A Friend Visits Brazil, We Go To Argentina

Thursday, October 19

My friend Said came to visit me during a break from school (we study together at Georgetown). He arrived in the morning and I picked him up at the airport. He brought me a new camera since mine had broken on my last trip. While he was here we did a lot of things I wouldn't normally do, so I got to enjoy some of the nicer things São Paulo has to offer.





On Avenida Paulista

We had a coffee on Avenida Paulista, then while I had class Said checked out the Museu de Arte de São Paulo, which is right by my house. Later, we had lunch at Mestiço, which is a fusion of Asian and Brazilian dishes. They had aracajé like the ones I had eaten in Bahia, but more fancier.



At Mestiço

We relaxed after lunch, and later had dinner at an Italian restaurant called L'Open in Jardins with an Italian friend, Allessandro. Later, we went to a discobar called Sogo.



At L'Open



Said and Allessandro at Sogo



On the way home

Friday, October 20

In the morning, we walked to Ibirapuera Park, and rented a two-person bicycle and rode around for a little while.







At Ibirapuera Park

Later, we took a cab to the Oscar Freire area of Jardins, and had lunch at a terrific Lebanese restaurant called Arábica. We had kibe cru (raw red meat), kibe missoui, beef stuffed with spices, thabouli, hummus and delicious deserts. Said chatted in Arabic with the owner, a Brazilian Lebanese woman.



At Arabica

Then we walked around and went shopping in the great shops of Oscar Freire.



Later that evening, we went out for few drinks in the Praça República. Afterwards, we went to an all night place popular after the bars called Estadão and had the best lomo sandwhich in the city.



On Vieira de Carvalho near Praça República

The next morning Said flew to Rio to spend a few days with a friend. That night, some friends from school had some people over.













Wednesday, October 25

Said got back on Tuesday night, and on Wednesday we had lunch at a wonderful restaurant called Figueira Rubaiyat, which is built around a garden under a giant fig tree. We shared bacalhau and a feijoada buffet, which included cow tails, pig ears and all the fixins.







That night we flew to Buenos Aires.

Thursday, October 26



Our plane was late and we got to our hotel around 3 AM. My friend Pepe from Spain was working in Buenos Aires, and got us an two-bedroom apartment hotel for a good price. In the morning we walked around and had a coffee. In Argentina, you can order a coffee for about a dollar, and as in Italy, the waiters bring you a few little cookies and a class of bubbly water to clean your mouth and avoid coffee breath. The world needs to spread this culture around a little more.



At a cafè in Recoleta



A plaza near our hotel

Then we met up with Pepe and his partner, and they gave us a full-day tour of Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires is gorgeous city, and probably one of the nicest cities I have ever visited. It looks very much like Paris, with wide avenues, elegant cafés, lots of details in the buildings and very stylish, good looking people everywhere. Porteños are very European, made up mostly Italian, Spanish and French people, with significant Armenian, Jewish, Middle Eatern populations as well. It was nice to be able to speak Spanish and to listen to the Argentinian accent, which is very nice. I enjoyed listening to them use the vos form, which is a relic of old Spanish that is still used in Argentina and some other places. The Porteños (people from Buenos Aires) also have a slang called lumfardo which, like their accent, incorporates Italian, French and other languages.





Pepe and I

The showed us some more of BA, and then we had dinner at a very nice restaurant called Sucre.



They dropped us off at a bar called Glam where we met a group of Ecuatorians. Then, we went back to the hotel.



Friday, October 27

Friday was our shopping day. One of the nicest things is that still, after the financial crisis in 2001, Argentina is extremely cheap. Cabs, food, leather goods, cashmere (not the scottish type, but still good, warm sweaters), and lots of fashion goods are all very affordable. I bought a pair of custom-made leather pants. There is a Christian Dior and Yves Saint Laurent factory in Argentina, so I also got a couple suits for a bargain.



You can take taxis to your heart's delight in BA and never break the bank



Having measurements taken at the leather shop on Calle Murillo



We had Argentinian parillada (grilled meat and sausages)for lunch





Awash in sweaters



Cleaning the wool off Said after trying on sweaters

That night, Pepe got us into a Tango show for free at the Esquina Humero Manzi, which is a landmark Tango restuarant and show. Humero Manzi was a famous poet, playwright, and lyricist who revolutionized Tango, and his Esquina is today an historic landmark. The place was mostly full of Argentinians, and the music and the dancing were mesmerizing. The accordeon, cello, piano and violin and their weeping melodies brought images of smokey cafés from days gone by (Buenos Aires is now smoke-free). And the dark, slicked back hair of the men in tuxedos and the women's red lips, endless legs and scanty dresses were stunning. The way they held each other, and then the woman would walk away in a sad, coquettish way, only to have the man chase behind her and take her back into his arms, at moments took me away.



Later, we went to a discothèque called Alsina. It was a nice place, very large, had good music and topped anything I've seen in São Paulo. There was a sign avertising a performance to be given a few days later by a Spanish group called La Terremoto de Alcorcón, which does a tacky and hystirical rendition of Madonna's Hung Up. Click on the link to see it on Google Video.

Saturday, October 28

We had lunch at a terrific place called Cabaña Las Lilas, which turned out the be owned by the same people as Figeira Rubaiyat in São Paulo.



Supporting the South American resutaurant giants

That night Pepe had gotten tickets to the opera for us as well as one for a friend of his named Gustavo. It was the last night of a sold-out performance, and he got them for us for free. We saw Boris Gudunov, a four-hour Russian Opera, at the Teatro Colón. It was something of an endurance test, as it was subtitled in Spanish, but was a wonderful experience.







The Teatro Colón

Sunday, October 29

The next day we had pizza for lunch, then went for dulce de leche ice cream. We also picked up some alfajores, delicious Spanish sweets that are popular and delicious from Havanna in Argentina, to bring home as gifts.



Alfajores

On our way to the airport we stopped by the Plaza de Mayo for snap a few shots.



Me in front of the Casa Rosada





Said and I in the Plaza de Mayo

We said good-bye at the airport, and I headed back to Brazil and Said to Washington. I highly recommend Buenos Aires and cannot wait to go back.