Buenos Aires Part 2 - ft. 'El Turco'
Buenos Aires, part 2
Jan 2023
Whilst in Patagonia, we had kept in touch with Mauro 'The Turk' who had invited us to his house for a BBQ and 'salsa party' when we had met him. We landed on the 11th Jan, and he had set a date to meet on Saturday 14th Jan. Since we wanted to see the gang again, we decided to stick around in Buenos Aires to see more of the city.
A cultural view of Buenos Aires
We decided to learn more about the history and culture of Argentina, so this visit included many museum trips: The Museum of Contemporary Art, The Museum of Modern Art, The Museum of Latin American Art, and the Centro Cultural Recoleta. The themes were mostly things we couldn't appreciate, but there were some cool exhibits, the highlight definitely being Emily impersonating an exhibit that we have renamed 'life imitating art imitating life'.
Enjoy:
The Museum of Latin American Art was our favourite. There was a very interesting exhibit covering events through Latin American history and a Frida Kahlo exhibit, paying tribute to her life, her influence on LGBTQ+ rights, and generally being a bad ass.
We were also very lucky to be in Buenos Aires on a Thursday, the day that the 'Madre de Plaza de Mayo', or 'Mothers of the missing' march on the Plaza de Mayo in front of the presidential palace. We had read about this during our first visit and were disappointed not to be able to experience it. At 3.30 pm every Thursday, for the last 45 years, they have marched around the central monument on the Plaza, singing and chanting for justice for the 400+ babies that were kidnapped during the dictatorship in place during the 1970s.
Through this, raising awareness, tireless research, and persistence, they have restored the identities of 131 of the kidnapped. They are actually the mothers of the mothers who were taken and abused. Chief G is 92 years old and treated like a celebrity, wheeled around at the front of the march whilst names of those found and those mistreated are read out on a megaphone. It was a very powerful thing to watch, and reading more about the horrible things that happened during the dictatorship definitely makes you think. It's astonishing that anyone over the age of 50 has lived through it.
After our treat of a night in a hotel, the next two nights whilst we explored the capital were back camping in Pedro and weren't that peaceful! We spent both nights in Belen de Escobar, by the river, driving an hour back into the city each day. The first night we spent at a wild camp spot, next to a sign that said 'no camping', where we tucked ourselves behind a tree and watched the fireflies flickering by. After feeling bad about camping next to the sign, we spent the next night at a campsite down the road for £3. This was a mistake since we actually wouldn't return there if they were paying us to stay.
The 'facilities' were worse than prison, the photos and videos of them are not fit for the internet, so we used our own facilities. They had also lit fires to burn whatever crap they had swept up when we got there so that whole part of town was full of smoke. There was also loads of loud music, and dogs barking, things we have unfortunately become well acquainted with all over South America, but never things you can easily tolerate at 4 am. A cockerel started relentlessly squawking at 5 am. And to top it off, at 6 am the owners started blowing dust with a leaf blower. There were only about 5 leaves and Pedro was covered in a thick coating of dust. Needless to say, wild camps are always king. We quickly departed and headed back to our secret bush for a shower.
New neighbourhoods unlocked
Barrio Norte, in-between Palermo and Monserrat, where most of the museums are found. Wandering around this area gives a very different feel of Buenos Aires, it's got a similar feel to Kensington and Chelsea in London! Grand buildings, palatial mansions and where a lot of embassies are based.
Tigre, still in Buenos Aires province but an hour north of the capital. This is a very quaint town with the river splitting it, crowded with long wooden tour boats. A very touristy town almost exclusively cafes and restaurants, we had a picnic on the riverbank and took the time to relax watching rowers go by.
Barrio Norte
Tigre
A crazy 24 hours with 'El Turco'
We had to wait until 10.30 pm to arrive at Mauro's on the other side of the city. This is bedtime. We had a glamorous dinner out of tupawares in a gas station and then drove an hour through Buenos Aires to the Ezeiza neighbourhood.
After a very hot day in Tigre, we were disgusting. Sweaty and sandy and wearing our clothes from the day: shorts, t-shirts and trainers. Mauro had sent us a dropped pin via WhatsApp and we had no idea what we were turning up to. We arrived at a gated complex with a guard at reception and a big white archway. This is when we started to question our attire. Mauro built his own house inside this complex and it is a sleek, modern place with a lot of resin!
They opened the door dressed to the nines! Laura was wearing a sparkly skirt and heels and Mauro was wearing a shirt and trousers. We proudly presented our gift of a bottle of Fernet Branca, wondering where this backyard BBQ was at. Mauro then said let's go and we hopped into his car, Em swiftly grabbing a dress from the van but still sporting fluorescent yellow trainers.
About 10 minutes into the car ride, we realised we didn't have any money on us and according to Google Maps, it looked like we were heading into the city. Once we were about 40 minutes in, we sheepishly asked where we were heading. Laura was shocked that Mauro hadn't told us and they said we were going to a Salsa club. Cue more dread over leaving our wallet and IDs in the van miles away. He had driven us all the way back through the city where we had just been and into a car park in San Cristobal and we were ushered into the club.
Club Gricel
Club Gricel
A Canadian bouncer welcomed us and told us to watch out for him on the dance floor at 4.30am. The dance floor was full of couples all doing amazing Salsa dancing. We settled at a table to the side of the dance floor and Em managed to squeeze into Laura's spare heels. After about a minute, a man approached and asked Em to dance. She hasn't worn heels for about 10 years so just standing in them on a shiny dancefloor was a challenge let alone trying to not stand on a stranger's feet whilst counting 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3 to herself.
We ordered "dinner" which we ate at 2.30am and was a delicious grilled chicken with salad, and danced the night away! We mainly stuck to dancing with each other and trying to copy everyone else but we were both whisked around by Mauro and the others in our group a few times! It was at 5am when we started struggling to keep our eyes open.
At 5.30am, it was declared we were all going for breakfast and we followed the gang to a nearby McDonald's for coffee and croissants! The most anyone had drank all night was a few glasses of wine as they needed their balance to be on point! We explained that a night in the UK would not end this way. Instead, we would still be in McDonald's at 5.30am but everyone would be throwing up and fighting over chicken nuggets.
The sun came up and we parted ways, jumping back in Mauro's car to start the hour-long journey back to their house. Em and Laura promptly fell asleep and Justin did his best to keep Mauro entertained and awake by asking any old question that sprung to mind in his best Spanish. We arrived at their house at 7.30 am and it was already baking hot! They brought us mattresses onto the living room floor, made up our beds, put the A/C on, and declared "mi casa es tu casa". Goodnight!
Club Gricel selfie
5:30am Mcdonalds selfie
Em's 'first dance'
Finally in bed at 7:30am!
Around 12.30 pm, Mauro and Laura reappeared downstairs as if nothing had happened and we helped to put the bed away. Then began more confusion. We have separated our versions of events for comic effect:
Justin's version of events...
After the sweaty day we had in the heat, and the sweaty night of dancing in the Salsa club, I was dying for a shower. Whilst getting ready for one, Emily jumped in, so I got chatting with Mauro and Laura. They were asking me what we wanted to eat today because they wanted us to be their guests for dinner, and unable to do the polite British 'no you really don't have to, that's too much' thing more than once, I accepted. Laura asked me if I would go with Mauro to do the shopping, so off I went with him assuming we were nipping to the corner shop. We weren't.
An hour later we arrived at the supermarket after a long detour to get his special Nafta gas - which involved him helping a guy push his car until it started again. The long car journey was actually a nice chance to talk more about the differences between Argentinian and English life. I did try my best not to use Google translate but the late night had made it very difficult to think of any words!
I followed Mauro around the supermarket whilst he consulted the list of 4 things Laura made him, taking what felt like an eternity. He bought meat, then cookies, then fruit, then cleaning supplies. It was all very confusing. Eventually, we set off back to his house. Turned out the supermarket was just round the corner, we literally could have walked.
Finally, I was reunited with Emily, having no idea whether she knew where I was and what she had been doing for the past 2 hours.
Em's version of events...
I came out of the shower and the house was deserted. I got dressed and went out to the van to do a few jobs. I'd run out of data on my phone so I couldn't text Justin. Laura was in the kitchen and I asked for her help filling our water tanks. I brought some washing up from the van into the kitchen and we chatted for a while using Google translate while I was at the sink. We made coffee and I eventually asked where Justin and Mauro had gone. She said they'd gone to the supermarket but the closest one was closed so they'd had to go further. We played with their dogs and chatted about our hobbies.
Eventually, I asked for her Wi-Fi password and Justin messaged saying "Emily I don't know what's happening but in case it isn't obvious I've gone shopping with Mauro and we are eating with them." "We seem to be buying meat and cookies. So I think we're having meat and cookies."
When we were reunited, Mauro and Laura proceeded to cook an enormous rib eye steak, potatoes, and salad and poured us cups of beer. We all chatted for a few hours and eventually sat down with them and their daughter for our one meal of the day at God knows what time it was. The food was amazing and we both struggled to express how grateful we were for their exceptional hospitality! They really made us feel like we were part of their family and they made our Argentinian stretch of this trip unforgettable. We will be sure to host them with the same generosity if they visit England.
Reluctantly, at 7.30pm we decided to reignite our original plan of getting to the Uruguayan border and set off towards Fray Bentos. This turned out to be quite optimistic. Once we got out of the city, the street lights disappeared and for some reason, the air was full of smoke. The oncoming drivers all seemed to have their full beams on, lighting up the smoke which made it impossible to see. There were also loads of hidden potholes which caused us to stall going over a ditch in a bridge in 3rd gear, to which Em declared "I've lost power. I've lost steering." like she was Lewis Hamilton fighting for the Championship.
We persevered but after nearly hitting a man walking down the pitch-black highway, we decided it wasn't fun anymore and we would call it a night. This was our first night at a gas station, but it was not at all bad! We parked in a little grassy patch away from the highway, had access to their clean toilets, and felt pretty safe. There was very little noise apart from some traffic passing by and it was relatively cool.
The next morning we woke at 7am to a jam-packed gas station, with cars parked on either side of us and everyone excitedly drinking Mate and coffee ready for their journey across the border for their summer holidays. This should have been our first hint that the border crossing would take a while. We ended up waiting 2 hours in a queue at 37° and having relied upon driving fast with the windows down to keep cool, this was testing. Em ended up with our new fan plugged into the inventor on her knee but it was just blowing hot air and acting like a heater. She also had her hot water bottle full of cold water and Gatorade from the fridge and we eventually made it. The border crossing itself was painless and we were back in Uruguay!