential office (the house is in the country).  For Broadway fans, you can stand on the balcony and start singing “Don’t cry for me Argentina”.  Or as one clueless lady asked “oh, is that where Madonna stood filming Evita?”  Some people need to be slapped.

On the way to dinner, I saw a guy doing a pretty sweet soccer demonstration

After hearing so much about Argentinean beef, I ate at a steakhouse.  The prices in the pictures are in Argentine Pesos (AR$3.5=$1)

I tried asking for mashed potatoes, but I don’t think they understood me.  The steak was good (for $10), but still not up to my standard.  The beer and water cost as much as the steak.  When I get home in July, I’m getting one of my butcher’s fresh bacon wrapped filet, my Weber grill, fresh cracked peppercorns, buttered asparagus, garlic mashed potatoes, and salt the beef a dash just before serving.  Add a bottle of boujelais or cabarnet to top it off.

MMMMMMM.  Ok, Anyway…  this was miles better than any attempt at beef in Central America.

Here’s a bonus for my friends who are avid South park fans…  on the way back from dinner, there were plenty of Peruvian flute bands to protect Buenos Aires from the “Furry Death”.

The Brazilians (about 10 of them now) want to go to some club tonight that doesn’t even open until 1 AM in an old Museum.  Free admission…  what the heck?  Why Not?  All I’m doing tomorrow is catching the National Semifinal Futbol game at 2:30.  I can sleep in.