Buenos tardes! We’ve done a lot since the last blog post; here’s a re-cap.
Mueso de Che – Born in Argentina, but not exactly celebrated here, Che Guevara is a controversial figure. We found a little museum on a map that ended up being an interesting collection of photographs, paintings, books, and a life-size replica of the guerrilla within a shop crammed with any kind of second hand trinket you can imagine. Eladio, the museum owner, was a friend of Che’s good friend and clearly believes in Che’s cause. He spent 2 hours telling us all sorts of stories and advice related to Che and the movement he died for. Che was “mad with love,” for humanity, he explained, and felt that the type of society he was fighting for was worth using violence to achieve. 
Tango – The museum owner ended a long-winded conversation with suggestions for things to see in BA. We were in the market to see and maybe even try a little tango dancing, and as luck would have it, Eladio’s son teaches tango and salsa. At 8:30, we made our way to “Club Premier.” Bright graffiti art covered the walls, colorful flags hung from the ceiling, and pizzas and empendas were warming in the oven. The tango lesson was underway when we arrived, so we joined the group as they practiced shifting weight from left to right then doing a couple of moving steps around and around the room in a circle. There were all levels of dancers in the class, so we broke into a small group of beginners and tried to follow the steps.
At the end of the lesson, there was a “practica.” Experienced dancers took the floor while a three person band played tango music. After taking lessons, we had a much better appreciation of how hard tango is; yet good dancers make it look completely effortless. Sitting amongst portenos and watching them tango and sing along to folk music was a really cool, very Buenos Aires experience.
Hokies reunite – On Friday, we joined the VT crew who were tired but in good spirits after their all night flights.
We changed money, found a nice outdoor cafe for lunch, and headed over to the must-see Recoleta cemetery. One of the largest necropolis in the world, the cemetery is filled with monuments and mausoleum housing the remains of prominent and wealthy Argentines. We navigated the maze of weathered structures to find Evita’s grave. She is buried with her family, which is controversial because her grave is amongst the remains of the wealthy who despised her left-leaning political reforms. After exploring the cemetery, we found a nice place for dinner and drinks in SOHO Palermo.
On Saturday, we enjoyed breakfast at the hotel, then scooped out a hop-on, hop-off bus tour. The route hugged the river front and looped through different neighborhoods and around important buildings. We had awesome empenadas and shared a penguin-shaped pitcher of red wine for lunch, then returned to the bus to see more of the city. According to a taxis driver, there are about 10 million people who live in BA proper and about 20 million in the surrounding area. The city is huge and parts reminded me of New York City, but with more European and Latin American influence. There are streets with enormous, ornate buildings, and other areas with small shops hawking all kinds of products with apartments above. BA is a great city to explore and enjoy.
The Argentinian Experience (interactive restaurant adventure) got us up to speed quickly on the local food, customs, and culture of Buenos Aires. Our Argentinian lawyer/cook named Fernando schooled the group of Hokies in making our own empanadas, learning key Spanish phrases plus all the required hand gestures to pass as local Portenismos. We had arguably the best steak in the world and consumed delicious vino and copious amounts of Yerba Mate to get us pumped up for the post dinner Buenos Aires night life. This town’s world famous night life begins around 2:00am and rages through sunrise. We got a small taste of the BA scene, and were barely capable of waking up all members of the party in time to catch cabs at 7:00am for the early morning flight to Mendoza. Kiel and Cara arranged a guide and a beautiful mansion villa for the group in Mendoza, and we will update the blog soon with the wine tours and happenings over the next four days.
Vision Quest: Sudamerica 