Tango, Black Lamb Ravioli and Politics

Yesterday, we dropped our laundry off at a Lavanderia, and headed out to La Boca, a neighborhood in B.A that was once all conventillos, but is today tourist shops, tango, lunch specials, and art galleries. Well, part of it is still a bit depressed, and The Doc and I, since we lacked a proper map of that area of town, we spent a bit of time ineptly wander through that part of La Boca. We looked over our shoulders; I asked directions in a produce store, and we eventually made it to where all the white people go.

We did touristy stuff, it is true, but we had a very nice time, anyhow. They had beautiful dogs in La Boca. This one grey little guy kept wandering into the restaurant we were eating lunch in, he appeared to have business to attend to. The perturbed wait-staff picked him up, and carried him out repeatedly. He seemed hurt and depressed each time. There was nothing they could do to stop his return.

We enjoyed a day of looking at artisany things, and beginning the search for The Good Doctor’s futbol jersey. I didn’t find a mate gourd that suited me, nor did The Doc find his jersey. We headed back to Palermo, and picked up our laundry, then headed off to walk towards the restaurant we planned to eat dinner at. We stopped at an open air clothing market, I bought a dress and The Doc bought three great t-shirts! A little later, I found my mate gourd, it has a lantern on it (a homage to the fact that many words we encountered on this trip, I learned while reading the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe in Spanish).

Dinner was fantastic. We had an excellent bottle of rosé wine. I say an embarrassed hah, to all of you who think there are no good rosés. It went perfectly with the Salmon that I ordered as well as the Lamb Ravioli that The Doc ordered. We split the two dishes. They were both absolutely perfect in every way. Seriously, some of the tastiest food I have ever eaten. Dessert was fantastic as well, creme brulee for The Doc, and a spice cake for me. After that? Well, we are boring, so we went to bed.

Today, we headed down to the Microcenter. We did not succeed in locating the lunch we wanted, but The Doc did get a Hamburger that he even seemed to enjoy, namely because it was actually made of beef. Maybe the Argentines are a less literal folk? (In Chile, hamburgers are made of pork... ham ha ha). At some point that day, The Doc got his Jersey.

We had an interesting time wandering through this area to look at the graffiti covered banks. Some of the banks we saw down there, I have seen in documentaries. It was wild. We also walked through the Plaza de Mayo, and saw where the Mothers still march, although we did not see the mothers (next time we will be in town for a Thursday). We saw the Casa Rosada. It was an interesting day filled with the imagery of Argentina at its best and worst. I know this part deserves more detail, but it was one of those things that you can’t really tackle talking about just with details. Somewhere in there The Doc and I had a political discussion about the symbolism of McDonald’s and whether or not it can be valid to say "fuck McDonald’s."

For dinner, we headed back to Palermo, and just had a wee snack at a little spot. The Doc does not care for Syrah it seems. Then, the boring folk that we are, we headed back to the neighborhood of the hostel. We intend to go to bed ASAP.