News from Brazil, where the nuts are from: Buenos Aires

In my last week before starting work at my host institution in Sao Paulo I decided to visit Argentina. Summer, who was traveling with me in Sao Paulo was going there for a conference with some of her colleagues, so I was able to see them a bit and then also tour on my own while they were working:) It was during Brazilian Carnaval so it was vacation time in much of South America, but there were only isolated carnival celebrations in Buenos Aires. But that was fine since I had already been in Rio last year. I still had one week to explore the neighborhoods of the city, try their wonderful cuisine and see some tango performances. The official tango dinner shows were extremely expensive, so I didn't go to one of those. But they did have tango in the streets in certain neighborhoods and during the evenings in my hotel. I have defintitely fallen in love with the style of tango music and dance; it's so beautiful! Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of this, I didn't have my camera at that time, but you can imagine. Buenos Aires is gorgeous. It's the South America we imagine, bright sunny days, lots of cafes, beautiful people (maybe some former Nazis too) and passion in every way. Passion for love, for life, and for politics. I visited the Eva Peron museum and cemetery and both were very moving. I wish we could be that enthusiastic for a leader once again. I guess Obama comes fairly close, although maybe close in excitement, but I'm not so sure about the drama and worshipping. When you see the images from Evita's funeral, all the people that attended, it is quite incredible.

I didn't expect so many parks and green spaces, my photos look like I was in Spain, Italy or France at times. One of the major architects who helped design Buenos Aires was French, which also makes sense because there are many wide, open boulevards too. I was surpised, however, by the garbage on the streets. It wasn't so much pieces of paper or trash by themselves, but bags and bags of garbage piled together as if waiting to be collected. Except they were on very prominent street corners and it stunk! This along with the dog poop and uneven sidewalks truly made this city European with a Latin American twist:) But I still loved it! Especially the media lunas (half moon croissants) you could have in the mornings. They were like croissant from Paris but with sugar on top - yum! Here is sampling of photos from my time there. Viva Argentina!