This post is a bit overdue (read 6 months), but better late than never! My very first taste of South America was nothing short of incredible. Eating empanadas at 2am with my two best friends in a new city drinking Malbec wine on a balcony-laughing and catching up-was exactly what I had pictured.
What I hadn’t anticipated was that I wouldn’t get a vegetable with my meals at restaurants or that everyone would be wearing platform shoes. The city of Buenos Aires was nothing like New York or Montreal with their skyscrapers and sleek glass and coffee-induced “on-the-go” mentality. Instead it embraced the slower-paced culture the rest of South America practices while exuding a unique vibrancy.
From the get go, excitement was pulsing through me the moment I hopped in the car from my apartment in Montreal. I was so proud telling the uber driver I was going to ARGENTINA and yes the INTERNATIONAL GATE plz and NO NOT USA gates. (I also decided I was suddenly a vlogger once I got to the airport so stay tuned for the “vlog”.) I flew MONTREAL>TORONTO>SANTIAGO>BUENOS AIRES and let me tell you Air Canada is so underrated. The airline food actually wasn’t bad and someone must be looking out for me up there because I got THREE seats to myself all the way from MTL>CHILE. The best part was the two grown men sitting in the window and aisle of the adjacent set of 3 eyeing that aisle seat in my grouping and I just casually swung my leg up and marked my territory.
All I could think about in the plane(s) from Montreal to Toronto to Santiago, Chile to Buenos Aires was how lucky I was. I woke up from a surprisingly comfortable sleep to sunrise over the Andes Mountains and at that moment I was so simultaneously. humbled and awe-inspired.
The entirety of that 23 hour whirlwind felt like a dream until I finally saw Lauren in the sea of people standing past the customs gates. I hadn’t seen her in a full year since the three of us were on our last trip together in Utah. We fully screamed like those girls in the movies and promptly tried to find the taxi our Airbnb driver had hired. The drive into the city wasn’t a “jaw-dropping-wow-it’s-the-big-apple!” experience like girls in movies who rediscover themselves by heading to New York for the first time after running away from their small town in Arizona-but it was still amazing nonetheless.
Buenos Aires is more Brooklyn than Manhattan-low rise buildings with cracked sidewalks and a whole mish-mash of people, but tons of character. I could barely believe we’d arrived when we pulled up to our home for the next week . It was pretty sleek with glass doors and white marble and a doorman. The two of us settled in and revelled in how amazing our view was from the balcony in our apartment. It was just enough space for the two of us and we were pleased we switched to the booking with the balcony. We’d barely put our bags down when we got a Facebook call?! from Jill. Our first spotting of her was looking down at her on the street from our balcony and I remember my heart fluttering and waving so hard down at her I thought I’d fall over the railing.We went to dinner in Recoleta at The Panera Rosa (yes it was pink!) and I can’t even describe how amazing it feels to catch-up on a year, yet feel like we’d never left each other.
Jill’s classes were still in session while we were there so during the day Lauren and I had plenty of time to explore the city by ourselves. We mostly walked because we were awkward and didn’t want to figure out how to use the subte and busses. (Also bear in mind that I haven’t taken Spanish since the 5th grade…so…that was hard). On the other hand, Jill was basically fluent (she’s double majoring in Speech Pathology and Spanish) and Lauren’s taken it since elementary school so yeah she’s pretty good. We took a walking tour to get our bearings of the city and make sure we didn’t miss any of the touristy things we had to do. We saw Recoleta Cemetery, Obelisco de Buenos Aires, Floralis Generica, El Ateneo, Teatro Colón and probably, definitely every single thing we would even want to.
I picked up a little Spanish since the español-speakers encouraged (see ‘forced’) me to order food on my own. However Lauren and I had a run-in to a huge issue when she couldn’t remember the word for ‘fork’ and I tried to eat my salad with the little plastic cup that the dressing comes in. The whole Argentinians changing the ll and y to a “zcjuh” from a “yuh” really through me off since the only word I was confident in was “pollo”.
Throughout the week or so in Buenos Aires, we learned a lot about the culture by observation as well. It was normal to stay out until the sun came up and abnormal to eat dinner any earlier than 930pm. Being pretty much the Grandmother that I am-I was tired and not used to staying up so late nor the 630am wake-up Lauren had for me everyday. They also seriously wore platform shoes! Everywhere! Platform heels, platform boots, platform sandals I swear I thought it was 2001 again and was anticipating bell bottoms to pop up around the corner. Everyone was dressed just a bit more “put together” than I was and I’m pretty sure that if it wasn’t my asian and Lauren’s blonde that gave us away as tourists, it was the fact we were wearing boyfriend jeans, tank tops and vans.
I think my favourite part of the culture may have been the fernet. I’m kidding it’s definitely the empanadas, but this paragraph is about a bitter, herbal liquor I equated to Jager but I think they consider it more of a rum since the drink to get is a “fernet and cola”. We tried it the first time at a bar called Jobs with some of Jill’s friends she met during her time there. We may have gotten a bit too excited about all being legal in the same place together for the first time…since Lauren and I later took 2 hours to get back to our apartment which was 5 block from there…I’ll leave it at that. We hit the night-time scene a few more times and even went out with Brie when the rest of Jill’s family visited at the end of our trip. It was so fun enjoying the novelty of going out to clubs and bars with girls I met in the 6th grade and missed the whole “high school party” phase with. Chupitos Bar stands out among the rest as it had string lights everywhere and was at its core, a shots bar. The type of bar that lit drinks on fire-and you can bet we got those (see video for proof).
In order to not bore everyone (i.e. myself) with the itinerary word-for-word, we also went on a boat cruise down to Delta El Tigre and this was my first experience seeing a “river town” that I’d only learned about in my course readings. The houses were only accessible by boat and each had a unique personality. I also saw a dog laying out on a dock which was precious! Back in the town of Tigre, we kinda tried Yerba Mate. I say kinda because it was made into more of a tea than the actual caffeine-rich drink that the locals consume in their gourds and metal straws. I wish I liked it since it’s part of the culture but it’s bitter and tastes like someone steeped tea for an hour too long. I’m glad I tried it though. We also made it to Caminito in the La Boca neighbourhood with vibrantly painted pastel buildings and brick walkways with markets and stalls all over the place. I may or may not have gotten to caught up in it and caused a fight with Jill but we’re good now and the pictures turned out great. Another day we got “Complete Tea” which was pretty much like getting high tea but cheaper, we got way more food, and it was the cutest dang thing we did in this French cafe of all places. We wandered a while to get there but we made it and ultimately enjoyed it a lot.
Now on to my REAL favourite part-the empanadas. Holy moly I had never before thought I could love a pocket of food nor eat something so many consecutive days and not get sick of it. Chicken, beef, queso y cebolla (cheese and onion), jamon y queso (yes ham and cheese)-every single one was amazing. I think I can confidently report that I ate at least 25 in the two weeks I was in the country. Late night drunk food? Get some empanadas. Need a quick lunch? Empanadas. Broke but need to eat? Empanadas. The best and first ones we ate were at La Cocina. There is picture evidence-I was ecstatic.
Argentina is also known for their steak and red wine and these both did not disappoint. Everyone knows I love steak but DANG it was so cheap yet so mouth-wateringly good. On the other hand, I don’t like red wine much-I’m still a child apparently-but I gave it a try and I can honestly say I really like Malbec. Wine connoisseurs are cringing all over the world as I write that it was “good” and “yummy” because I really don’t have the vernacular required to describe wine.
A week later, Lauren and I hopped in a cab (the driver was really mean to me!!!) to the other airport in Buenos Aires, Aeroparque Jorge Newbery (AEP) for our own little excursion to Iguazú National Park. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site with the famous Iguazú fans that Eleanor Roosevelt once described with the phrase “Poor Niagara”.Â
IT. WAS. INCREDIBLE.
We stayed in the town of Puerto Iguazu at Hostel Bambu Mini. It was both Lauren and my first hostel experiences and it was amazing! The bunk beds and bathrooms were what you’d expect but it had a great patio, bar, really good stir fry and pizza?! for some reason and we met incredible people. Some recent grads, some between jobs, a couple that had been travelling for over a year, a doctor, people from all over the world. It was so humbling and incredible swapping stories these people and hearing their about their lives without them knowing too much about us. I realized we rarely interact beyond a superficial level with people who don’t already know the baggage we carry or know more than our first name. It was inspiring meeting other adventure-seekers who were so bold and impulsive and were seasoned hostel-goers.
The town of Puerto Iguazu wasn’t much more than a tourist destination that hadn’t developed more than a few blocks radius and beyond that you could observe a great disparate distribution of wealth among the locals. Those who had security guards and gated fences and those who lived in shack-like houses with overgrown yards. However quaint, filled with much to discover and observe. LB and I ventured to Three Frontiers landmark where we could see both Brazil and Paraguay across the river.
We woke up bright and early and bussed to the National Park. We hiked every trail with a girl we met at the hostel from Boston. Over the two days, we saw the infamous coatis, raccoon-like yet fearless creatures that we literally saw steal food from some woman’s purse. They weren’t afraid of humans and were rumoured to be vicious. Butterflies fluttered wherever we were and truly truly SWARMED us at some points. We ate more empanadas (surprise, surprise) and Lauren and I took a boat tour, Gran Aventura, It included a truck ride through the jungle (did not see any animals-very disappointed) but then sped up the river and actually brought us under the falls! twice! (stay tuned for some questionable-quality footage from Lauren’s go pro). We got soaked and then took another ride to an island in the middle of the falls that allowed you up close, yet panoramic views of the falls.
I truly was awestruck at the vastness and beauty I witnessed there. One of my favourite photographs from that trip was a panoramic view of the falls, lush with green growing amongst the crisp water and rainbows dancing among it all. I wish there was a way to capture or properly describe how I felt standing in the mist and enjoying the novelty of the experience I was having.
Much too soon it was the last night in Puerto Iguazu. Lauren and I went to this small mom-and-pop Italian restaurant with others from the Hostel and ate the BEST GNOCCHI I HAVE EVER HAD. We laughed, we drank and the next morning headed back to Buenos Aires. But first we had to sit in this van that was picking up travellers from all the nearby hostels and then might as well have gone off-roading on the way to the airport and I swear it was the first time I’d ever experienced motion sickness. I was truly mortified by the thought of potentially making the trip worse for everyone else. I’m alive though it’s okay.
For lack of a better reason, LB and I decided to get some tattoos just because. We wandered around trying to find a tattoo parlour and struggled to figure out how to balance getting a “cheap” tattoo with “not getting a blood-borne illness”. Another huge obstacle was the language barrier-my biggest nightmare would be having something permanently on my body that I hated because I was too confused and just nodded my head. One place refused us because we weren’t getting what one would call “art” but we found a place right next door. I’d like to say I was totally cool with this and it was so spontaneous and care-free but when we headed down that spiral staircase to the studio, I could feel my heart ringing in my ears. I now realize both of my tattoos were super spur of the moment and each got less than 24 hours of consideration…strange since I self-identify as someone afraid of commitment…The result of this escapade are a smiley face and a triangle that now reside on our middle fingers forever.
We were lucky enough to overlap with Jill’s family visit by a day. We were however unlucky, confused the address of the location we were meeting them and ended up on the other side of the town and then had to cab all the way back (RIP wallet). They treated us to Fuerza Bruta, a mixed-media and almost mind-bending show of dancing, music, and at any given time, people tumbling around from the ceiling. It was definitely fun experiencing it all together. They spoiled us even more bringing us to dinner at a fancy Italian restaurant that was truly some of the best Italian I’d ever had. It quickly turned from a few bottles of wine to roaring laughter and equal reminiscing and catching up. It was pretty incredible that we’d gone from dinners in their dining room in New Jersey to wining and dining in Argentina.
I could keep going on about how enriching and how this experience exceeded expectations, but I can leave it at this-I always romanticized my twenties. Besides somehow owning a two bedroom apartment by myself in Manhattan, a hot beau and making some magazine’s Most Successful/Inspiring 30 under 30 list- I pictured wine nights giggling about high school, eating good food in foreign countries and seeing the world. I’d say it was a nice start.
COURTSNEXTSTOP 