Argentina Here We Come

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So it begins, another trip, another travel day. There is no easy way to get to Buenos Aires from Providence and flying out of Providence just adds another layover. So, the day started at 5:00 in order to get ready and then be to the train station by 8:00. Phase one, Acela to Boston, which is a quick 38 minutes to South Station. Phase 2, the Silverline 1 bus to the airport. This is a quick 20 minutes (without traffic) to the airport and directly to your terminal. The bus was pretty empty and there was no traffic. Phase 3, check in and TSA precheck. Easy as pie, the entire check in and security took 15 minutes. The screws in my ankle did set off the scanner, but other than that no issues.

We are now in the lounge relaxing before our plane four Houston leaves at 1:40. This is a could time to discuss why Argentina. This is not a retirement search trip; it is pure vacation and has been on our list for a few years now. It was one of those trips postponed because of Covid. This is our first trip to South America, and I am pretty excited. We will be three weeks, using Buenos Aires as our base. One hotel for three weeks, we can fully unpack. We are taking some side trips, 3 days in Santiago Chile, 2 days at Iguaza Falls, and a couple of day trips to Uruguay. As usual we have a full itinerary planned.

The days will be full, but I am hoping to stay current on the blog entries and not get days behind as I have in the past. When we land tomorrow morning at 8, we hit the ground running, and we even have an early check in.

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We are now at the end of May 2, first day in Buenos Aires. The flight from Houston to Buenos Aires was smooth, well except for three screaming children and a mother who didn’t really care to control them. Fortunately, the fell asleep pretty early so the trip was otherwise as any flight can be. The food on Polaris flights has gone downhill but the flight attendants are still pleasant.

We landed in Buenos Aires 30 minutes early, lost some time in baggage claim as our bags were almost the last to come off the plane. Going through immigration and customs was almost as easy as coming home using Global Entry. Downsize we did not even get an Argentina in our brand-new passports. The hotel had arranged a driver to pick up us at the airport and he was right on time with the classic “Mr. Wright” sign so we could find him. The trip to the hotel took about 90 minutes, traffic was very heavy and there were a couple of wrecks that slowed us down even more. It was a wonderful crisp fall day 55 degrees and no noticeable humidity. This is our first time south of the equator, so we have switched seasons from spring to fall. Interestingly enough Buenos Aires is only 1 hour ahead of us back home.

When we arrived at the hotel, we were lead to a special IHG check in area. We received a complimentary upgrade to a bigger room with a better view (pictures of the room next blog post) Frank, (not a very Spanish name) checked us in and went the extra mile to make sure we had everything we wanted. The even have a van that will take us anywhere in the city (and pick us up) that we want to go. I am really tired, so I might blog more about the check in the next post. We have basically been on the go since 5 am on Wednesday and it is now 10:00 pm on Thursday.

We did have a full day. Started by changing dollars for pesos, for every dollar we got 1000 pesos (this is the blue rate which is about 200 pesos per dollar better).

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Finishing up this blog Friday Morning, our first full day. I was so tired last night I couldn’t even think. While Jerry finished the job of unpacking, I nearly fell asleep in a very comfortable chair with my glass of Argentinian Sauvignon Blanc in my hand.

I need to back track a bit before finishing up the day. From Boston we flew to Houston. We had a three-hour layover, which we spent in the Polaris Lounge. I have to say that the lounge in Newark is much better, could be I just have a huge bias against all things Texas, or the fact that the humidity was unbearable. The bartender’s were all great and kept those wine glasses full. The food offering’s on the buffet line were, well let’s just say, “Very Texas”. I was drenched when we walked out of the lounge, it was like I just walked out of a Sauna.

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Back now in Argentina. After exchanging currency, we were off to the HoHo (our affectionate name for the Hop on Hop Off Bus). This has become our new first day tradition whenever we are in a new City. It is a great way to get the overview and not exert yourself to much after a long day or so of travel. There are a couple of pictures from the HoHo, but as I write this, I haven’t downloaded them yet, so not sure they are making the blog (there will be very few pictures on this post, just not many opportunities and Jerry is not yet in full vacation mode, which takes a couple of days).

We had one Hop Off stop in the La Boca area (the more bohemian and artistic section of Buenos Aires.) This is where we had our first culinary taste of Argentina.

Encuentro Nativo

The spot was located on Magallanes, a very busy street with vendors, shops, restaurants, and of course many many Hockers offering to take your picture, or Tango dressed people that you can take a picture with, for a price of course. It is a vibrant section, and the buildings are very brightly painted. Comparison wise it is like the Camden section of London, or one of the barrio’s in Lisbon.

The restaurant had both inside and outside seating, we went in the covered outside. We had a nice table by the stage, but also under the speaker. While we ate there was entertainment, singing and of course Tango dancing.

The beef, as anywhere in Argentina, is clearly the star of the menu. We opted for anything but beef, we simply can’t eat red meat every meal for three weeks. We also had no wine; it would have just put us to sleep. We started with Provaleta. This is almost a national dish, I think. It is provolone baked in a cazuela with oregano and garlic. Simple yet delicious. There are many versions of this classic dish, and we fully intend on trying several of them.

Jerry had Chicken Yira Yira (sounds Greek but it isn’t). Perfectly cooked chicken breast stuffed with ricotta cheese, leeks, spinach then wrapped in bacon covered in a cheese sauce (similar to a mornay sauce). Serve with rustic potato wedges (the potato is king here). I had the Prawns Trifolata, several prawns in a broth with herbs, onion, garlic and a bit of red peppers with a side of garlic fries. Not your average Applebee’s garlic fries, but true hand cut fires cooked in garlic and then sprinkled with parsley. Could have been a bit crispier but very tasty, especially when you got to the bottom where all the garlic and olive oil was.

During lunch we watched the crowd, listened to the Tango Lore singer and enjoyed the young couple doing tango on a tiny stage.

After lunch it was back on the HoHo to our wine tasting. The bus traveled through many neighborhoods that we will be visiting later on, so it gave us (ok it gave Jerry) a good sense of the layout of the city.

Wine Tasting

The wine tasting was the scheduled highlight for our first day and it did not disappoint. We know nothing about Argentina wines, except Malbec. We signed up for this tasting and put it on the first day, so we would have some reference point of what we would be drinking over the next three weeks. We Tasted 4 wines, each paired with a small bite made by Abby. The tasting is a combined effort of Berty and Abby. Berty is from the UK Abby is a native of Buenos Aires.

I could spend pages discussing this, but that would be just too much, so briefly this is what we had:

Torrontes: A white very crisp similar to a very good Gruner Veltliner or Gewurztraminer. A bit of spice and would go great with Asian food. With this we had Humita. This is an Inca influenced dish of onion, red pepper, corn cheese, pumpkin, cumin and chili flakes. It was very tasty and paired with the wine perfectly, (bought two bottles for the room)

Cabernet Sauvignon from the Salta Region. Grown at 10,000 feet. This is not a California Cab. It is very light, not chewy and zero oak. It could just be enjoyed after a stressful day of work. This was served with Chipa. This is a traditional Argentina cheese bread, topped with cream cheese, chorizo and onions cooked down in a Malbec Reduction. It was the best bite of the day, and just happens to be the “Dish of the Day” (sorry no pictures of the wine tasting at all, we were just enjoying the wine and learning about not just the wine, but the history of Argentina.)

Montepulciano: Yes, this is an Italian grape, but there are no varietals native to Argentina, so they all came primarily from France and Spain. This wine I did prefer over the Cabernet, had a bit more depth and went very well with the been empanada (Abby’s family recipe, hopefully we will be learning this when we return for our empanada class)

The last wine was a cabernet sauvignon/malbec blend 50/50. It was by far the biggest wine of the afternoon. It would go well with any hearty meat dish. It also went exceptionally well with Abby’s handmade chocolate truffle, rival’s Moonstruck in Portland.

This was much more than a wine tasting, we really learned some in depth things about Argentina, the regions, politics and people. They even called us a cab to get back to our hotel. It was the best part of our first day (the wine tasting not the cab ride).

Back at the hotel, we had just a bit of time to relax and head down to dinner. We opted to eat in the hotel since it was our first night and we were quite tired. No dish of the day here, we actually both had salads. Jerry had a very subpar (but huge) Niçoise and I had a eh Lyonnaise Salad, yes French in Argentina. Like I have said we are true Francophiles at heart.

We headed back up to the room, had some wine (left from dinner) and as I said earlier, I almost feel asleep in the chair. Jerry finished unpacking, I was in bed by 10:30 and a sleep 8 minutes later.

Thus ends the first two long days of our 21 days here.

Tomorrow – Evita????

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Photos

Boston Lounge
Ready to go.

La Boca
Street Scenes

Comments

[Connie]

Arrival
Very happy to hear you arrived safely. That was two long days of travel to arrive. Your initial wine tasting for this trip sounded amazing! And the small bites paired. I'm looking forward to hearing about your travel experiences. Enjoy your vacation!