steveslaw

So I’ve been here in Argentina almost a week now and it feels a lot longer.. Which is good!

It’s been great hanging out with JJ and Sara, who have kindly been letting me stay with them in their flat in Nunez, Buenos Aires. They’ve also been cooking me lots of meals – they live on an amazing diet of salads! JJ is organic vegan who is currently trying to avoid sesame nuts and sesame oil. This means he can’t really eat out at all so he prepares all his own food – and lots of it! Boy oh boy that man can eat. Where he puts it all is a mystery. However, his salads are awesome and contain more ingredients lovingly chopped than I would ever care to have to prepare. Here is a picture of a ‘small salad portion’.

This brings me to an interesting point: I have not been eating much meat since arriving. I didn’t think this was bothering me until oddly I woke up on Friday morning with an amazing meat craving! Luckily there is a little deli just near the flat that has an amazing range of pies, quiche type things and what is locally called ’empanadas’ (Cornish pasties). This helped solve my desires and also at some point in the next week I’ll head out into town and treat myself to a steak dinner and vino 😉

In my first week I’ve been doing a fair bit of walking around the city and trying the odd phrase in Spanish out – mainly; how much is this, where is this, or please can I have this. All mostly pre-seeded by the phrase; sorry, I only speak a little Spanish. However, most attempts to date have been met warmly and I only generally get into trouble when they then to proceed to talk to me as if I am a long lost friend. This just leads to me looking both stupid and frustrated and some obvious disappointment and confusion from them. Learning Spanish is a key objective in the coming months and any suggestions you have are welcome ( try and keep them constructive!).

My most practiced phrase; un cervesa porfavour (a beer please) has yet to be used. Living with non drinking vegans means no time to go to the pub! However, I am going to let them work (yes, they have jobs!) this week and will get out a little more on my own.. who knows where this will end up.

Third surprise of the holiday; I’ve been running!! Twice! Twice in five days! A 6k followed by a 9k. With inclines. And some running backwards! I haven’t run 10k since my marathon in 2010 and it was one of my desires for this little escapade to do some running in every country we visit so this is an awesome start! Lets hope it continues. We are planning another possible run before I leave Argentina and then I hope to do a few more on my slog northwards to meet Kate in Belize. My first stop is Santa Cruz in Bolivia which will take me two days to get to by coach after which I am sure I’ll be ready to go for a run!!

Tango. Along with steak, wine and the Falklands (which we will not mention) Argentina is famous for the Tango. Last night I went a long to a local park where ever Friday, Saturday and Sunday people meet to dance in the evening. It’s was great to watch people arrive on their own, in couples, or in small groups and just mingle and dance the evening away. No drinking, no fuss, just people getting together. Once I’ve had some lessons perhaps I will give it a try. Photo below.