On day 2, we went to the La Rural Expo, which is the Argentinian equivalent of the Denver Stock Show. It was basically a stock animal judging competition and farm equipment convention. There wasn't a rodeo component as far as I could tell. It was amazing how popular the Expo was; there was a line around the block to get in every day. Argentinians are quite proud of their cattle, it seems!
Another part of Argentinian culture that you can see in the picture above is a family sharing a cup of mate. What exactly is mate you ask? The full name is yerba mate, and it's a plant native to South America. The leaves are dried and then stewed in hot water in a special cup, and the resulting liquid has caffeine of a similar amount to a cup of coffee. We got to drink some the other day, and it tastes like a robust green tea, kinda in between green tea and matcha.
This drink is super popular, as popular as coffee in the States. It's so popular that our Airbnb didn't have a coffee maker, but only a hot water kettle for making mate, so we had to ask our host to provide a coffee maker of some sort. We'd see families walk around with the funny cups called also called mate or gourds, probably because originally they were gourds, the straws called bombillas, and also a thermos of hot water to keep adding to the cup throughout the day. One interesting aspect of this is that the whole family drinks from the same cup. Drinking mate is traditionally a shared social experience, that "fosters connection, friendship, and a sense of community." It shows a bond of unity and trust when you share mate. Apparently during the pandemic, they were not allowed to do this, and Argentinians found that quite hard. This is a very obvious culture difference to the United States. There, individualism is of the utmost importance. I wouldn't ever share a cup of coffee with someone else because one, germs, but two, they ordered an Americano, and I ordered a latte, and never the twain shall meet. Even if someone makes a pot of coffee at home, you wouldn't both drink from the same cup. I'd have my cup with enough milk in it to turn it beige, and you'd have it black. You could also see it in the nicknames Argentinian friends give each other. Fernando, the husband of our family friends, has a group of guy friends, and none of them address each other by their real names. Instead, it's Chino ("Chinese", but he's not Chinese), Pollack ("Polish guy"), Toro ("Bull"), Gringo ("White Guy"). You get the picture. In the States, maybe with my best friend we'd have nicknames for each other, but not my entire friend group. Instead, we in the USA like to hear our own names. Because I'm special......
At La Rural, we were exposed to the Argentinian gaucho, which to us is the equivalent of the cowboy. We noticed right away that the gauchos at the expo all wore these berets, called a "baqueano" instead of a cowboy hat or something similar. I thought that was a bit funny, because the baqueano seemed not as useful as a cowboy hat. However, after doing some research, there is another type of gaucho hat called a sombrero (see photo below) that serves more for sun protection, while the baqueano actually helps more to protect the face from rain. Like a tiny umbrella worn on the top of your head. The baqueano is also from the Basque region of Spain/France, so wearing it is a head nod to that culture.
We watched the cow judging for awhile. My favorite was this family of skunk cows. They were fuzzy and adorable. Had never seen a cow like them before!
Avery's favorite part was undoubtedly the tractors. An entire convention center filled with all manner of farm equipment, what more could a boy want?
The scale of some of these things was quite staggering.
This is a drone the size of a small car used to spread pesticides on fields, essentially replacing the crop duster. The stuff of nightmares.
So many cows! There were also horses, some ponies, pigs, and llamas, oh my! They had vacuums theey used to vacuum the cows before they were taken to the arena to compete.
There was also a section for rabbits, and this whopper seems to have won every award possible for a rabbit to win. He was so large he barely fit in the cage.
After the expo, we went to lunch at a Milanesa place that served, you guessed it, steak milanese, and yes, it was very delicious. But actually the best part of the meal was the architecture of the restaurant, which was built underneath the arch of an above ground train trestle. There were 8 or 9 restaurants all in a row, creating this really cool restaurant alley. And the kids loved watching the trains pass overhead every 20 min or so. It was a commuter light rail, not a freight train, so wasn't as noisy as all that. I'd go back to this area in a heartbeat just to see the cool use of space. It's called Paseo de la Infanta, which is alongside the Parque El Rosedal. Lovely way to spend an afternoon.
From there we could walk home, which took us past the Hipódromo, otherwise known as the Racetrack. Time to bet on some ponies! As is the norm for most of Buenos Aires, the buildings and grounds of the racetrack were very lovely. It opened in 1876, has races three days a week, and is free and open to the public, so we took a gander. While we didn't do any betting, I did pick out the winning horse #9, and Drew picked the 2nd place winner, so we're experts now, yes? Baby needs a new pair of shoes.....
As was our norm in Buenos Aires, we ended the day at a playground, this one themed like a train as it was alongside the train track. Kids had fun playing with their friends.
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