Havana and the Top Ten Reasons to Visit Bogota

Hanging out with the cool kids at Cocinero.

Another week in Havana and another fun trip through the airport. For some reason, they sent our plane to a gate with a broken bridge so instead of a quick exit from the front of the plane, we had to deplane from the back of the plane, down the stairs and onto buses. As it was, we got to the terminal pretty rapidly as the first busload had to come back to where our second bus loaded since there were apparently 8 Cubans returning from Ecuador without their passports. Some of them were in business class and none of them seemed particularly worried while Immigration officers came onto the bus and went over their documents.

Plane, bridge, airport. What am I doing on this bus?

Then to the airport and my bags came off quite quickly but my three tags were covered in customs gobbly-gook. Luckily I was sent to the search line quickly so I was first in line. Unluckily, there were only two desks opened and both had women returning from Ecuador with the huge bags full of hundreds of items of clothes. The wait lasted about 40 minutes by which time there were about 10 people behind me. Three or four were tourists who almost made it out before being stopped by the mean final customs officer by the exit doors and sent back for checks. They all went to one of the two desks hoping for a quick search before being sent into the growing line up behind me. This being Cuba, the supervisor spotted a couple with a 4 year old daughter and told a customs officer to man a desk and check them out. After doing so, he went away again and left all of us still in the line. After being properly seasoned, the supervisor took me and the guy behind me to an xray machine and ran out bags through. She asked what I had and I replied “mostly food”. She said okay, I could go ... and proceeded out of the customs area to be stopped by that final woman who told me I had to get my bags checked. I explained that I had just come from the line and the supervisor had xrayed my bags and told me I could leave. She asked which supervisor and I said the tall blonde woman at which point they yelled out a conversation across the customs area with the first woman insisting that I had to open my bags and the other one saying let him go. And the supervisor won and I was out into the heat and humidity of Havana.

My friend Boris was there to pick me up and we stopped at the first gas station for some beers. This being Cuba, of course there was no Cuban beer and our choice was Heineken or Becks. Picked up two moderately cold greenies and off down the road.

Cohen enjoying the dancing girls!

The week was quite busy with work and spending time with one of my closest friends, Tracey who had lived in Havana for about 16 months a decade ago, visiting with her son Cohen. My first night there, went to the Meson de la Flota to catch the flamenco company Grupo Ecos. They were excellent as always and the dancers remarked at how serious but very attentive Cohen was, watching them.  Food was pretty good as well with the camarones el ajillo, garbanzos fritos, and seafood brochettas being the highlights. Then big fat cigars with lots of Cuban rum of course.

The new brew pub in Old Havana

Ended up going to the new Salm brewpub on the harbour road in Old Havana three times. Food was just like the first place in Plaza Vieja, quite poor but the beer was excellent. It looked like Habaguanex had purchased a top of the line system worth probably a few million dollars. Won’t take them long to pay for it since the place was completely full over the 3 hours we spent there on a Sunday afternoon with a continuous line up running outside. 

Claudio cutting me off.

And very nice to see that the vast majority of people were Cubans. Tourists will come of course since the place was directly adjacent to the Artisan’s Fair with their many fine painting vendors. We sat at the bar and found a great beer maid named Ismary who was super fast with the beers, filled the mugs up nicely, and always had a friendly smile.

I have heard that the Government intends to move all commercial shipping to the new Mariel Port and to convert the huge Havana harbour into a more commercial and tourism oriented area with a marina. Sounds like a great plan.

Of course the highlight of the trip was eating out in Havana. I have been kind of against eating at State run places since they don’t really seem to care but there are exceptions. El Palenque has a new and younger manager who has been working hard to get the standards back to where they used to be. Cuba is a communist state so the workers have a lot of rights and sometimes they just don’t want to work. Palenque is famous for its charcoal grilled pork which is served chopped up and covered in mojo (a sauce made of garlic, oil, lime juice and onions). It can be quite delicious, especially when you specify that you want it cooked and hot. Don’t make the assumption that the waiter knows this!

The cool outdoor space of BellaCiao

I hit some of the regular and great paladars. BellaCiao for the great ravioli y amazing spaghetti arrabiata – the latter was done extra al dente and extra spciy. 

Server of the week - at BellaCiao

Amazing service as well – very attentive and with a real authentic smile like she really wanted us to have a nice dinner and was happy that we enjoyed the food.

Amazing shrimp at a restaurant that I cannot publicly mention. If you want the name, PM me.

Also went to an Italian restaurant a bit off the beaten path in Playa. We had a large table of 14 and the owner just sent out one appetizer after another. An oven baked cheese covered berenjena, asparagus covered in blue cheese and bacon, beef carpaccio, and the freshest, sweetest shrimps I have ever had. They were so fresh, in fact, that they were only delivered by the fisherman after we had arrived at the place. All this was followed by three kinds of fresh made pasta served family style for all of us to share. I would tell you the name and location but the people I ate with asked me not to since they didn’t want to see this place overrun.

Returned to the Litoral on the Malecon. My three friends all had the small mesa fria – a $7.50 small plate that you could load up with cheeses, salamis, olives, quail eggs etc  - and that was enough to fill them up.  I had a longish conversation with the waitress about what was their freshest fish. She said the owner of the restaurant was a fisherman and served the fish he caught. We settled on a red snapper dish that consisted on a rolled filet served on a bed of mash potatoes and a pastry wafer with a white wine sauce. The fish wad delicious ... but the very last end of the fillet had an ammonia smell which contradicted her claim of freshness. Oh well, I have been lied to about fish in many many countries.

Old boys night.

Hung out one night at Las Terrazas on the third floor of the Centro Andalusia and came across an old friend from a decade ago. Erwann from France is back in Cuba and doing some good work. We used to go to Megano for beach volleyball and bbq's and lots of dominoes nights. He is also a great surfer (from Brittany) and taught me how to surf in Santa Maria. After a nice grilled dinner, we retired to the cigar lounge where PJ unearthed a rare bottle of the best white rum produced in Cuba.

Yes, the rum was indeed exquisite.

One thing I haven’t done in about a year is to have a dominoes night. We used to have huge parties at Delia’s house with up to 175 people spread out through the house. Live jazz band on the ground floor, salsa and meringue on the terrace, chill out lounge on the third floor balcony and the drunks on the roofs with their bottles. We used to order whole roast pigs and have cases of beer and rum. Then the parties got smaller and smaller and duller and duller until they were so bad, we had to put them out of their misery. What happened? We got old and lost our mojo.

So I called up Yeye and said, let’s do a dinner and a small domino night. The first thing she said? “I am not going to cook dinner!” to which I replied, “Yeye, I have known you for 18 years, of course I know you aren’t going to cook.” So Boris and I took off in her car and picked up 4 orders of El Aljibe roast chicken dinner special and a case of beer and a couple of bottles of rum.  We brought our own large plastic bucket which they filled up with about a gallon of their delicious black beans. We had specified fresh chicken (not lunch leftovers) and they insisted that that is what they packed  ... but I forgot to specify moist chicken or extra sauce so it was pretty dry. Mind you, I ate mostly the rice and beans.

Domino! Proximo!

Very small group at first, just Delia, Boris, Jhonny and myself. Then Jan came by with his gf, Fito, Victor from Fla and the murderous pair of Victor and Emanuel who proceeded to destroy everyone at dominoes. They looked like twins and I was pretty sure that they were communicating telepathically but they eventually lost. Plenty of food for all and we didn’t finish the beer or rum despite playing until 4:30 am. Ah, just like the good old days.

Flying back home I decided to go through Quito and Bogota. Quito was supposed to be a 5 hour stopover and I was looking forward to catching a nap in their nice sleeping room … until they announced that all transit passengers had to clear immigration and pick up their bags. Now does that make any sense? Was this to save themselves the hassle of having to man one door for me to go through and one security shift to xray my bag? Yikes. Okay, immigration seemed amused that I planned to visit their country for 3 hours. Get my bags, xray again and out the door to a cold terminal but at least a lot of shops were open. Or rather, they were in business but all of the staff appeared to be lounging together in one of the seating areas.

I knew the check in counter wouldn’t open for a few hours so I headed outside to spark up a cigar. Luckily I had a few tetraboxes of Cuban Planchao rum so I cracked one open to sip while I smoked for the next hour. I have a cigar smoking buddy in Quito and I texted him to come out to the airport for a cigar and a drink but, alas, it was 1:30 am and he was probably asleep.

Okay, check back in, make it into the lounge, hit the sleeping room and have a brief rest before boarding the next plane to Bogota. I have no recollection of that flight but it did land in Bogota and my bags did come out quickly and my buddy Kyoharu was waiting to pick me up. Kyo’s wife works for a foreign oil company so he had a security driver who was very nice and came in very handy when we were out and about.

My friend Mark had recently moved from the funky and bohemian Candeleria area to Chapinero which was much more centrally located, close to the places he taught English, and much closer to the Transmillenium public transport lines. One thing he didn’t know was that the area is called Chapigay due to the dozens of gay clubs in the area. You could call his immediate neighbourhood Chapisupergay since there were 4-5 clubs directly below and around his apartment. Made for noisy evenings but at least there always taxis around. We went for a walk looking for some beers and everyone was super friendly and invited us into their clubs even though I said we were straight. Like doormen the world over, one guy was a big fan of cigars and was chuffed when I gave him a fresh Habano.

How spicy do you want it? Hot, hotter, or WTF?!

Mark told me that a friend of his ignited a medium sized internet storm when he posted an article on the 10 things he hated about Bogota. I think this is it - https://medium.com/medium-colombia/2a97ffa790e0.

Street meat in Bogota!

Now I have visited Bogota 4 times in the last few years and I can say that I really like the city and here are my 10 reasons why:

1.  Bogota is a giant, cosmopolitan, busy, noisy, bustling and active city. Having grown up in Toronto but having lived in the smaller and quieter Havana and San Salvador for the past few decades, I have really missed the great urban vibe.

Empenadas, chicharrones, sausage, morcilla y patacones.

Colombian soup counter.

Chicken Ajiaco

2.  The food is great, and I am not talking about “international food” or any lame Latin American fusion bullshit. I am talking about the great local food like Ajiaco (chicken soup with potatoes and garnished with avocado and cream), hot crispy and meaty Chicharrones, and Chunchullo which are grilled beef intestines. 

Chunchullos with fresh arepas!

Not only is all this local food great, but the locals actually like it! I have been in many countries where the more refined (white) people won’t eat the local specialities like sopa de patas here in El Salvador. And the street food is pretty good from the Chorriperros (grilled sausage on a big bun with fried onions, crispy potatoes and lots of mayo, ketchup and mustard) to the fresh cooked potato chips. I don’t know how these old guys get chips so crisp with their tiny pots of oil on their pushcarts but they do – make sure to ask for the hot ones fresh out of the oil. 

A corriente in the Restrepo market. Thick fish soup, then a big ol plate of carbs with corn, yucca, potato, rice, avocado and onions and tender beef in gravy with home made hot sauce.

And for lunch, there are hundreds of places selling Corrientes from between $1.50 to $5.00 which consist of a hearty soup with a plate of rice, veggies and a protein (chicken, beef or a fried fish) and unlimited fresh juices. Always varied and always interesting. 

Bandeja paisa

And if you are really really hungry, try tackling a bandeja paisa – a large platter covered in rice, a bean stew, ground beef, arepas, avocados, fried eggs and hot chicharrones fresh out of the oil. Oh, and sausages. I went to one place along Carrera 7 and thought I was hungry and ordered the dish. Barely got through a third of it. Asked them to pack it up and, outside in the rain, a teenager was asking for money for food. So I asked him if he wanted the rest of my baneja paisa and he said yes – asked for a fork and the staff were bemused as I handed over the food to the kid. Oh, I should mention that there are great hot sauces – if you want it hot, you will get it hot.

Very excited to be seated in the front row of the Transmilenio Falcon!

3.  The Transmilenio. I know, this is very contentious because most people hate the system and there are huge demonstrations against them. And hard for me to say since I have only used it about 6 or 7 times and never had to wait an hour to get to my bus loading a half a block away or watched the fourth full bus pass the station. But no system is perfect and it still moves over a million people a day for less than a dollar a ride and the system was far less costly to set up than an underground subway system (which, admittedly, would be better in the long term and  which is being looked at now). Using it at certain times, it is much faster than taking a cab and a pretty interesting ride. I actually got bounced out of my seat in the very last row of a double articulated bus (they have triples too) and got about 3 inches of air.

Two of my favourite people - Dani and Gaby, about to dig into
Cochinito Pibil pulled pork tacos.

4.  Friendly people who are happy to have a conversation and aren’t afraid to speak or don’t think they are better than you – a common occurrence in this region. I have met interesting people in all kinds of places. Stand beside one of the big bbq restaurants with the big hanging grill over the big wood fire and the grill man will cut a piece of meat and hand it to you. For free!

Not sure if Angela is laughing with me or at me.

5.  Great places to hang out from the high end Andres Carne de Res in Chia to the low end Cuerdas Acero Rock Bar. 

After lunch cigars with coffee, rum and live music in Chia. What else do you need?

The first place took 3 hours to drive there and back but the food was worth it. The second place, we needed to use a washroom having drank many pints in the Candeleria BBC and walking back to Macarena – we bought a beer out of guilt and ended up staying for the next four hours. They had the video or song of every song we could think of from Elvis to Metallica to MJ and they played them all for us in their 15 seat bar.

On the Transmilenio heading across the city.

6.  Great neighbourhoods and party areas. So so far, I have stayed in a working class area in the south, in Macarena and now in Chapigay. I have visited the Zona T party area a few times and have always had a great meal. Candeleria is funky and bohemian, Parque 93 has numerous places to hang out and my favourite BBC where I can sometimes smoke a cigar (depending on which way the wind is blowing), Usaquen with its old colonial buildings (and a BBC of course), and numerous other places I don’t know the names of.

Simple food at a fancy place in the Zona T

7.  Stuff to buy like leather goods in Restrepo. Now if you know me, you know that I am a fan of brief cases and shoulder bags. Man bags, satchels, murses, whatever …. I carry around cigars, cutters, lighters, sunglasses, cell phones, cameras, umbrellas, and an iPad and this shit won’t fit into my pockets. Much cheaper than El Salvador, Argentina or Ecudador, Colombia produces very high quality bags and I just picked up three of them in Restrepo. They wanted 100K, 90K and 80K for the three bags and negotiated a price of 240K pesos which is about $120. My problem is that everyone sees the bags and wants to have one so I keep having to buy new ones. 

Closing the deal at the jade shop.

Also, very good jade although good luck trying to buy one. I spent 4 trips trying to find a trustworthy contact and in the end, I just jumped in and started visiting shops. I was looking for a stone for $1,000 and eventually found some that I liked. A bit less than a carat but nice colour, nice clarity but with a lot of occlusions. Had no idea if they had been heat or chemically treated (everyone said that they only used oil) but I did get the price down from the initial $1,600 to $1,000 so I figured that was okay. Then found another place that had a better and bigger stone for the same price. Then went to the washroom at this jewellery centre and was buzzed in by a woman so had to look at her stones. Found one I liked and she let me walk it downstairs to the other dealer where I compared stones. So out of about 20 stones at three dealers, found the one I liked. Still not sure if I got a good deal or if I was ripped off!

A nice selection of beer at a tiny bar. In a car park!

8.  Beer. Oddly with neighbouring Chile and Argentina producing so much wine, Colombians love their beer. From the local Aguilar and Poker to the slightly more expensive Club Colombia (clara, roja y negra), to the high end Apostle and Tres Cordilleros, the beer is excellent. And the best of them all is the Bogota Beer Company with their 19 (and growing) locations. I think I have been to about 8 of them and the draft beer is awesome.

9.  Modern and efficient airport and really cheap taxis! Visiting Toronto, the thought of taking a taxi from downtown (say a club a John and Richmond) to my folk’s condo at Yonge south of Finch, makes me physically ill. That ride would probably cost $50 which is a weeks pay in El Salvador (and 2 months pay in Cuba). In Bogota, you can take a cab for a half an hour through half the city and it will still be less than $10. And a ride to the airport is about 25K pesos or $12.50. Awesome.

Ivonne looking particularly fetching trying to unload food off her plate.

10.  Women. Hope this doesn’t come across as sexist but there are many beautiful women in Colombian and of all shapes and sizes and colouring. I sometimes would see the most stunning woman walk by or working as cashiers at the supermarket. I should say that there are also a lot of good looking guys – something that isn’t true of every country in the region. Sometimes the DNA mix works … and sometimes it doesn’t.

So that is my list of the top ten reasons I think Bogota is a great place. I look forward to visiting again and again to drink the beer, eat the food, and to hang out in a great city.

Havana and Buenos Aires

I have been reading a few other blogs and have come to realize that my blog isn’t very helpful regarding living in El Salvador. Plus, to be frank, this country is great for many reasons but it is small, somewhat limited, and life here is a bit dull compared to some other countries.

So I will continue to mix entries on El Salvador with other cities and countries that I have been lucky enough to visit.

I recently got back from Cuba. With the explosion of free market retail in Havana and with the lifting of travel restrictions and with many hundreds of thousands of Cubans with Spanish passports, there are a huge number of Cubans traveling to Ecuador and Panama to purchase clothing, accessories and small light items to import into Cuba for sale.  Flying routes connecting to these countries see business class seats full of upgraded Cuban flyers. I was unlucky to be on a plane with about 40 of these mulas.

You always know when you are on a plane with a lot of Cubans. They are loud, expressive, drink quite heavily, and carry on loud conversations across aisles and sometimes back several rows. As an overly polite Canadian, I actually like and admire Cubans for not really giving a damn what you think.

Yeah, second last in the customs line up!

So the flight was fine and I came loaded with three checked bags and three carry-ons full of crap for my friends living in Havana. Landed early, cleared immigration quickly, and went to the baggage carousel and waited ...  and waited ... and waited. Finally there were only two of us and the Russian woman who works for Taca went looking for my bags and found them still in the back. Of course the xray showed some items that needed to be investigated further.

Okay, that’s fine. I open my bags all the time for various food stuffs like jalapenos and tortillas. Unfortunately, and here is the part about being unlucky to be on a plane with mulas, I got into a line with 15 Cubans with giant bags full of literally hundreds of items of clothing that had to be checked by hand, piece by piece, before they could get to me. The majority, maybe 25, of the mulas were in another line and just had to have their bags weighed, pay about 1,500 Cuban pesos (about USD 60) and go off to make their hundreds of dollars selling the clothes to the public or to kiosks. There were a varying number of customs officers ranging from a high of 5 and down to 2 when I finally got to the head of the line two and half hours later. I complained to a supervisor who went to an office behind us and yelled at someone to finish the flight off.

That's the pregnant woman that got me.

This very pregnant woman comes out (not in uniform since it wouldn’t cover her large belly) and I start complaining to her that everyone in the line was there for a commercial purpose, bringing in goods for sale, and the customs officers are running their own commercial program, charging people lots of duty for bringing in goods, while I was just a tourist coming in to visit friends for a week! She wasn’t sympathetic and opened my bags to discover a large ceiling fan for a friend and a big bag of heavy medals for the international school swimming meet. She called over the supervisor and I complained to him and he looked at what had triggered the xray and the search and said I could go. So pile everything back into the bags and head for the door to be stopped by the guard who said I hadn’t paid yet. More yelling back and forth and finally three hours and 45 minutes later, I am out!

My friend was still waiting for me and I had to have a few cold ones to revive myself.

Havana is still powering forward with free enterprise and commerce. I attended a meeting put on by a Cuban service provider where they gathered all their big foreign customers to fill them in on recent legal changes and to provide information on new procedures and services they were offering. This was quite extraordinary since these Cuban companies normally just work for other Cuban Ministries and empresas and now they were actually trying to do more work, provide more services, and help foreign companies expand their businesses.

Made it to some of my favourite paladars. 

Delia and I enjoying a leisurely lunch

Had a nice 3 hour lunch with Delia at Starbien on 29 between B and C in Vedado. A nice white wine and shrimps, octopus and fish. Also had great brick oven pizza at Carboncita. Took a chance and ordered food at the state run 19^th hole at the golf course and the food was pretty ghastly – the food was old, smelled off and was badly prepared. The jamon Serrano sandwich was actually just processed cooked ham.

Champagne? Why not.

Found a new place called Mediterraneo Havana on 13 between F and G in Vedado which we went to after hearing there was a cute waitress on the upstairs terrace. She was cute but even better, they had a good cheese plate with a slice of parmesan, blue, a semi-soft and fresh house made ricotta. And they had a risotto made with porcini mushrooms and home-made sausage that was so good that I went back the next day to have it for lunch. A different cute waitress and I split an order of the porcini risotto with the seafood risotto which wasn’t very good. Definitely will go back for the porcini one and will bring some truffle oil to drizzle on top.

Giant baby octopus with pesto sauce

What else ... checked out La Fontana for dinner and ordered the grilled pesto octopus and a seafood plate for appetizers and was brought so much food that I couldn’t get through it. It was supposed to have the busiest bar at 3 in the morning but it was pretty quiet up until we left at 1:30 am. Someone said it was done up like Miami style and, a tribute to the great designers in Havana, I thought it was a bit cheesy and shabby compared to some lounges I have seen like Milanos and Cocinero.

The lads at la Fontana before things got ugly

So a fast 6 days in Havana and then flew home via Buenos Aires. I was shopping tickets to get the best price for the most miles and found a flight back to San Salvador via San Salvador to Lima to BA to Lima to San Salvador. Lots of points but it was a 23 hour trip which included about 9 hours in the Lima airport. It is big and nice and they have an okay lounge that has a sleeping room with chaise lounges and showers ... but they only want to let you in for 4 hours for Star Alliance Gold card holders. Actually they will stretch this to maybe 5 hours and I went early on the way back and she said I would have to leave in 4 hours but she didn’t find me to chase me out – maybe because I was asleep.

Stefan getting creative in the flea market

Long trip later, I hit Buenos Aires for the first time! Got through immigration quickly having paid my $150 reciprocal fee on-line (that is for the multiple that is good for 5 years). Got my bags quickly and out the door. My friend told me to get a taxi from Manuel Tienda Leon (I think that was the name) and I had the choice of paying 340 pesos or USD60. That was close to the official rate of 5.4 pesos to the dollar and to avoid changing money, I paid the USD 60. The hand off was really weird because I was told to wait at a spot and then this guy comes over and says he is my driver. I said where am I going and he said he didn’t know – so I made him go back to the counter to verify that he worked for the same company and was not some random taxi driver who was going to ask me for more money or worse. He was a very interesting guy named Julio Cesar whose mother gave him the “JC” initials since he was born on December 25. He gave me a good run down on the economy and politics of the country and blames the politicians for f*cking up such a resource rich country and reducing it to a third world economy. Julio explained his economic manifesto to me and said that Argentina should lease half their land to China and the Chinese could start farms and ranches and mines and processing plants and factories and pay a share back. Then all Argentines could retire and let the Chinese do all the work. Sounds like a good plan to me.

My buddy Stefan is one of my closest friends from his years in Havana but we hadn’t seen each other in eight years. I was a little apprehensive that he might have changed (diplomats often get large heads when they get promotions) but he was the same and showed me awesome hospitality. He had a very nice two bedroom apartment in Palermo with a killer view of many of the downtown parks and the big river.

Lovely architecture! Also demonstrations and riot police ... this is Latin America.

So began a 6 day odyssey of beef eating and Malbec drinking!

I had some preconceived notions of course. There are a lot of Argentinean steak houses in San Salvador and they usually serve steaks that have been butterflied open and are very thin so hard to cook medium rare. I have also tried a lot of mid-priced Malbecs that were okay but not great and often with a slightly bitter taste.

First dinner at Don Julio's

CLICK ON THE PHOTO TO SEE THE WHOLE SHOT.

Stefan took me to his favourite place, Don Julio’s which is a very charming rustic parrilla. The walls are covered in shelves holding empty bottles that I think have had their labels inscribed by clients. They have a great salad system where you can choose exactly what you want and get and pay for just that. I love arugula which we ate daily in Cuba (until a storm surge flood during a hurricane killed off the plot planted in Miramar) but rarely in ES (sold in tiny little bags for two bucks) and they had it everywhere. Along with onions, tomato and parmesan cheese, a perfect salad for me. Stefan ordered a wine which was fantastic – fruity and full but a bit acidic which helped cut through the fat of the 5 steaks he ordered for the three of us. 

3 of the 5 steaks ordered.

And we ate them all.

I should explain that Stefan is a marathoner and Ironman having completed two of those insane competitions. So the calories were no problems for him. His girlfriend Mary is a really lovely woman from nearby southern Brazil. She is a former model and still looks like and eats like one – so not a lot of help with that much meat on the table. As for me, when the beef and wine are that good, I can pull my own weight.

So I was happily surprised to see that they cut their steaks very thick and prefer to cook them medium rare – the call this jugoso or “juicy”. The rib-eye or “ojo de bife” was one of the best I have ever had. Nicely charred on the inside and super juicy and rare on the inside.

Shopping with Mary.

Stefan was working during the days so Mary was kind enough to spend her days with me showing me the city. We took the subway to Florida Street which is a long pedestrian shopping area stretching several blocks. Had my first empenado which was warm and meaty and very tasty. Also did the tour of the city on the open topped double decker bus. Stopped off in Recoleta to take pictures and to have lunch. Stefan told me that they were treating me for all of my meals that week so Mary insisted on paying for every lunch. A rather disconcerting experience having a beautiful woman paying for me all the time but I got used to it.

Hanging out with about a thousand tourists in Ricoleta

Also did lots of shopping. While the official rate was 5.4, the Blue dollar rate was 9.3 and I changed a few hundred at this rate. Ended up getting some great shirts at Zaras. Mary explained to me that Argentinean men are dandy’s and there are as many men’s clothing stores as women’s. Also went to a bunch of shops looking for a purse for Fatima and Mary was very helpful modeling them for me.

I think my favourite part of the city was Palermo Soho, a nice walk from the apartment and full of funky shops and cafes. I had a great salad there topped with another perfectly cooked sliced steak. Met some very interesting shop keepers. One men’s store had great shirts and the gay floor guy spoke perfect English and was very helpful and accurately predicted that we would come back and buy a shirt they carried. Went to a place next door full of edgy pieces and the shop girl was super pale and lethargic and looked like a heroin addict. We had to get buzzed into another place and after picking up a bag on a table near the window, the old guy sitting behind the cash register came out and glared at me as he reset the piece on the table. I asked the older woman working there who made the bags and he said the old man did. She also showed us a replica Birkin Bag he made and was selling for around $300. I'd buy one but my sister wouldn't think that was very cool! Another shop was full of hip clothing with a sales guy, in t-shirt, jeans and Doc Martins leaning back on a table looking tough, who glared at us as we came in and I “Buenos tardes”, glared at us as we walked around, and glared at us as we left without ever moving or speaking.

Dining at La Cabrera - Charming room, great service

We wanted to hit the best steak house parrillas in the city so we called La Cabrera to make a reservation but they were all full up but they did have an offer where you could line up outside at 7:00 pm, get a table, and if you could eat and get out by 8:15, they would give you a 40% discount. I think about 30 people were outside at 7 and every one of them looked like a foreigner with mostly Germans and Brits I think. Obviously, they didn’t mind eating earlier. 

An 800 gm strip loin at la Cabrera

We were a tad rushed but had 2 lb steaks, another great wine, more arugula salads and it was about $60. Headed back to smoke some big Cuban cigars on his 22^nd floor balcony.

Churrascaria? Why?

We also managed to hit the churrascaria on the waterfront past the city airport. I forget the name ... something like Rodizio. When we got there, we had no problems parking with only 3 other cars there. This giant two level restaurant was virtually empty although there were two tables of Asians – Chinese businessmen with their large families. I asked the waiter about them and he said that Chinos often come to the restaurant very early. The buffet was pretty good – lots of seafood like big head-on shrimps and smoked salmon, lots of carpaccio and cold cuts. Stefan ordered a nice Malbec and we started a small scene trying to accelerate the deliver of beef to our table. Lots of sirloin, filet and then the picanha. I have to say that I finally had more beef than I could comfortable eat or even look at. Then some giant desserts (included in the price) like molten brownies with ice cream. I had an amazing grapefruit ice cream.

Stagger out to the car and we decided to take a drive through the park to check out the trannies. Hmm, a LOT of cars and some pretty chunky ladies. One tranny was quite animated with a nice rack and a tiny mini-skirt from which extended her very large unit which she was flapping in the wind. Surprisingly big, especially on such a cold night!

Great way to spend a rainy Saturday afternoon - drinking wine out of plastic cups, eating steaming hunks of grilled meat with your fingers, and smoking big cigars with a big view

On Saturday, we went to a parrilla bbq at a friend’s place. They had the top floor with a giant built in charcoal grill. Our host would cook big hunks of beef and nicely marinated pork, then cut them up into big pieces and serve them on a platter for us to eat with our fingers. Along with big pieces of fresh bread, lots of chimmichurri and great red wine drunk out of plastic cups, it was a great way to spend a rainy afternoon. Oddly, there were no Argentinian men amongst the approximately 20 people there. Most of them were interesting expats - one was half Canadian and half Argentinian with a foreign service Dad. Another guy was Iranian from Texas! Also a smattering of diplos, NGO workers, and Brits from whom I heard the word Argie for the first time in years. I was hoping to speak to an Argentinian who wasn’t a waiter, taxi-driver, bartender or shop clerk but none of these expats invited a local male. There were two lovely Argentinian woman who I was able to meet and speak to. I asked them why this group didn't mix with the local guys and they said that perhaps they found the men to be too arrogant. They said that the men could be quite the dandies as well.

Splurging at Osaka

That night, we went to a Peruvian Japanese fusion restaurant called Osaka. My family is originally from there so I had to check it out. We tried 9 appetizers and some were amazing but the sushi was surprisingly bad – the rice was terrible and way overly compacted. My favourite was a dish made of small cubed raw salmon and small cubed fresh pineapple dressed in ginger and sriracha with what might have been toasted ground sesame seeds on top. Again the service was pretty good and very flexible. They had a no cigar rule but the waiter asked the other three couples if they minded and they said no so we were able to go out onto the terrace to smoke big fat ones and finish our wine.

Diego used to be a member of the Havana Golf Club and I gotta tell you, he looked better back then.

Went to a bar called 878 one night. Took us a bit to find it because it was an ultracool place with no sign (makes you wonder how they stay open). We finally found it when I spotted a big burly guy in a suit texting on his phone – doorman, voila! Great long wooden bar, great mixologists, and some interesting local cocktails. One was made with Cynar, a local aperitif made with artichokes. My favourite was a cocktail with vodka, triple sec, campari and grapefruit juice. And while leaving, I reportedly made friends with the doorman and gave him a big Cuban cigar. This was my instinctual reaction to a possibly hard to get into bar in case we want to go back and there is a line up.

Gladys wrapping up my photographs.

Last day, Sunday, before my flight, we took the subway to Catedral Station to go to a big outdoor flea market at Plaza Dorrego that stretched like 10 blocks through the city. I bought some great photographs by Gladys Blanco, ate two delicious and really filling beef empadados, got some books in Spanish and a hand painted shirt for Fatima and a cushion cover for her collection. 

Eating empanadas in the flea market

Keeping to Stefan’s schedule, we briskly made it back to his hood and had plenty of time for our last steak – this time at a place a block away from his house. I ordered a rib-eye with an arugula salad and he said I should try the mollejas or beef cheeks. 

Mollejas .... yum!

They came grilled to the table with quartered lemons and they turned out to be sweet breads and were perhaps one of the most amazing things I have ever eaten. I spent a long time slowly chewing each piece and washing it down with another excellent Malbec. I never saw the prices of the wine but I think Stefan said we could get great wines for around $10 each.

My last steak. Goodbye Argentina, goodbye beef.

I thought I would get sick of the beef but, other than the night in the churasscaria, I never did. I couldn’t finish my steak so I asked the waiter to take it to the kitchen and put it in some bread and wrap it for my trip home to ES. Oh, and I learned what’s up with the chimichurri sauce. They sell it in bottles and have it at every steak house but every version was a muddled olive oil condiment with too much stuff in it like oregano and other herbs, pepper and vinegar. The recipe that I was taught, and which I love, only has fresh chopped parsley, garlic, salt and extra-virgin olive oil. This restaurant was the first place to have what I thought was authentic chimichurri – turns out this is a different version called chimichurri provenzal.

So back to the apartment, call a cab and this time the ride was half the price using the pesos I had changed at the Blue rate (and getting a discount for using the same cab company). Quite a long ride out to the airport and passed a lot of car clubs meeting at the side of the highways. Airport was big and noisy and there was a big line-up at immigration. It made me think of how different Canada is where we don’t have to pass through immigration when you leave the country – just check in, bag check, gate check and then airplane. Argentina, Colombia, El Salvador and Cuba all have exit procedures. Europe as well where your passport gets stamped when entering and leaving.

A lovely visit with a lovely couple.

Went to a very nice lounge and had a few cold beers while catching the golf. Then bought a big box of Havanna Alfajores and boarded the plane to Lima. Eight hours there and slept very well in the lounge and then onto the plane to El Salvador. Landed at home, hit the duty free store to stock up the whiskey larder and then out to the sunshine and heat.

Puerto Madero from a tour bus

Buenos Aires was definitely a great place to visit. Lovely city with lots of gorgeous European style architecture and lots of shiny condo towers. Some lovely rustic areas like Boca and Recoleta (although the later seems to exist to cater to tourists) and great food and shopping. I bought three slim fit shirts that would look good on me except they won’t fit over the big belly I developed from eating all that food.

It's the Falklands!

My only regret was not meeting and speaking to any Argentineans. Over lunch one day, we started chatting with the people on the other end of the table. They were Venezuelans and super friendly and happy to talk about Chavez and socialism and what countries they had visited. Maybe next time?

For many of us, Argentina is that big country down in South America with Evita Peron and the Falklands conflict and the terrible economy. As rich as the city seems, and it could easily pass for any city in North America or Europe, I hear the country side can be equally poor. I heard that much of their problems stemmed from their corrupt and ineffectual politicians and that consider it a tragedy that their country is the way it is.

At the turn of the century, emigrating Europeans had a choice of going to two different countries with very similar economies, natural resources and job prospects. One was Argentina and the other was Canada. Now the countries are vastly different and Canadians are charged $75 to enter Argentina for the sole reason that Argentinians need a visa to enter Canada.

I paid double that fee to have multiple entries for the next five years. I hope to go back soon, eat more steaks and share a few bottles of wine and some cigars with some locals!