Iguazu Falls, Take 2!

Since we have now officially done about everything "touristy" there is to do in Buenos Aires, Steve and I took a break from sightseeing and went and saw the new Indiana Jones film the other night. For just 2 pesos more (about $0.60) we upgraded to the super-giant tub of popcorn (which here is served sweet, like kettle corn, rather than buttery) and then walked into the super-giant movie theater (looked like it could seat 2000 people at least-had two huge balcony levels, although there were only about 20 of us there to see the movie.) You can imagine our excitement when, towards the end of the movie, there is a scene involving several waterfalls, and we realized that we had been to those same waterfalls before- it was Iguazu Falls! It was strange to actually recognize waterfalls, but we double-checked our facts and because of a freak storm in Hawaii Steven Spielberg had to find another location to shoot those scenes and he selected Iguazu. Very cool.

So I am sad to report that our time in our wonderful little apartment in Buenos Aires is coming to an end. Tomorrow we check out of our apartment and head out to see a few more cities- Tigre and the Delta Parana in Argentina, then Colonia and Montevideo in Uruguay. Last night we had our (French expat) landlord and his girlfriend over for Argentenian wine and pizza. There were 3 languages being spoken at any given time, mostly Spanish, but we had a great time trying to understand each other and it was fun to realize how much of the language we have picked up since being here. Now all we need to do is remember it once we get back to the States!

I think I have said this before, but it has been a completely different experience actually being settled in one place for this amount of time- we have learned to navigate the streets of our neighborhood- well a lot of the streets in the city really- without relying on a map. We had a great time showing our families around, catching a tango show in one of the most historic cafes in the city, visiting a milonga where locals go in the middle of a weekday afternoon to dance the tango, checking out the many wonderful museums as well as outdoor art installations, touring an estancia (farm) where we saw traditional dancing and amazing demonstrations of gaucho (like cowboy) skills, and of course eating lots and lots of delicious Argentenian beef. I am pretty confident to say that in the last month we have eaten more beef than we have in the last two years! We have enjoyed the Argentenian parrilla (type of grill) so much that we bought one of our own to take back to Atlanta. Now we have to figure out how in the world we are going to get the giant box back with us..... and the super-heavy box of tiles, too, ha!

So if you happen to decide to visit Buenos Aires (which you definitely should), here are some observations/things we've learned and seen that might help you get settled into the city easier:

Riding on the subway:
-at various times of the day, the subway gets VERY packed, and people have no problem whatsoever just pushing until they can pry their way into the car, too, making for a very tight experience like you might see in a deoderant commercial. our advice- wait for the next train, it's usually no more than 5 minutes behind and may be significantly less crowded
-people sell all sorts of stuff on the subway- from road maps to packets of kleenex to hair rubber bands, and they do this by passing out their items to everyone on a subway car, sometimes explaining the product, and then before the next stop picking all of the merchandise back up- we have yet to buy anything from them, but it is an interesting practice
-the A-line is the oldest subway line, complete with old wooden cars that you have to pull the doors open to exit. very fun experience, but the doors open way before the train stops, so keep your balance and hold on until you can hop out

Around town:
-Dog walking is a serious profession here. Everywhere around town you will see these folks walking 15-20 dogs at a time, from the smallest chihuahua to the largest great dane. Pretty comical when these are on the same leash! Go to any park on a weekday and you will probably see hundreds of dogs just lounging around as part of their daily walk routine- now if only they could clean up after all these dogs.....
-Most smaller intersections don't have traffic lights, or even stop signs. It is more a game of chicken, where the car going faster or is bigger has the right of way over the other vehicles. This gets really exciting when your taxi driver decides he should always have the right of way and flies through intersections without yielding to anyone. Pedestrians are the lowest folks on the totem pole in this situation, so you yield to EVERYTHING- even guys on bicycles, and even if you have a crosswalk.
-Protests can pop up anywhere, any time of day; just get somebody a flag, and someone else a drum, and you've got yourself a protest. The streets around the Casa Rosada (equivalent to our White House) are always jammed with some sort of demonstration- it is such a part of daily life that it seems odd if you don't see protestors out on the street. There was even a protest that marched down our little street in front of our apartment- they were carrying flags with Che Guevera on it banging drums on a Wednesday morning- not sure what they were promoting or protesting, but still interesting to watch.
-In the past, they have had a large problem with counterfeit bills, so almost everywhere you go they will check your money for the watermark to verify it is real. They do this even for a 2 peso bill (about $0.60), so paying for something with a lot of bills can really take a while!

Beverages:
-We were in a wine store and saw a ceramic penguin. Odd, we thought, so we asked. Apparently there is a tradition of pouring wine into a ceramic penguin, so that it can then be poured into a wine glass and mixed with soda water. Not to decant it, just to serve it. Now if you see a ceramic penguin pitcher, you know it comes from Argentina.
-Mate is consumed everywhere- on the subway, while touring Iguazu Falls, while walking around town, everywhere. It is a tea beverage, served by completely filling a hollowed out small gord with these leaves, pouring hot water into the gord, and then drinking with a silver straw fitted with a small filter on the bottom to keep from sucking up the leaves. People go everywhere with their mate cup and thermos of hot water. It is an acquired taste- as my mother described, it tastes like "wet tobacco leaves"- but a very interesting tradition nonetheless. We bought a mate cup and a bag of the tea, but not knowing how to prepare it properly our cup quickly sprouted some weird spores, so we have retired it to "dust collector" status as a souvenir from Buenos Aires. On the note of mate, we would like to give a very special thanks to our spanish teacher Juan, who shared his mate with us, explaining some of the practices surrounding it, and teaching us how to speak more like Argentenians!

Only a few more posts to go until we return to our casa in Atlanta......

Cheers,
Anna