First few days in Argentina

We've been in Argentina for a week as of today. I'm trying to get excited about this whole blog thing, but honestly it seems a lot easier to write in a normal journal than to pry the computer out of Pedro's whitened knuckles... but I'll give it a go.

When we touched down it was a beautiful sunny Tuesday, around 28 degrees celsius (whatever that means) and either 8:30, 10:30 or 7:30 in the morning (anybody's bet because this year the argentine government decided NOT to participate in daylight savings time and apparently forgot to inform the international airlines.) Pedro's brother Mariano picked us up at the airport and drove us and our 196 pounds of luggage to Pedro's friend Wali's apartment in the Nunez neighborhood of Buenos Aires:

Nunez is pretty convenient, it is the last stop on the D Line of the Subte (subway), about a 15 minute ride from the civic center. Our first day we didn't do much, I took two naps, we ate enormous Milanesas a la Napolitana (conflict in terms, no?) for lunch at La Farola. Later we registered for private health insurance, which is a pretty awesome deal: $100 a month each (including dental and vision), no copays and it covers us in any country that shares a border with Argentina. Argentina has universal healthcare, and Pedro says that the doctors in the public hospitals are often the best in the country, but we're going with private b/c overall it's a little better.

Anyways....Food has been delicious so far...we ate REALLY good empanadas the first night from El Noble Repulgue. Something that I didn't notice last year is that there are a TON of restaurants that deliver. The empanada place delivered us a dozen and a half empanadas that only cost around $10, and I've seen a couple of waiters walking down the street with single cappucinos on trays...kinda bizarre. On Wednesday we had a traditional dish called Cazuela, which is kind of like a stew. Mine was Lentil & sausage, but the one Pedro had was AMAZING and I'm going to learn how to make it....the bottom layer in the bowel was a mix of stewed tomatoes, onions and ham, the middle layer was pureed butternut squash, and on top there was a crispy layer of mozzerella cheese.

On Thursday we went out to dinner at 11pm with the family of Pedro's friend Ariel who was visitting from Cordoba. In the picture on the left are Julia, Juan, Ariel and Felipe. That's right, Argentina is so hard-core, even the babies eat at midnight. We ate at an old restaurant near Congresso called "Hispano" that is known for spanish-style seafood. Here's a photo of the aftermath of the plate that Pedro and I shared:

And below is a photo of the interior of the restaurant: