The Good Air

Hola, Frijole Here.

Two full days in Buenos Aires, but Tuesday morning feels like weeks ago. We have already lived in two hostels, the ultra-clean Millhouse hostel and the less-than-spotless Chillhouse, run by two young hippies, a Frenchman and an Argentine, and wreaking of marijuana. The staff is very nice, but lacking the domestic skill set of the cleaning crew at the Millhouse. We have seen most parts of the city already, aided by insanely cheap cab fairs (about U.S. $2 for a medium-length ride) and a cheaper metro system (30 cents U.S. per trip). Buenos Aires strikes both of us as extremely European, more so than any place we have seen outside of Europe - and very similar to Madrid where we both lived for a semester in College.

Our first night in Buenos Aires we met two British girls passing through Buenos Aires and staying in our hostel, as they taught us a mildly interesting card game named ¨shit head¨we talked about our respective trips. They were on the tail-end of a 4 month trip through Asia and South America and were astounded that we had only one month to spend in South America. I can see exactly where they were coming from after a few days in Buenos Aires - a month barely seems sufficient to explore and enjoy the city let alone a continent...

After hearing endless praise of Argentine steak, we set off for our first dinner at 10:30PM that night to a restaurant described as "a bit touristy, but reliable" by our guidebook. We were enticed by the menu "especial" offering empanadas, salad, beef, desert, coffee and wine for US 10$ per person. Our spanish being a bit rusty, we were having some trouble understanding the waiter - he pointed to his stomach and said something about "todos los enteros" (all of the insides). We assumed he was referring to how full we would be after eating all of the food, which suited us fine. When the main course arrived, though, it became immediately clear what he had been trying to communicate to his gringo customers. We had ordered all of the insides (organs) of the cow. So, a sizzling plate of cow and chicken parts was placed on the table before us and we diligently went to work (and most of it was actually quite good), only Phil being brave enough to try the round squishy piece we can only assume was a kidney... We were so full and sleepy at the meal´s end that I decided to skip the free coffee and desert included in the price... Yes, I declined free coffee.