Buenos Aires Day 1: La Boca and San Telmo Fair

The second week of winter break, we flew to Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina. The flight from Santiago to Buenos Aires was incredible in itself, as you immediately get to fly over the Andes. It's hard to see in this first photo, but the mountains, particularly the ridge right at the bottom of the photo, really weren't that far below us. Eek!

Our first full day in Buenos Aires was a Sunday, so we did some sightseeing things. We started off in La Boca ("The Mouth") which is called that because it is at the mouth of a river. It is also historically one of the first landing places for many Italian immigrants to Buenos Aires. Nowadays it's a tourist destination because it has lots of brightly painted buildings, bars, and restaurants. It's also the place where Lionel Messi hoisted the World Cup Trophy after Argentina won in 2022. You can actually see a statue of him doing just this in the pic below. To say he is a god here is an understatement.

La Boca is also home to the Club Atlético Boca Juniors, which is one of the most popular professional men's soccer teams in Argentina. The name is misleading; it's not a Juniors team, it's a men's team. Apparently when they were originally creating the team name, they threw on "Juniors" to make it sound British because the British rail workers were the ones who introduced soccer to Argentina. Even though Messi gear was sold everywhere throughout La Boca, Messi didn't actually play for CABJ. The team colors were obviously blue and gold, so we felt right at home. Jajaja One of these days we'll have to go see a soccer game, but hooliganism is a thing, so we'll have to be choosy on the game.

After La Boca, we went to the San Telmo Fair. There is a Central Market building that is open every day, that has both fresh and prepared food. But on Sundays, an entire nearby street is closed down for an additional antiques street fair. You've never seen such an amount of stuff! Fun atmosphere. 

There are also lots of nooks and crannies to explore, like this very French looking building with an open air courtyard in the middle.

One of my favorite parts of the Fair was a pair of tango dancers that put on a show in the middle of a courtyard. Going to a tango show at a club is a pretty normal tourist thing to do here, but most of them didn't even start until 9pm, so we weren't about to stay up for one of those, especially with the kids, so seeing a tango demonstration in the streets was our only hope of seeing it at all. This couple didn't disappoint. They weren't young, probably 55 and 65, but they moved with a fluidity and grace that was impressive to watch. The boys were enthralled. Drew believes their legs were made of rubber.  

We went to the San Telmo Market building itself, and it did not disappoint. It was PACKED and for good reason. So many good looking restaurants. 

One obvious theme of the trip was seeing an impressive amount of meat being cooked on the grill.

At the San Telmo market, we had our first introduction to the infamous Choripan, which is essentially a chorizo sandwich. A couple of things make it super delicious. Obviously the chorizo itself is the best chorizo you've ever had in your life. The second is the bread. We aren't talking puny hotdog buns here, but gourmet bread with a nice crust. It's often grilled along with the chorizo. Finally, some acid is added with a topping of either chimichurri, our new favorite salsa for all meats, or salsa criolla, which is peppers and onions picked in vinegar. 

We also got to try Provoleta, which is cheese either cooked in a cast iron skillet or put directly on the grill. It's a variant of provolone cheese, but it's more firm and can hold it's shape when grilled. Also as delicious as it sounds. 

As we were exploring, we passed by a bus stop sign that had a remnant of the Kirchner government, the "Centro Cultural Kirchner." However, if you google this building name, it's replaced by the new name of "Centro Cultural Domingo Faustino Sarmiento." So clearly, the Kirchner name is on the outs here, the sign was simply outdated. In late June, Cristina Kirchner did get placed under house arrest for 6 YEARS for corruption. So maybe less on the outs and more on the "ins." Jajaja. My American mind immediately asked why does she get to serve her sentence at home instead of in jail, like any good criminal? Apparently she is such a public figure that it would have been impossible to keep her safe in a prison. Tell that to Martha Stewart! 

One of my favorite parts of the city is the amount of statues they have decorating the city. And I'm not talking little life sized statues. I'm talking HUGE, colossal statues celebrating any and every notable figure in Argentinian history. They were gorgeous, and every park had one. 

Every park, and I mean every single one, also had one gigantic tree right in the middle. These trees must have been hundreds of years old and provide incredible shade in the summer time. To me, they looked like live oak trees, but I need an arborist's expert eye to weigh in here. 

Every single park also had an epic, appropriately themed playground. Because this was the Plaza Republica de Chile, which was right next to the Chilean Embassy, the playground was themed like the Andes mountains. Every playground had a different theme, and we had fun trying them all out throughout the week. 

Last but not least, we ended this amazing day with a dinner out with our friends, the Argentinians who live in our building here in Santiago. They had traveled home to Buenos Aires for the entire break and were the inspiration for this trip. They were staying in another Airbnb a couple blocks away from ours, so we got to see them quite alot. We went to dinner at La Colorada, very apropos. We ordered a "Tabla," which is essentially a giant board of meats and sides. Also as delicious as it looks. We ordered this tabla, wine, 3 desserts, and a side of fries for the kids, and got out of there for $50 a family. Not too shabby. There are definitely more expensive steak places in the city than this one, but the value for money was pretty high here. 

Nevado de Chillan

 The boys are currently on winter break from school; they get two weeks off in between the first and second semesters. We wanted to make the most of this time off, so we spent the first week skiing in Nevado de Chillan, which is a ski resort about 6.5 hours south and a bit west of us. It's a 6 hour trip if you're in a car, but the van, now known as Don Diego, goes a bit slower than that. We renamed the van Don Diego after reading and LOVING this kids book which is about a Siamese cat who wants to be a Chihuahua. He has imaginary Chihuahua friends, one of which is Don Diego, "the biggest of the small ones." Another imaginary Chihuahua is Poquito Tito "the smallest of the small ones," so we've named Grandma and Grandpa's van that, since their van is much smaller than ours. Did I mention we now own two vans?? We're starting a collection, it seems. The second, smaller van is for Grandma and Grandpa to travel with us on our summer break camper van extravaganza down to Patagonia this coming Jan and Feb. So if anyone wants to visit us and borrow a van for your own explorations, we have a large and small model to chose from!

The night before we left, the parents of Emerson's class had a party to celebrate the end of the semester. The party started at 7pm, but most people didn't show up til 8pm.  Drew and I were the first ones to leave at 12am. The party invitation had an end time of 1am, but who knows how long everyone stayed. I don't think I'll ever get used to these late nights here. A parent party in the US would start at 6pm, and most people would be moderately on time, and it would be over and done by 10pm. Asleep by 10:30pm. 

We left Santiago on Saturday, July 12th at 9:30am; not a bad start considering our late night. There are ski resorts closer to us here in Santiago, but since we had the time to make a longer trip, we decided to go a bit further afield. We also were pseudo-traveling with another family who wanted to visit Chillan, so away we went. We basically drove 5 hours straight south on the main North-South highway called Highway 5.

That part of the drive was very lovely. It's mostly flat farmland with the Andes on the left. I loved seeing the farms with all sorts of different things: fruit trees, vineyards, and berry bushes were the most common. We then drove an hour and a half east towards the mountains. 

I like seeing the 5 hours we drove south in the grand scheme of all of Chile, and we didn't make it very far. This country is so long. 

We got to ski 3 days, Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday. The first day, Avery was a bit rusty, which is understandable as we hadn't skied in 18 months. We missed last winter's ski season in North America due to the move. His survival instincts kicked in, and on his first run he was inching his way down the bunny hill. But after 2 laps with Drew, he got his groove back. By the end of the first day, the boys were back to where they left off. On the second day, we got an all-day private lesson for the boys for $140, not too shabby. The goal was to get them started on parallel turns. Emerson made great strides. Avery has a bit more to go, but he isn't far behind. The resort was about the size of Monarch. Had enough beginner terrain to keep the boys occupied and a couple of blues. But at the top were all sorts of bowls above tree line that were great for advanced skiers. Some of the bowls weren't skiable yet due to not enough snow, as this was still kinda early in the season. They get most of their snow in August. But the views from the top were gorgeous. I got to ski the longest blue run in both North and South America, called Las Tres Marias which was 8 miles long. There were sections where I was completely alone for 10 minutes at a time; it was really nice. 

Skiing while camping in a van is a bit interesting. I was worried we would have soaking wet ski clothes that wouldn't dry fast enough. But between the diesel heater and an indoor clothes line, we were able to make it work. It actually never got super cold, so we didn't even need to run the diesel heater at night, only in the mornings when we were getting up. I might have had a mountain of blankets on me, but who's counting. Boys slept ok, so we slept ok-minus. The van doesn't have a black water tank, so instead the pee goes into a jug you can pull out and empty. The poops go into a container with a bag (at least you're sitting down on a normalish toilet seat), that you then seal up and throw away. Which is fine in the daylight, but it's less fun at midnight when your kid has to go. For the most part we parked the van overnight in the driveway of the little cabaña our friends were renting. Which meant we got to take showers halfway through and have dinners at a normal sized table. So, while this was the longest stint we've had in the van so far, it was still camping-light, I'd say, due to the extra amenities we had access to. This summer will be a different story.

Our friends have two little dogs that the boys are in love with. We're definitely going to have to get a dog when this adventure is over.

On the drive back home to Santiago, we stopped at a restaurant for lunch. There are many roadside restaurants along Highway 5, and some are actually quite good. The best dish we had was cazuela, which is a soup with a hunk of roasted meat, corn, potatoes, pumpkin, and cilantro. It's very flavorful and hearty, the perfect winter dish, and something all visitors to Chile should try. 

Buinzoo

Two weeks ago, we visited the Buinzoo which is about 45 min southwest of the city, where they have more room to spread out. For only $48 for all four of us, we had a full day of fun. We went with the Argentinian family we are becoming close to. They have two girls who attend the same school as ours, and they live in our building, so we see them all the time. The oldest one, Carola, is the same age as Emerson and therefore is in the same grade, but a different class. The younger sister, Olivia, is 4 and is in pre-kinder, so the class below Avery. All four of them get along great. Before moving to Santiago, we were wondering how easy it would be to make friends, and it has actually been much easier than I imagined, definitely easier than Hong Kong. Obviously the language is more accessible for us, but finding families with kids through school gives us an immediate network to tap into. In the picture below, Carola and Olivia are the two girls in the middle of our boys. They are super sweet. 

This zoo was nice because you could get relatively close to the animals, not like at the old section of the Denver Zoo where the animals feel a mile away. The first section had monkeys that would walk overhead crossing from one section to another. 

We got to see the fabled capybara, which is actually an hilarious creature. First, it is THICK. An adult male on average is 4 ft long and 100 lbs, so think like a chunky labrador. They live in groups of 10-20 and are found all over South America, but to the east of the Andes, so not in Chile. And they are technically the largest rodent on the planet. People here LOVE them and think they are the cutest thing ever. Girls will have capybara themed birthday parties. I think they have a funny resting bitch face, with which I can commiserate. 

 

The zoo also had an animal I had never seen or heard of before, something called the Patagonian Mara. It looked like half capybara half rabbit. "Behind the rabbit?? It IS the rabbit!!" It is also a rodent and lives in the Argentinian side of Patagonia, so again, east of the Andes. These guys were my personal favorite. I was fascinated that there exists a mammal that I had never seen before. Granted, I haven't traveled the whole world, but I've been to my fair share of zoos and museums, and have watched enough Planet Earth-esque documentaries to feel like I know most of the world's animals, well, mammals anyways. I'm sure there's plenty of insects and fish out there I've never heard of. But a mammal? Especially one as cute as this?!? Come on!! Again, North American ignorance for the win. 

Drew's favorite was the snow leopard. In the wild, these guys are very elusive, so it was cool to see one here. It was actually stalking a bird right before Drew took this photo. 

They also had red pandas there, which are another personal favorite. 

Most of the animals seemed to be in lovely enclosures that were clean and well kept. The enclosure for the rinoceronte for whatever reason was a muddy mess. Below Emerson is doing his best rinoceronte impression. 

There were baboons with their fiery red butts, so Emerson had to imitate them as well. 

I just included this photo because I love Avery's face. 

There was a petting zoo area where the kids could pet llamas, sheep, and some rabbits. Another family was in there at the same time, and, shortly after this, another little boy tried to pet the brown llama but for whatever reason the llama was not having it. He reared back his head and full on spit right in the poor little boy's face. I couldn't help but laugh. 

Avery's favorite animal was the donkey, of course. Except this was a special African burro, so it had striped legs. Overall, a great day!