Honeymoon: San Antonio de Areco

In the middle of our Buenos Aires trip, Caiqian and I took a day trip with a tour guide. We traveled to the nearby town of San Antonio de Areco. This was a bit different from the other cities since it was very structured. The first stop was visiting the city of San Antonio de Areco, where Caiqian ran into some friendly canines.

Doggie Friends

Interesting to note is that in South America they have very different trashcans, shown below. When we asked the tour guide why they were like that, she said it's because of the many dogs in the street. Makes sense!

A Clever Solution

San Antonio de Areco is a gaucho town, gaucho meaning "cowboy." The first stop we took was visiting an authentic gaucho saloon, or "Esquina".

La Esquina de Merti

San Antonio de Areco's gaucho history goes hand-in-hand with it's high concentration of silversmiths. The tour guide brought us to her husband's silversmith shop and showcased various belts and ornaments that old gauchos used to wear.

Silversmith Stuff

After the silversmith museum we got to see a local artist who specialized in drawing gaucho paintings and murals. For one lucky tourist he drew and gave a free picture of a horse. He then explained some of his other works to us, showcasing the town's history.

Local Artist

The last stop that we went to in the city was  a candy shop where we were given some free chocolates and alfajores. From here the van picked us up again, to go to our main destination.

Alfajores at Chocolateria La Olla de Cobre

After seeing the town, we drove to a real gaucho ranch ("Estancia El Ombu de Areco") full of horses, dogs, and wonderful views. Caiqian and I felt more like cowboys here than we ever felt in Austin, Texas.

Estancia El Ombu de Areco

Almost immediately after we arrived we were sat down and served, no doubt, the best pastries of our lives. The pastry was perfectly flaky and buttery and the meat inside was salted, flavorful, and juicy.

Best Empanadas EVER

After our meal we got to ride alongside real cowboys, who had been cowboys for decades.

Our Gauchos

I gotta say, Caiqian and my leather coats (which we bought in Buenos Aires) fit in pretty well with the "cowboy on a horse" image.

Horse Riding!

After a long ride, it was time for another filling meal. This time it was a sit-down meal with course after course of delicious, perfectly seasoned pork, beef, and sausage that had been slow cooking all day.

Awesome post-ride dinner

After dinner the elder gaucho grabbed a guitar and sang some songs he wrote himself. Very folksy.

After Dinner Entertainment

The very last thing we did was watch the elder gaucho's son perform "horse whispering" where he slowly leads a horse through many interesting positions.

Horse Whispering Show

After San Anonio de Areco, Caiqian and I went back to Buenos Aires, but all that was already covered in the last post. With three cities down, we were getting pretty close to the end of our two week honeymoon. Only one more city left, the wonderful beach city of Rio de Janeiro!

Honeymoon: Buenos Aires - Recoleta Cemetery, Tango Porteno, and The Argentine Experience

Caiqian and I experienced quite a shift in our honeymoon went from the small, mountainous town of Gramado to the bustling, busy streets of Buenos Aires. Before getting into the creepiness that is the Recoleta Cemetary, I want to showcase our food experiences. And if we're talking about Argentine food, we have to start with the iconic empanada.

La Migliore Empanadas

Empanadas are cheap, delicious stuffed pastries, and remind me of the mince pies I ate in Scotland. They come in different shapes which indicate different fillings (more on that later) and Caiqian and I couldn't get enough of them.

Buenos Aires also offered food that we would see in the States, like Pizza, although Argentine Pizza certainly is not what you'd find at your everyday Pizza Hut. One type of Pizza I enjoyed was the "Fugazetta" pizza, which was completely covered in onions.

Anchovy Pizza and Fugazetta Slices at Pizzería Güerrin

Caiqian and I also thoroughly enjoyed local ice cream, like the cones we ate at Freddo in an Argentine mall (an oddly american experience).

Ice cream from Freddo at Gallerias Pacifico

Our favorite food though was the kind you don't find in the states, like the croissants and hot chocolate so dark, creamy, and thick it's feels like it's more chocolatey than a pure chocolate bar.

Chocolate Espeso (not coffee) at Cafe Tortoni

Or the beautiful shiny yellow Quindin which looks like a HP-replenishing food that came out of a fantasy novel.

Quindim

It's no doubt Caiqian and I threw ourselves into the local food scene. But we also made reservations to try out the best of the best Argentina had to offer as well. Our favorite restaurant in Buenos Aires was Chila.

What a view!

All the food was great, but the one dish that I want to emulate back home is Chila's Potato Foam, a foam that tastes like mashed potatoes.

A new favorite, Potato Foam!

I could go on and on about the octopus, fresh prawn, and  desserts, but I haven't even gotten to the main section of this post yet, so the pictures will have to tell the story for me.

Amazing Octopus

Other Amazing Food at Chila

Recoleta Cemetery

I've been to a few continents, but I've never seen anything like the Recoleta Cemetary. It is a plot of land where the richest families and individuals spend mucho $ to have a luxury grave. The whole time I was filled with a morbid curiosity and couldn't stop snapping pictures. What was particularly fascinating was how broken-down the graves were, especially considering the money spent to keep that plot of land.

Caiqian on the other hand... well she started off happy outside the cemetery, but by the end she was ready to be out of there. You can see the transformation of her expression in the pictures below.

Recoleta Cemetery

I would highly recommend going to this unique cemetery for anyone who wants a unique experience.

Tango Porteño 

On a lighter note, Argentina is also know for Tango, the spicy partner dance that was started in Argentina. There are many places that offer Tango Shows, but our favorite was Tango Porteño. The only thing that was difficult was finding pricing, so I'm including the pricing sheet we were handed for reference!

Tango Porteno (and pricing!)

The price looks steep at first, but when you consider what comes with it is actually more affordable than the other options we found. For our ~140 USD, we were given:

- free transport from our hotel

- free tango lessons with the performers before the how

- free dinner

- all-you-can-drink wine

- and of course, the show!

Caiqian and I loved the transport and Tango Lessons.

Travel and Tango Lesson at Tango Porteno

Of course, we weren't upset about the steak dinner either.

Tango Porteno Dinner \

The show itself was fun too,  with a live band, and a colorful cast of characters who danced furiously and gracefully.

Tango Porteno Show

Caiqian and I were very pleased with this Tango show experience.

The Argentine Experience

The last thing we did in Buenos Aires was ironically what we probably should have done first. The Argentine Experience is a workshop where you cook and eat Argentine food while being taught Argentine customs. It began with them giving us aprons and teaching us what the different Empanada shapes corresponded to, followed by us making our own Empanada!

The Argentine Experience

Making our First Empanada

We also made other foods like Alfajores, a local cookie dessert filled with dulce-de-leche that we saw everywhere.

Makin' Alfajores

Like Tango Porteno, we also got steak :)

Experience came with Steak

We also made Mate, which closed a mystery that hung over Caiqian and I since Gramado! Mate is a drink that is tea-like, but more bitter. You fill a cup with the mate, put in a special straw that has a built-in filter, add hot water, and then drink it.

Makin' Mate

Our favorite part of the Argentine Experience  was the make-your-own empanda, where you got to make your own shape. The winner of our ~15 people table was going to get a prize, so the stakes were high!

I went with a smiley star while Caiqian went with a cow... and Caiqian won best empanada! As a reward we got a jar of dulce-de leche from the kitchen!

Empanada Contest winner is.... Caiqian!

Other Stuff

I guess I have to mention that Argentina wasn't all smiles and rainbows. There was quite a bit of unrest and protests in the street. In addition, on the say we left the whole transportation industry went on strike. Busses, trains, subways, and... planes! So Caiqian and I had to scramble to fina a plane that left after midnight to get to Rio, which was a major headache. You can see below all the cancelled flights that we saw at the airport.

Turmoil

Ina similar vein, the Argentine currency has been inflating, leading to a "black market" for US currency, this is called the "blue rate", and most stores participated in this rate despite it being technically illegal. This is illegal due to the government having forbade its citizens from purchasing US dollars. During our stay, the official exchange rate was about 1 US Dollar to 9 Argentinian pesos, but the blue rate was closer to 1 US Dollar to 13 Argentinian pesos.

Dollar Blue

Lastly, Caiqian got an awesome reversible purple leather jacket in Buenos Aires at Silvia Y Mario, but you'll have to wait for the next post to see it. where Caiqian and I experience the "Gaucho" or cowboy experience in the nearby town of San Antonio de Areco!