Category: Argentina

Taking a taxi in Mendoza

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Since I am retarded and afraid of taking the bus here, I either walk, bum rides from friends or take taxis. Here is a brief summary of what I’ve experienced in taking taxis pretty regularly around Mendoza. The good, the bad, and the ugly… on 4 wheels.

Taxis here are cheap. The base fare is about 4 pesos (maybe $4.50) during the day and about 5 and change after midnight. Basically, most of my taxi rides around centro have been $10-15 pesos (or $2.50 to $3.75). 

On the whole, most of my taxi-cab experiences have been quite good here.  Some of the drivers are pretty young and hip, and try to speak English to me even if I’m speaking to them in Spanish, asking where I’m from, telling me they know someone in Texas, etc.  And nearly every single male driver I’ve had that drops me off at my apartment after dark waits for me to get in the door before they drive off. It’s something I’m grateful for, and it’s them going out of their way to make sure this gringa is safe on their watch.

The drivers are sometimes crusty men in their 40s who talk very little, drive a little too fast, and rebuff any attempts at friendly conversation. But they don’t normally overcharge or try to screw me over because I’m a gringa.  Me gusta mucho.

The worst experiences I’ve had here are very few and far between. One was last week, when taking a cab back to my apartment, I got in and gave the driver my address. He nodded, and we were off. We got to my neighborhood, and he missed a turn. I was going to say something, when he pulled over a few blocks later next to another cab driver to ask where my address was. He never asked ME where it was, and took me five minutes out of the way. I told him I knew where I lived and could direct him. Then, finally, when we arrived at my apartment, he made me pay the full fare. Dickhead.

Then I had a woman driver last night. Now, I’m a girl. I am a girl who can drive. Usually, I don’t find many women to be good drivers. Sorry, it’s true. This woman was no exception. She was rude, abrupt, and drove erratically. She also didn’t tell me she didn’t know exactly where I lived until we turned down a street near my apartment (that was a wrong turn, since the streets are mostly one-ways and she turned too soon, and would have to loop around to get in front of my apartment) and I made her let me out on the corner. No sooner had I paid her and shut the door did she speed off in search of other customers to be a bitch to. She wasn’t about to wait around to make sure I didn’t get raped or anything walking by the abandoned, dark construction site. Gracias.

There are also taxis you can order, called a remise. They come in handy on Sundays when there are less people around and less taxis available to be hailed on the street.

Fernet and Coke

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A brief, uplifting note about an Argentine tradition that I’ve come to enjoy over these past few months: Fernet con Coca Cola, or, simply “Fernet and Coke.” Note: I wrote this post in 2011 when I was living in Mendoza – updates below!

Fernet and Coke – The Phenomenon

Fernet Branca is an herbacious digestif made in Italy by Distillerie Fratelli Branca. However, Argentina is the only other place in the world that they make it outside of Italy.  Fernet became popular in Argentina with the Italian immigrants at the turn of the last century (as in 1900) and then spread like wildfire throughout the country.

How does Fernet Branca taste? On its own, it is disgusting. (At least I think so.) It’s bitter, it’s really hard to describe the taste, and the recipe is a secret.

Its Wikipedia entry describes it as “myrrh, rhubarb, chamomile, cardamom, aloe, and especially saffron, with a base of grape distilled spirits, and coloured with caramel colouring. Ingredients rumored to be in fernet include codeine, mushrooms, fermented beets, coca leaf, gentian, rhubarb, wormwood, zedoary, cinchona, bay leaves, absinthe, orange peel, calumba, echinacea, quinine, ginseng, St. John’s wort, sage, and peppermint oil.” The Fernet Branca website describes it as having 27 herbs, roots and spices.

There are several different types of Fernet: Fernet Branca is the default, while Fernet Branca Menta is a mintier version. Fernet Branca is mainly what’s used to make Fernet and Coke.

Fernet is an acquired taste. The first time I tried it, I hated it. I asked my friends how they could possible drink something so terrible. They assured me that I’d come to like it, especially if I was having it as Fernet and coke. I was a nonbeliever.

Fernet and Coke – “Para Preparar”

There are a couple ways to order Fernet in a bar here in Argentina. You can either get it normally (fernet con coke), or you can get it “para preparar”, when the bar gives you 1 glass with ice and fernet, another glass with just ice, and a bottle of Coke to mix your own according to how you like it.  This is probably the best way to go and the best value – and you can make it more suave at first (mostly Coke) and then move on to higher potency combinations later in the evening.

Then one day I enjoyed it. It was after a few adult beverages, of course. But for some reason, I began to like it. And now I know I’m going to crave it when I get back to Texas. Hmph.

Since 2011… Fernet Branca is everywhere.

Update: We love the tradition of Fernet and coke so much that we named our sweet French bulldog “Branca.” When folks ask what her name is and we tell them, they inevitably ask what it means and it ends up being a little education for them about what Fernet is and some even say “OMG I’ve had that!”

Turns out, Fernet is having a “moment” back here in the U.S. after I originally wrote this post back in 2011. You can find it behind nearly every bougie cocktail bar in the States. Bartenders love the stuff for adding an amaro note to cocktails. There’s so much more to do with Fernet Branca than make Fernet and Coke.

Who’d have known?

Are you a Fernet fan? Let me know your favorite recipe in the comments below!

Buenos Aires Day 3: The bus tour

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BA is a giant city. A cab from Palermo to San Telmo is about $20 pesos each way. This is fine when there are more than one of you, but if you’re traveling solo, it can get really expensive. Which is why on Day 3, my first full day alone, I decided to play tourist and buy a ticket on the Buenos Aires Bus. For 24 or 48 hours, I could then hop on and off the bus as much as I wanted, and it goes to pretty much every are of the city you’d want to see if you’re visiting, all in less than 3 hours.

Unfortunately for us, there was a Boca Junior game going on in the afternoon, and therefore no tour buses were going to the neighborhood of La Boca. I’m not sure if it’s because it was going to be too crowded, or because it was going to be too dangerous. Either way, I sadly didn’t get to go to La Boca and take photos of the colorful houses and figures on Caminito.

Grabbing the bus from the stop nearest the zoo, we went from there to the last stop which was right by the Casa Rosada. This area was beautiful, and it’s a good thing, too, because we were forced to get off the bus and wait for the next tour to start in 45 minutes or so. At least that’s what I think they were telling us when we were forced to get off. Either way, I capitalized on the opportunity and walked to the square to take photos of the Casa Rosada and surrounding buildings. It was beautiful.

After an hour or so of tooling around, I got on the next bus headed around the route and we cruised through the city on the way to San Telmo.  On Sunday afternoons, San Telmo is full of people buying and selling antiques (or crap, depending on your tastes), as well as hand-made crafts and other things that make good gifts for people back home. There are tango shows on the street and street performers here and there doing everything from playing classical guitar to posing as statues.  I wandered around the San Telmo market on calle Defensa and Plaza Dorrego for a few hours, then made my way back to the bus stop to pick up the rest of the tour.

Seriously, if you’re ever in BA on a Sunday – go to San Telmo!

We passed by buses of Boca fans who were singing and chanting and making rude gestures to just about anyone who would look at them, so I’m pretty happy that although I’m a big soccer fan, that I was NOT going to the game.

We drove through the modern barrio of Puerto Madeiro, which just feels like you’re somewhere in the US, and around the city up to Chinatown and the barrio of Belgrano before we looped around and I got off the bus near my apartment. It was freezing outside at this point (in the late afternoon) and being on an open-top bus was no longer enjoyable.

Pretty forgettable take-out Chinese for dinner, and some American movies on the tv, and I was a happy camper.

Buenos Aires Day 2: Dinner at Fabrica del Taco

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I’ve been bitching that I haven’t had Mexican food much here, so I must report on this experience.

Thanks to Gringo in Buenos Aires‘ post concerning Mexican food in BA, I was able to find Fabrica Del Taco, a Mexican food joint in Palermo SoHo within walking distance from where I was staying.

I was starving and in major need of something resembling beans, possibly rice, and things that come on a tortilla. Upon arriving at Fabrica Del Taco, it was clear that I was about to be in heaven.

The décor is cheesy fantastic Mexican luchadores masks throughout, and the staff was really nice. I was flying solo and the place was busy, but they invited me to sit at the bar counter. I opted to sit against the outer bar wall with a ledge/countertop all to myself.  I got the menu and my eyes nearly jumped out of my head when I saw they had micheladas on the menu.

I was SO pleased. The michelada was really good, and made with Corona. So, 1 point for YOU, my dear new friends. Then, the waiter asked if I liked spicy things, to which I replied that yes, I live in Texas, and he brought me some serious hot sauce and chopped onions with cilantro to go with my food. 2 points.

I opted for 2 tacos: one was carne asado on a fried corn tortilla (note: They aren’t quite sure what to call things correctly here – we’d just call it a tostada) with guacamole.  The guac was more saucy than dippy, but it wasn’t bad. The problem I had was the consistency of the meat. It wasn’t ground beef, and wasn’t quite what you’d picture carne asado to be, either. It was kind of in between, and a bit tough. However, it was good enough for me to eat all of it, being deprived of my neighbor of the South’s specialties for so long.

The second taco was much better, which featured pork and beef. I forget what it was called, but it was good (better than just the beef). I ordered a side of refried beans (everything is pretty much a la carte, as far as I could tell) and they brought a basket of tortilla chips. The chips were pretty good, or at least the best I’ve had in Argentina.

All in all, it wasn’t mind-blowing but considering where it is and what the alternatives are, it definitely hit the spot. Bravo, Fabrica del Taco. Bravo.

Buenos Aires Day 2: Recoleta, Cafe San Juan & San Telmo

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So late nights in Argentina usually mean late mornings. It took us a while to get ourselves up and out of the apartment, and into a cab on the way to Recoleta. Our first order of the day was to head to the cemetery and find Evita’s grave. Except before this, we needed coffee.

We got some coffees (cafe cortados, to be exact) to go from Havanna, (yes that’s 2 n’s ) which does coffees to go, in the strip of cafes and shops across from the cemetary. There’s also a random pair of red phonebooths from England.

Phone Booths in Recoleta, Buenos Aires

The cemetery at Recoleta is seriously one of the most interesting places I’ve been. It really is a small city of mausoleums that seems to go on forever.

Entrance to Recoleta Cemetery

Entrance to Recoleta Cemetery

The mausoleums range from beautiful to ordinary, to downright disturbing. Evita’s grave is somewhat austere compared to the others, specifically that of newspaper baron Paz.

 

 

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Grave of newspaper mogul Paz

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Evita’s Grave

After Recoleta, we headed to San Telmo to do some shopping and get lunch at 3pm at Café San Juan. I’d been told by many people how great it was, so I made sure to make a reservation earlier that morning for our late lunch. Thank goodness we did, because there were people waiting for an open table who didn’t have reservations, and even we had to wait 15 minutes for our table, although we had reserved.

It was 100% worth it. An amazing lunch awaited us: chorizo in red wine and 2 types of crostini/bruschetta for appetizers…

Bruschetta with Brie at Cafe San Juan
Bruschetta at Cafe San Juan

then three entrees between 4 of us: octopus, ribeye, and linguine. They were fantastic. We had no room for dessert, unfortunately, and even had to take a bunch of food home, even though we had 3 entrees between the 4 of us.

Pulpo at Cafe San Juan

After lunch, we shopped the antique markets and street vendors in San Telmo, bustling with activity and full of great deals for haggling enthusiasts.

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It was a Saturday, and so the big market was the next day, but it was still worth a visit no matter what.

Buenos Aires Day 1: Passport business & Palermo SoHo

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Driving through the city from Retiro to Palermo, we passed a bunch of embassies and beautiful outdoor green areas.  I was staying in Palermo near the US Embassy, close to the Avenida de Libertadores and the zoo.

This was fortunate because my first order of business was to get more pages put into my passport at the American embassy. Apparently, there is a law in every country that says a customs/ border agent can deny you entry into a country if you have less than a certain number of pages in your passport blank for stamps. WTF, right? Read an example here: http://travel.latimes.com/articles/la-tr-spot9mar09

So, being an American can sometimes have its perks. Like strolling up to the embassy and realizing that the line down the street is for people who are NOT citizens, and the window for citizens has nobody waiting for it. So you bypass the line and go right on in. Score.

After paying my US $82 to get pieces of paper sewn into my passport that I had to pick up a few hours later, my #1 errand in BA was accomplished.

My new friends from Mendoza were arriving around 10pm that night and I knew the next day that we’d be going sight-seeing, so I didn’t do much. There was a great little café down the street where I got a quiche lorraine, salad and some mineral water called Voulez-Vous Café.  It’s on a corner with great outdoor dining. I sat against the wall on a pillow-covered banquette between two patrons working on their laptops. In fact, many people in the café had their laptops. This was strange to me, because I heard how dangerous BA can be at times and that you should be careful where you take your computer. But I guess since it’s a nice neighborhood and the clientele are fairly upper middle-class, porteños are comfortable here letting their guard down and Macbooks out.

After my friends arrived, we set out to the trendy neighborhood of Palermo SoHo in search of food. While we didn’t end up finding the restaurant we were trying to go to (damn you, Google maps and your wrong information!) we ended up eating at Romario‘s for pizza. A chain, it had a brick oven and the pizza was surprisingly good.

When we finished our pizza and beer we headed farther into the neighborhood of Palermo Viejo to Congo at Honduras 5329, an African-themed bar that was seriously cool. The back garden seems to go on forever, and the drinks were tasty.  For my first full day in Buenos Aires, it was a great end to a great day.