Puerto Madero

A fabulous Saturday! I discovered that on Saturday, most museums are closed, but I read about Puerto Madero, a big pedestrian-friendly area, and headed to the park. All the porteños are out getting exercise - pairs of women rollerblading, older couples and groups of men riding mountain bikes, and everywhere in BA, hordes of tan, half-naked greased-up men running. Also lots of middle-aged women sunbathing in swimsuits - although there is no place to swim as far as I know.

Porteños exercising

The famous ecological reserve is closed today. A passerby told me there had been a fire the day before (that killed 6 people!) and they were assessing damage. I think I´ll come back one day and rent a bicycle to ride around the park. Bikes can be rented on the pedestrian mall, which is lined with hundreds of Parrilla (grill) stands. I walked over the the famous Puente de la Mujer, which is supposed to look like a couple dancing the tango but looks more like a harp, and toured an old Naval ship converted to a museum (and miraculously open).

El Puente de la Mujer (Women´s Bridge)

Then I had to backtrack and try first carne at one of the parrillas. The women spoke rapidly, calling me "amor," and got impatient when I didn´t know what to order. Turns out the one I pointed to was "beef" - thin strips of meat grilled and placed on a fresh foot-long baguette. There were many condiments so I tried them all. Another foreign couple approached and asked what it was in English. I said "I don´t know!" They said it looked good and I agreed. I sat down at a lovely shady bench with a view and made a local (shirtless, biking) old man laugh when I attempted to photograph my huge sandwich and the view with one hand. I was so hungry I finished the whole thing.

Bife

I´m having a fun time eavesdropping on all the old men having wild conversations. What else do they do besides argue & discuss politics and take their shirts off?

Last night I was relaxing at the hostel and met two other women who are both traveling alone. Rhiannon is from Melbourne, Australia (and grew up in a cooperative community) and has spent the last year living in Chile as part of her degree in cultural-political studies. Laura, from San Francisco/Connecticut, had just arrived and was getting nervous about her plan to backpack alone around Patagonia. Glad that I´m not the only one to experience the occasional "cold feet" of the solo traveler. A couple years ago, Laura biked across the US east to west and went through Zillah, WA near the end of the journey.

The three of us decided to take a walk and eat dinner together. This turned out to be quite a long walk because we all had different criteria in mind for a restaurant and we went round and round deciding. I wanted something outdoors or with open windows, Rhiannon wanted a more varied menu because she is not looking forward to the next month in Bolivia with bland, boring food, and Laura wanted as cheap as possible. I think this probably reinforced to all of us why we enjoy traveling alone. But dinner was fantastic because we had great conversation and shared 3 meals family style (salad, garlic roast chicken, and a Spanish fritatta). If there are any boring women who are traveling alone thru South America, I have yet to meet one.