Escape Winter to Buenos Aires!

our neighborhood, San Telmo.  a very charming and old section of the city with very few tall buildings and many narrow cobblestone streets. (reminds me of Trastevere!)

 Hi there!  I'm so happy to be doing some traveling again!  This time to South America, where I have not been for about 10 years.  So far, Buenos Aires is vibrant and lovely.  I'll be staying down here with my pal Lisa for about a month.  Lisa is doing a PhD @ UC Berkeley & is looking at the effects of pesticides used on GMO soy plantations on water quality and aquatic invertebrates at some field sites in Argentina, Paraguay & Brazil.  Lisa has been down here for most of the year for the past three years & this will be her last field season.  She needed some special supplies from the Berkeley lab and the Berkeley Bowl :) so she shipped me down here to be a porter & her biological science technician.  It's awesome!  It has been hot, humid & downright sultry up in B.A.  It is a huge city with a lot of sights.  I have seen some great ones and I plan to see all the rest as I do like my sights.

here are my massive 50 lb bolsitos that i came with, lots of lab supplies, backpacking supplies and heavy specialty food items that Lisa had requested.  i spent a lot of time weighing them, shifting things around & making them perfectly right.  it turns out that when you take the time to do that the airport personnel pay very little attention to the weight and just heave it on.   unsatisfying!  they heave the baggage around so much through two connections that my poor bags got thrashed

quaint San Telmo indoor market where we get the produce

hidden wonders

in San Telmo there is a whole bunch of really cool graffiti

a lot of Argentine ladies wear platforms

the Casa Rosada, house of government.  Argentina has a liberal, woman president!

off the Plaza del Mayo downtown

city cathedral at right

this photo is not so hot but, this is a milonga, a tango gathering.  tango really is all the rage here.  i have to learn it, footwork seems complex & it is certainly a sexy dance.  

this day was raining & I suffered from the problem combo of slippery stones & flip flops without a single bit of traction

 I should mention how much Buenos Aires is reminding me of Rome and Argentines are reminding me of Italians!  Perhaps this is just because I spent so much time in Italy but, the comparisons I am able to draw seem endless.

cathedral

you remember how i like marble statues & church domes & ceilings?   i love them.

this lady was doing some church art restoration

 I've actually been really busy since I've been here because I am trying to put in a 40 hour work week working on Lisa's lab samples.  We've got a home lab set up and have been spending lots of time sorting invertebrate samples at the microscope.  This is some work I did ages ago doing a salmon food availability study up in Washington.  It is nice to see all my old aquatic invertebrate friends again.  Did I mention I am a nerd?

Lisa @ the scope

sorting

labels & vials...

In San Telmo there is this totally awesome street fair on the weekend.  It's crazy crowded & people are peddling, in particular, antiques.  I love antiques, it is part of my love of old things complex.  

these are so cool, old seltzer bottles 

people really go all out setting up an aesthetically pleasing little booth

v. crowded

i love glass items

there were so many colorful and amazing street scenes 

i couldn't resist taking one billion photos!

i think i used my iphone for all these pics, turns out to be better than my actual camera

holy mate gourds, really, people are drinking the stuff like crazy

these may be jacaranda trees?  they are all over the city & beautiful

 I had a big event today, it was unexpected & I'll tell you about it.  Last night I had sudden onset severe tooth nerve pain as I have never experienced in my life.  The culprit was a tooth that I knew something was going on with & was putting off checking into.  Actually, I hate going to the dentist because my teeth are always a problem.  So I just don't go & pretend the teeth are great.  Mistake!  Today I found a fancy dental clinic & after being told that my tooth was just about rotten I decided to treat myself to an Argentine tooth extraction, because the tooth would pretty much have to be rebuilt anyhow.  Yikes!  Gross!  It was a bit brutal.  I also had a bit of other dental work while I was there because clearly, I rarely get myself to go.  Lucky for me my dentist was super awesome & the price was likely a ton cheaper than in the USA.  I do like my international health care...  What was weird was how I hadn't really had any pain from that tooth other than a little sensitivity & then BAM!  severe pain.  What is also weird is how little pain I have now after having a big, old tooth yoinked out.  It is probably even weirder that I'm writing about all this but, this is life people. :)

And after the simple oral surgery, I went to this really cool old cemetery where all the old royalty & high society Portenos are buried.  It was a photo op bonanza!

families own all these tiny little crypts, it is like a little crypt city.  

everything, super old

here is the crypt of the most famous Argentine I know, Eva Peron or...  Evita!

it was a really beautiful & peaceful place.  morbidly, i really like cemeteries, the same way i like old prisons

There you have it!  My first sights down here, I am really enjoying myself despite the tooth thing.  I've been hoping my spanish skills would be coming back to me a bit faster but, the foreign language portion of my little brain seems to still be occupied with Italian.  I am working on it & forcing myself to speak but, it is a slight struggle.  Fortunately I can understand MOST of what people are saying.  Tomorrow we are going to eat at a "closed door" veg restaurant, the kind that is a secret unless you're in the know & is actually in someone's home or a secret spot.  I've always wanted to go to one of those!!  We are also planning our trip down to Tierra del Fuego!!!!

I hope that you are all doing well, thanks for reading, I am happy to put the blog together again!  Yahoo!

hasta luego :)
xo