Argentina Trip

I think the key to finding a good restaurant if you are in Piriapolis is to walk northward out of town. It´s only a few minutes, but it is where the seafood restaurants are at, usually with a good view of the ocean and you can usually sit outside:

At this place I had the ¨Brotola a la presidente¨, which is a type of delicate white fish that was lightly breaded and fried, and then covered with a spicy tomato sauce. I think there may have been mussels or shrimp in the sauce also, but it was dark by the time I was served, so all I got was a picture of my wine:

One of the best things of being on the ocean is the fresh fish. In Piriapolis, there was a fresh fish stand next to my apartment building, but then if you walked to the other side of town, there were five or six more.

If you happened to walk by around 9 or 10 in the morning, you could actually see the people slicing up the fish, like these two people.

I would have liked more time to try the different fish, though some appeared to be an acquired taste.

BUENOS AIRES: I expected good meat when I came to Argentina and Uruguay and got it, but what surprised me in Buenos Aires was the quality of the espresso.

All places had espresso machines and you didn’t even have to say “espresso”. Asking for “cafe”, or “cafe doble”, would get you a freshly-made cup of espresso.

I think part of the reason it was good is because it is what people drink. I’ve been to places in the United States, such as certain bookstores, where the counter workers never drink it themselves and so have no idea that it doesn’t taste right.

From corner cafe to high-end restaurant, they all serve and drink it, and I found it consistently good.

The other thing I liked about this espresso nirvana was that the drink was always served with a small glass of bubbly water - “agua con gas” - and a pastry. The cafes put some effort into choosing the pastry and I liked see what they came up with.

Here is as small collections of some of the side pastries I was served. When in Buenos Aires be sure to eat the steak, but save room for espresso.

Hygiene at some of the restaurants in Uruguay isn’t the same as it is in the United States and is something that one must get used to, or not think about, when visiting.

Health code violations happen in the US (as a former short-order cook I seen the five-second rule in action), but here it seems more obvious because restaurants are smaller and more out in the open.

I haven’t seen a lot of soap in the bathrooms, for example, including at one of my favorite places where I watched the following sequence. The owner:

* brought in dirty plates
* used his hands to take raw meat out of the refridgerator and place it on the grill
* made change for a customer
* used his hands to lift out three ice cubes and put them into my glass of whiskey

Now you have to understand that I had no choice but to drink it. When ordering the owner asked me if I wanted imported or Uruguayan.

“Nacional,” I said, which caused two local guys to pound on the bar and say “Nacional! Nacional!”

There´s no way I could have turned it down after that. I wish he would have used ice tongs, and/or washed his hands, but I came out of it just fine, and after a couple of sips found myself enjoying the whiskey nacional.

Stray dogs are part of the fabric of life in Uruguay and have been present everywhere I’ve gone, mainly hanging out around restaurants or the beach.

The local people seem to view their presence as natural, similar to having birds living around a house. Sometimes the waiters will chase them off, but only if they are in the way. People go up to the dogs and pet them, and then move on.

The most fun thing is to watch the dogs play in the ocean. They love the ocean and the dog games involve running along the water’s edge, chasing each other into the ocean, and getting out of the way of waves.

When I was in La Paloma one morning sitting on the beach, I watched two dogs playing along the water. A third dog came up over the hill and watched them with his tail gently wagging to appraise the game - smiled? - and then ran down to join the fun.

I have no doubt that if the dogs were to cause any trouble at all they wouldn’t last long. But it´s interesting to see the difference between dogs here and in a Buenos Aires, where many times they are fashion accessories.

I´ve been having fun with my Canon G10´s ¨stich-assist¨ feature that helps create panoramic pictures. If the scene is too large to fit in the frame, you can take multiple pictures and then on a computer ¨stitch¨ them together into one large image.

The camera helps the process by showing a segment of the last picture taken. You can then line up the next shot against where you left off before, with a little bit of overlap.

Here is a shot from the beach. One slightly surreal effect happens if a person is moving - in this case, the little girl was walking toward me, and so appears twice.

Beach time is different here, especially when surrounded by people speaking a different language.  People come out usually between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., then leave for lunch and a nap, and then return around 4 or 5 p.m.

It is warm here, but people will still bring a thermos of hot water and drink Mate, a grass-like substance that makes a drink similar to tea.

For sitting on the beach, many people use small yoga mats, like the one you see me on in this picture. It´s a little flimsy, but the cost was US$1.50 and I´ll only need it for a few more days.

There is a regular wind which can blow sand around, and has gotten into my books, backpack, camera, and, unfortunately, even my ears.

Here is a picture from across the bay of my apartment building on the left and the Argentino Hotel on the right.

The Argentino Hotel was built in 1930s and the interior makes you feel like you´ve stepped back to that era. Tall, long corridors, elegant drapery, and a hushed atmosphere. The traveler review sites say the rooms have gone down hill and people wish someone would buy it and fix it up, but the building itself is quite elegant.

I have three more days on the beaches of Uruguay, and then go to something very different: Patagonia. I spent yesterday afternoon buying the tickets and finally worked out the itinerary, leaving here December 31:

1. 4:15 a.m. Walk 15 minutes from apartment to the Piriapolis bus terminal.
2. 4:50 a.m. Take bus from Piriapolis to Montevideo
3. 5:50 a.m. Take another bus from Montevideo to Colonia
4. 7:50 a.m. Take ferry from Colonia to Buenos Aires
5. 9:00 a.m. Take cab to the bus terminal in Buenos Aires
6. 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Wait.
7. 12:30 p.m. December 31 to 12:30 p.m. January 1. Take long-distance bus from Buenos Aires to Bariloche, Argentina, located in Patagonia.

Because of time changes, the long-distance bus is only 22 hours. A round-trip ticket cost 480 Argentine Pesos, which right now is about US $140. The plane takes an hour, but the ticket was around US $800.

The bus seat reclines completely and is supposed to be quite nice. They serve meals and wine, there is a television (which I know will be awful), and they even have a bar. It is a double-decker bus, but the most coveted seats on the top front were already taken. In fact, there were only a few seats left that fully reclined. I was able to get a window seat, but it is on the lower leven towards the back. But at least I´ll be close to the bar!