Buenos Aires - more fun

Dakar Moto’s hostel was full so we headed to the nearby Munro Hotel. The hotel is a 5 minute ride from the shop and is a real bargain for Buenos Aires. Our daily routine evolved in to working on getting the shipping arranged, hanging out at Dakar Moto trading travel and life stores, and sight seeing in the city. While at Dakar Motors one afternoon a couple show up and start pouring over a well used army green KLR. I realized I’ve seen that bike before, ahhg, its one of the Seguin brother’s road warriors. And it turns out the buyer is Motoxxman, who posts on Advrider. What a small world. He was buying the bike to take a motorcycle trip with his girlfriend while they were traveling through South America. On two different evenings we had an Asado at Dakar Motos. What is an Asado? In the states we call it a cookout, in Australia it is called a barby and in Germany its …not clear what they call it. Actually an Asado turned out to be much more elaborate than a simple firing up the grill and cooking some meat. First it involves specific cuts of meat as well as varies types of sausages. In Argentina you seldom see anything green with your meal. At a traditional Asado it seems that the variety comes in the various meats you consume and some bread. Of course our non-Argentines slipped in some salads, bell peppers and cream cheese. The Asado is a distinct cooking process that involves metering in hot charcoal or wood embers so the flame never touches the meat. For more details you can Google it or buy a book. It is really an art form, if done right. In addition to the meat preparation the tradition seems to require the presents of friends or extended family. I don’t sense it would be considered an Asado if didn’t involve a large number of participants.

Leo from Germany, and Javier, both demonstrated they had mastered the art of preparing the meat for the asado.

I can’t remember if I already commented on the wonderful tasting Argentine beef. I normally don’t eat a lot of red meat but while in Argentina I was compelled to do as the locals.

The downtown area of Buenos Aires was a lot of fun to visit. It is diverse, colorful and easy to get around on public transportation. Here are some pictures from our tourist time.

On Sunday we went with Ken and Carolyn to the San Telmo neighborhood to poke around. On Sunday’s the neighborhood features a large, high end, Antique market on the square, street performers and food vendors. This is the area where you can watch the Tango dances perform in the streets.

The weather was perfect, sunny and warm. The streets were packed but not overcrowded. It turned out t be a perfect day.

A nice old Merc

A motorhome?

We had an early dinner (they would call it lunch in Argentina) and finished it off with coffee and desert at the famous al Gran Café Tortoni. This place has been around since 1858 and has a lot of history and is very popular. We had a short wait in line outside before getting a table.

So which one is alive?

We had a great day but as evening arrived we had to head back to the hotel.