Frazier Blog

Slept in again. I enjoy this style of sight sighting. While my rapid and quick paced euro trip exceeded my expectations and then some, I did not relax much. I am relaxing in Buenos Aires and embracing each day. I open the guide book or ask for a recommendation and then go do it.

Today was time to meet up with Riley. I met Riley freshman year on my dorm hall. Very nice guy. I am envious of his ability to travel the world. Currently he is in Argentina studying for a year, volunteering and traveling. Jealous.

We met up at 11 and I gave him his presents. He proclaimed his thankfulness when he saw I had brought two 22’s of beer. fresh hopped. As a true NW guy he appreciates a good beer and while he has been trying the micro brews here, they do better with their wine.

Filled up my water bottle and headed out on an adventure. We took the subway to a bus and then walked towards the feria de Mataderos. We were outside of the tourist area of the city. It was interesting seeing the real living standards and what a neighborhood looked like. Mostly developed but some houses still coming together.

We arrived at the festival to the smell of cooking meet and heard live music playing. Locals were doing a traditional dance to the music. Great to have Riley as my tour guide for the day. We spent some time wandering the market and looking at local crafts. While I appreciate the hard work and good quality of what was on display i am not a big purchaser of such items. I do need a matte gourd though.

Hunger soon entered out mind so we went and got the local barbecue. A steak sandwich of sorts for only 18 pesos (4 US dollars). I chose to get a soda which cost 10 pesos, it amazes me how cheap the food is compared to drinks at times.

I am glad we found a place to sit and that it ended up being towards the entrance. We soon were treated to this.

Riley asked the man how he trained the dog to sit there and the man replied that it just started to sit there. While odd, it did look comfortable. The crazy part happened when the horse started moving and the dog stayed on, bareback. It appears he uses his nails to dig in a little bit and honestly just has good balance. As the little pony ride returned I was excited to see that the dog and made it the whole way.

When we headed back to the market Riley decided to get a belt. All morning I enjoyed listening to Riley interact with the various venders. He has excellent spanish but normally speaks slowly enough for me to understand and start to pick up new words. Watching the process of the belt being custom made intrigued me. The sizing then cutting the belt, changing the buckle, and punching the holes. After seeing how good it looked on him, I wanted one to. Went through the same process and go my very own leather belt. Really nice quality and a unique design. And it only cost me 110 pesos (26 dollars).

We moseyed our way to the entrance again to watch the gaucho horsemanship.

This setup consists of a soccer goal like post that has a string in the center of it that is used to hold a ring with a pin on it. The rider gallops towards the goal at full speed and then stands up and attempts to place a rod though the ring and retrieve the ring. Doing all of this while riding a horse. Sound crazy? It was. Check out the video to get a taste for it. But then come back, I’ll work on embedding them.

After watching several riders succeed and fail we moved on. Taking one last stroll though the main market we proceeded to attempt to catch a bus. Many passed but not the one Riley wanted. Glad I am not the only one who loses at bus lottery. Further up the road we found a stop that would have a bus that would work. As we got water of a store across the way I saw proof of how much Argentina loves it matte.

A self serve not water station. Brilliant. Still need to get a gourd.

The water we purchased was somewhere in between gas y sin gas. I want to know why outside of the EE.UU water with gas is so popular.

We boarded towards a bigger but less posh cemetery. For the record while intriguing, cemetery’s creep me out. Strolling past dead bodies, feet below the earth strikes me as odd.

I went to grab a sip of water and as I flipped up the value on my camelback water bottle I got attacked by a stream of water. I quickly flipped back down the value and turned to the now laughing Riley. We both instantly realized what had happened. Guesses? The water with a slight amount of gas got shaken up and well high school physics took over. (Tim you would have appreciated the resulting conversation about the path of least of resistance and why his water bottle did not have the same problem. ) I pointed the bottle out the window and let it spray. Quite a sight. (in hind sight I should have just undid the cap to let the excess pressure escape. )

After getting of the bus we realized that we exited too early. Oops. However there was a entrance near us. This was not the cemetery we were expecting, intrigued we started to look around. I soon realized most of the headstones were in English and had European sounding names. As I pointed this out to Riley, his history major took over. He gave me a quick lesson about how Argentina was the other destination when people left Europe for the US. There was and still is a significant Italian population and influence in Argentina. This helped to explain the Italianness of the local Spanish. Using ciao instead of adios, Biere or cervesa and more. There was also a influx of Germans and Brits. Intriguing.

As we moved down the road, another entrance. This time it was a clearly German cemetery. The German signs and order gave it away. I have never seen such a pristine cemetery.

Everything lined up, the headstones, trees, plots, gravel. Everything.

We kept walking and walking and found the entrance to our original destination by now we were both sick of dead people. I snapped a quick photo, noticed how it wasn’t as nice as Recoleta and headed towards a coffee shop Riley knew of. The whole time we had been walking we carried on a wide ranging and dynamic conversation. Covering everything from US politics, economic disparity in the US and Argentina, the problems with sunk cost, religion and everything in between.

Arriving at the coffee shop to the sight of a lowered metal gate disappointed both of us. O well. Onward. (lots of business still close here on Sunday’s).

Next stop Palermo for some sightseeing. Intended on catching a bus but it never came. So we kept walking, and walking and walking. Eventually we hit the point of no return where just made sense to walk the rest of the way. Thankfully it was a pretty walk. Saw the neighborhoods change as we entered the nicer areas. But the walk was very long. My foot stepped up the pain/annoyance level, I started to walk differently which makes my leg hurt. I need to do something about this blister.

Palermo had interesting shops. On Sunday’s they have a market of sorts and most of the nightclubs host clothing boutiques inside. Very fun way to shop. Great use of space.

Walked to the subway, walked back to the hostel. In total I walked between 7-10k. My bet is that much or further.

Shared one of the beers I brought for Riley as we planned the rest of my trip. Using the as a interactive map. Iguazu, san ignacio, Rosario, Uruguay, if time permits a town outside of BA and then spend the night with Riley before I fly home. I had him take my lenses so I would not have to carry them around. Since there was no point. We had a good conversation about traveling and roots and how it is nice to come home to people who care about you. So true.

Thanks to iMessage I received the news that I will be running the hood to coast either with a team from work. Yaya! Wait….should I be excited or scared. I am going with both.

Riley knew of a good place in San Telmo and we grabbed dinner there. Good food and got to here of some of his crazy travel stories. Having to coordinate a pickup truck to come and grab his injured friend after spending a night in a soccer field with their guide who carried and M-16 held my interest. Walked with Riley towards his bus stop and said ciao for now.

Returned to the hostel and promt…….