Don't Cry For Me Argentina

Inside the Museo de la Ciudad

One man presided over the ritual. He filled the hot brown gourds and the green liquid frothed to the neck. The men fondled the gourds and sucked at the bitter drink, talking about mate the way other men talked about women.
- Bruce Chatwin 'In Patagonia'

There is always meaning lost in translation, or shall we say, a lack of looking at the minor details on packaging at times. This time it happened to be on my part.

Every morning I would attempt to enrich my diet and breakfast experience with some tasty 'frutilla' yogurt inside that purple packaging. This had been my regular morning routine for 4 weeks. Then surprisingly one day, Jimena asked me how I was feeling. Was the food bothering my stomach? Was my body not used to the Argentine food? Quite the opposite. I loved the food and I felt fine, like a regular guy. She then asked me why I eat that Activia yogurt (if you click on this link, I suggest that you watch a few commercials to fully understand how great I felt in Argentina). I told her that I liked strawberry yogurt. Softly, she said that Activia yogurt is for people with irregular bowel movements to help them become more "regular." You can imagine my relief and surprise to have been eating a yogurt that's been helping "regulate my digestive system by helping reduce long intestinal transit time." Maybe that is the reason I have felt like a 'regular' guy here in Argentina.

Cultural misunderstandings happen all the time. I've committed quite a few in my travel life, but I'm not the only one. Companies also are responsible for a few. Mitsubishi came out with a line of vehicles called the Pajero, the Pajero Mini (obviously named after a New Mexican), the Pajero Junior, and the Pajero mini SUV. This is where you have to increase your Spanish vocabulary. If you can not find out why this is so funny, please feel free to email me at jwhit003@gmail.com.

Tango. The vertical dance of the horizontal desire. Your mind thinks of a guy in a black zoot suit dancing with a girl who's red dress has a slit up to the hip as they glide across the dance floor. We decided to see this dance that originated from Argentina at the famous Café Tortoni.

Upon our arrival to Café Tortoni, the bouncer of the café (yes, a bouncer for a café), told us to go down the stairs and follow the winding staircase to the dark room at the bottom. In the staircase we found a room split in half with pillars and 2 dozen tables facing a single stage. The waiter led us to our table that we would share with two other people.

After ordering our dinner and wine, the Tango show began. Three guys walked in with their slicked back hair and watched as three girls sitting at tables on stage waited for a slight nod, the invitation to dance. But like any good show, to increase the crowd's anticipation, they played out a few hypothetical Tango situations before the actual dancing. Thus, Guy A flirted with Guy B's girl. The fake fight between A and B while Guy C walks up and dances with Girl A. Guy A and B are now surprised about the turn of events. Somewhere in between all that, they all start dancing and sliding across the stage.

Over the next hour and a half, they danced the tango, the band played, guys played an ancient weapon, a rope with rocks attached at their ends, as musical instruments, and the MC sang. After we left Café Tortoni strolling among the lights of Avenida 9 de Julio, Nadine felt that this was by far the best experience of the trip. Even better than the yogurt!

While traveling through South Africa during our Around the World trip, we met this Argentine while he made his first trip abroad. During a bus ride, we chatted it up in Spanish so Nadine and Melissa wouldn't be able to understand us, and he offered to meet up with us if we ever made it back to Argentina in the future. Well we did make it back to Argentina, and we both kept our word from South Africa by making the weekend trip to the city of Córdoba. A rare thing happened, when Carlos met us early in the morning at the bus station, two travellers from different parts of the world actually met up again.

Our international hiking group

Over the next 36 hours, he showed us the historic center of town, La Manzana Jesuítica, and for the first time, a glimpse of life outside of the city. Carlos rounded up a few of his friends and all 7 of us set out for the town of Rio Cebollas. Over the morning and afternoon, we enjoyed the silence and absence of tall buildings, filled only by the bad jokes shared between friends as we hiked through the hills.

Our time left in Argentina is limited to a couple of days enjoying a little more asado, empanadas, and helado.

Enjoying some of life's simple pleasures