Ode to San Telmo

My favorite thing about my entire experience in Buenos Aires? Living in San Telmo. Hands down.

It's not for everyone. All the cool people live in Palermo. San Telmo is dirty, dangerous, and covered in dog poo. None of the "coolest" bars are here. Everything is poorly marked. Most of the stores and kioskos require you to ring a doorbell to get in, or have bars on the doors that you have to reach through to buy a Coke or a pack of gum. It's not exactly luxurious, but it has a historically-rich and shabby-chic appeal that I find downright lovable.

In fact, looking off my balcony at the trash-littered streets and the sketchy types standing on the corner below me, make me incredibly happy and can always get a smile out of me. It's so real. When I am in San Telmo, I feel Buenos Aires in a way that I don't feel in Palermo or Recoleta or Belgrano or even downtown. They are places that are absolutely beautiful in their own right, but often make me feel like I could be in any international city. In many ways, for me anyway, San Telmo is Buenos Aires.

San Telmo, along with la Boca, is one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city. By Buenos Aires standards it's a small neighborhood, and it's characterized by beautiful, (albeit run-down) colonial architecture, older locals recalling the good old days, and plenty of young, artsy bohemian types hanging around. It is home to a bursting tango scene, tons of art shops and galleries, cheap and amazing restaurants, and some of the best antiques shopping in the world.

My experience during these past nearly 10 months in Buenos Aires has had its ups and downs. There have been days when I've been really happy, and others when I've been miserable. Such is life. But one thing I've never regretted is my decision to live in San Telmo. It wasn't recommended, and even I myself wasn't quite sure why I was choosing it, but my apartment seemed nice and the area had a certain mystique that I just by instinct felt like I would jive with. All these months later, choosing to live here remains the best decision I've made during this entire experience.

I've compiled a small list of my favorite things in and about San Telmo, this barrio that I love so much.

Bar El Federal: (Peru y Carlos Calvo) Not only is it either the oldest or one of the oldest restaurants in San Telmo, but it's also fantastically grungy and perfect. The waiters give awful service, but never get an order wrong. The coffee is great, the decorations rustic and dusty, like being in an old cantina. It's one of my favorite places to sit for hours... and I do. I also live directly across the street, so it's one of the first things I see every morning.



La Poesía: (Bolivar y Chile) El Federal's sister restaurant. Same menu, same owner, different location, better service, plus a piano you can play if you're so inclined. Every table carries a plaque that lists a famous local person that used to sit there and what they used to work on (plays, books, etc)... neat.

Pizzeria Pirillo: (Defensa y Independencia) One of my more recent discoveries, which is a crying shame. It's so small that I've been walking by it for 9 months without noticing. Hole in the wall pizza joint, standing room only, selling slices for $3.25 pesos of either pizza, fugazetta (a pizza with cheese and onions), or faina (a baked chickpea yummy pizza thing). The make huuuuuuge round pizzas and then cut slices randomly out of it, so they're not necessarily in the shape of a triangle. Greasy, cheesy, perfect. It's been there since 1932 with the same, magical ovens. Marry me, Pirillo.



El Desnivel: (Defensa y Giufra) BEST STEAK IN BUENOS AIRES. I don't care what your guide book says. They are cheap and unpretentious and you'd be an idiot to miss out.

The Sunday feria and antiques market: (Plaza Dorrego and all along Defensa) There is nowhere else I'd rather be on a Sunday afternoon than right here in San Telmo at the feria. Every sunday, Plaza Dorrego becomes a diverse and very impressive antiques market, covered corner to corner with old jewelry and dishware and keys and musical instruments and bottles and coins and anything else you can think of. Calle Defensa, all the way from Plaza Dorrego to Avenida de Mayo, is covered with artisans and street vendors selling their clothes, jewelry, mates, toys, hand-painted signs, knick-knacks and a million other little things, while bands play all along the street, street performers strike poses, and a drum circle is always in progress. You can snack on a delicious pan relleno or fresh roasted nuts, or sip a glass of fresh squeeze orange juice while you enjoy the music and the vibe.

One of my favorite local groups, Orquesta Tipica Ciudad Baigón, performing tango music at the feria:


The choripan place on Carlos Calvo y Bolivar: AWESOME. Filled with disgusting old men. Piles of meat. $5 pesos for the choripan of your dreams. Open pretty late, just gets sketchier and more delicious with every passing hour.

The guy who sells Bugambilia flowers from the back of his bicycle.



Origen Café: (Humberto Primo y Peru) When you need something vegetarian and organic, or when you want to drink an ENORMOUS café con leche. Also the perfect spot to bring your laptop and spend hours using the wifi.

La Puerta Roja/ The Red Door: (Chacabuco y Chile) I was here every single weekend almost the entire time I've lived here. My friend Emilia worked here, I knew all the bartenders, they serve the amazing "chili bomb" (a shot of jalapeño-infused vodka dropped into a glass of Red Bull and chugged), and it was always good for a good time. It was basically my Cheers. These days, with most of my friends gone and Emilia no longer working there, I haven't been going much. But it'll always have a special place in my heart.

The epic quantities of trash in the street: I know I'm supposed to hate it. And I guess I kind of do. But it's also pretty uniquely disgusting, and that's saying something.

Just a wee bit of trash outside the Red Door:


Pride Café: (Balcarce y Giufra) Cute, cozy little gay-owned and operated café. Yummy coffee, plus they serve ham and cheese waffles... only in Argentina!

Calle Balcarce: My favorite street in Buenos Aires. Just so, so pretty. Cobblestones, sleepy cafes, and just a general sense of quiet. I stroll it often, just for the smell and the feel.

Guevara: (Plaza Dorrego) Coolest little hole-in-the-wall divey rock bar ever. Great music, great people, disgusting bathrooms. Get a liter of Warsteiner and dance the night away. Currently this is my favorite bar in the area... every time I go something exciting or hilarious happens!

MY APARTMENT: (Peru y Carlos Calvo) Obviously. It's the best, and even though my landlord keeps raising the price and that's obnoxious, and even though the internet is never working properly, and even though there was an iceberg growing in my refrigerator for 6 months and we don't really have a living room, it's still a place that makes me smile every time I walk in the door. My roommate Andrea is one of my favorite people ever, and standing on my balcony and looking down on the street below is one of the simple pleasures in my life. I've lived now in 3 of the 5 bedrooms here, and my current room is perfect. This place will missed.

Patagonia is the most gorgeous place in the world

Where to even start?! I'm in El Calafate, Patagonia right now having an absolutely amazing time! Never in my life have I seen so much breathtaking beauty in one place. I have literally been in constant awe for the past 4 days. My friend from Boston, Dave, flew into Buenos Aires on Monday morning for a two week visit, and we're spending 8 days of it down here in Patagonia.

We flew down to El Calafate (where I am now writing this in a café) on Wednesday for the first leg of the trip. We took it easy for the first day and did some planning, and then Thursday set off on the excursion of a lifetime to visit Perito Moreno, a massive, incredible, perfect, unbelievably beautiful advancing glacier! It's truly a wonder to see... and hear! Because of its constant movement (it is said to advance up to 2 meters per day), you don't need to be near it very long to see and hear huge icebergs calving off it and falling into the water below.

I can guarantee that no photo can do this glacier, or any scenery in Patagonia for that matter, any sort of justice. But I will certainly try. :-) This is the view from the glacier from the balconies, during the first part of our excursion.



And here is one of the may views from the back, after we took a boat around to the other side.



Then the most exciting part came-- an ice trek, complete with crampons, on top of the glacier itself!! It was so much fun, so unique! We wandered around the glacier by jamming our crampons into the ice (its like walking normally but more aggressively, like stomping), and just enjoyed reveling in the utter beauty of it all. The glacier was perfectly white, as were the clouds above, and so at times it appeared I was just walking through a perfect sea of white. I've never felt so exhilerated!



Then, as if the day hadn't been perfect already, we finished off the tour by arriving back from our trek to glasses of whiskey, poured over natural glacier ice. Perfect.



To top it all off we had ideal weather throughout the day. Apparently the day had called for rain or even snow, but instead we had perfect skies, "warm" weather (aka I was only wearing 3 layers instead of 4 or 5), and no precipitation. We really lucked out with some incredible conditions.

...and that was just Thursday!

Yesterday we got up early, rented a car, and took a road trip to El Chaltén, a tiny town, population about 600, completely surrounded by mountains as far as the eye can see. It's truly a gem. The entire road trip (about 2.5 hours via the famous Rt. 40) consisted of Dave and I staring in amazement at the scenery outside. There is literally NOTHING but incredible landscapes, the occasional cow, horse, or guanaco, and breathtaking views Lago Argentino, Lago Viedma, and the Andes mountains off in the distance.



Once in El Chaltén, we headed off to do a hike and see some of the spectacular views we'd both heard about. Once again we had a perfect day. The sun was shining brightly, and the sky was a clear blue with just a few fluffy white clouds. For a place famous for getting snow in summer and heavy precipitation, it really felt like the gods were on our side. We hiked for about 5 hours on the Sendero de Fitz Roy, a trail that took us up to incredible views of Mount Fitz Roy, several glaciers, and a lake called Lago Capri. We even drank the natural river water that was flowing by, as it is totally uncontaminated and refreshing to drink. (What a concept!)




Here's the river we drank from, with views of the mountains behind... Mount Fitz Roy is off to the left, buried in the clouds.


And this is a view of the mountains with glaciers nestled within them... can you make out the two bits of blue glaciers, one to the left and another to the right, along the part where the mountains meet the land in the photo?


I don't know quite how to capture with words the magic that exists in these places, but it is truly something special. I've never before felt so utterly blown away by the world. Seeing how much natural beauty exists makes everything else seem so small. At the base of Mount Fitz Roy, with the sun on your face and crisp air in your lungs, all problems disappear.



I don't think words like these even require a summary, but overall I can say I am having what I would consider one of the most amazing times of my life. And it's not over yet! Today, Dave and I will head to the airport and fly to Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego until Wednesday evening when we head back to Buenos Aires. We plan to hike, relax, eat some fresh seafood, and hopefully see some penguins.

And now...to the end of the earth!

Ain't like it used to be

You know, I've been thinking about how EASY us travelers have it lately. With all of the technology we have available these days, there is no reason not to communicate or to feel truly disconnected anymore. Times really have changed.

I'm going to make myself sound really old right now. Back when I started really traveling 9 years ago (my first real independent travel experience was when I lived in Granada, Spain in 2000, at the ripe age of 19), cell phones were juuuuust coming into fashion, most of my family didn't use email, and I had (gasp!) a non-digital camera which required me to actually develop film. Skype, ipods, and even this beloved blog weren't even a gleam in my eye... yet.

And that was NOTHING. Four years later, in 2004 I spent 4.5 months living in Havana, Cuba, where I couldn't make a phone call to the US (banned), check email (i had no internet at my house and there were only two computers at my office, and when they were working, they were in hot demand-- so I emailed about once a week, briefly), blog (internet connection was just too slow, and no one knew what a blog was then anyway), facebook (I didn't even have MYSPACE yet, people!), or really effectively communicate with my friends and family at home AT ALL.

Granted, living in Cuba is a specific set of circumstances in itself with more restrictions than most places, but still, when I find myself homesick and disconnected here in Buenos Aires, surrounded by modern technology, I'm humbled by the months I spent in near confinement in Havana, and I'm thankful for all the communication I have. I know my parents are too. :-)

A year after Cuba, in January of 2005 after graduating from college I bought myself the famous one way ticket to Mexico, and much to the horror of my mother, proceeded to largely disappear int the abyss that is Mexico and Central America for about 6 months. I didn't have a laptop, so it was internet cafes all the way. Skype didn't exist (or did it? In any case, I didn't know about it.) and so calling cards were how I called home. Video chat still felt like a thing of the future. Blogging still felt too complicated, uploading photos too slow. I still communicated via the postcard, while my poor parents waited weeks for their respective phone calls to alert them that I hadn't been abducted by guerrillas in Chiapas, wasn't thrown into a Salvadorian prison, had survived my stint in the Guatemalan hospital. I could hear the incredible relief on the other end of the line literally every time I reached my mom.

These days, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, our calls rarely, if ever, reach that level of relief/ desperation. Why? Because she and everyone else knows where I am and that I'm safe at all times. Haven't received an email from me lately? Check my blog. Look at my pictures and read my status updates on Facebook. Call me on Skype for a live video chat. Suddenly 8,000 miles of separation just dissolves.

I listen to music and my beloved Dan Savage podcasts on my ipod... carry photos, important files, and anything else my heart desires with me whenever I want on a tiny and convenient thumb drive... I make calls from my house phone, cell phone, Skype line... I have friends on Facebook and Myspace, Yelp, Messenger, g-chat... I can upload digital photos online with one click...and I can tell you all about it on a this blog.

So as I prepare myself for a long 4 months of travel around South America, I am comforted to know that no matter how far away I am, there is always going to be an internet café in the city nearest me, and there, you are all just one click away.

And YOU will be comforted to know that I am, you know, alive. :-)