Part Seven: Buenos Aires, Argentina

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Day Twenty-One

Somehow I had the morning to myself! This was certainly a rare occurence on this action-packed tour, so I thought I better take advantage. Pablo was off having some meetings about the Multiespacio event. I decided to go downtown and do a bit of sightseeing. Some of the older parts of the cosmopolitan city centre, named El Microcentro, reminded me of a cross between Stockholm and Frankfurt, especially those with elegant European-style buildings and streets lined with cobblestones, like this one.

I changed some money into Argentine pesos, went to the Lan Chile office to buy an additional airline ticket for my Lima-Cusco leg in a few weeks time, and just flowed with the pedestrian traffic. Second only to the dog-mad Uruguayans, Argentines are the most serious dog-lovers in this big continent, and I saw many 'strutting their stuff', dragging their well-dressed masters behind them. I had been warned to watch out for the inevitable 'doggie-piles' on the street, and sure enough there were some near-misses. I just had to photograph this sign on a city street, warning dog owners not to allow their little darlings to do 'kaka' in public.  

Touted as South America's most sophisticated and appealing cities, Buenos Aires is also the safest place in Latin America to wander around. It is also one of the most smoke-filled. Argentines are totally addicted to nicotine, and they smoke absolutely everywhere. I wanted to sit and have a juice, but every place was full of cigarette smoke. I came across the famous Cafe Tortoni, one of the oldest cafes in the land, dating back to the 1860's. It is also a favourite venue for Argentina's famous Tango. I sauntered through the Plaza del Congreso, then stopped to admire some local sweets, the famous alfajores, which are essentially cookie sandwiches filled with dulce de leche, a thick milky caramel, and covered with a sparkling sugar frosting.

I returned to the Centro Bhaktivedanta just in time to meet Pablo. We had an appointment to visit the Instituto Argentino de Gastronomia, one of South America's most prestigious Culinary Institutes. Pablo had arranged for me to teach there on two consecutive nights early next week. We drove to Santa Fe, a very busy shopping street, and were escorted to a plush (and smoky) upper floor in the bustling Institute. We were introduced to Michelin Star Vice Director Diego Gera, who took us to a private lounge and made us very comfortable, then showed us the kitchen venue for our forthcoming classes. After some relaxed talk we fine-tuned the menus for what promised to be a very unique event.

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