love crumpet

Can you identify the counterfeit bill? Yeah, neither can we. But our waiter could.

Sadly, counterfeit bills are another BsAs problem that we had heard about but had yet to experience … until we tried to pay our bill at a restaurant near Puerto Madero. JB received this bill when she withdrew money at an ATM and now we’re stuck with it. To identify counterfeit bills, we were advised to always look at the watermark image of the person on the bill to see if it matches the actual image and to feel the texture of the paper to see if it feels different from “real” bills.

Even with that knowledge, we still can’t tell them apart.

(FYI, the top bill in the picture is the counterfeit.)

The safety concerns obviously extend to pickpocketing and purse-snatching. In one restaurant, a security guard came over to us and directed JB to move her purse from the back of her chair and into her lap while we ate lunch. Other restaurants demand that you clip your purse to your chair using a hook that they’ve attached to the chair.

Unfortunately, we do think the porteños have a right to be worried about pickpocketing as JB had a small cosmetic case stolen from her bag near the Retiro subte station after our 18-hour bus ride home from the Iguazu waterfalls.

Additional evidence as to porteños’ obsession with safety.

When I first noticed all of the boarded up windows throughout the city, I thought that this was because most people go away and thus board up their apartments for the summer. That is not the case. I learned this when I asked my friends, who live on the sixth floor of an apartment building, why they were locking the windows and putting down the shutters before going out to dinner. “So no one can break in,” they replied.

Porteños are very safety conscious, and we see evidence of this all around the city. One of the first things I noticed walking the streets of Buenos Aires was that many of the balconies here are completely caged in. I thought that perhaps this was to protect animals or small children from falling off the balconies, much like window guards in New York City. But I kept noticing them and wondered why anyone would want their outdoor space to basically be transformed into a cage, so I asked my Spanish teacher about them. She told me that in the wake of the economic crisis in the early 2000s, a number of “spiderman” robberies were committed by individuals who would go onto the roofs of apartment buildings and break into people’s apartments via their balconies. These robberies are why so many people would prefer that their apartment have a cage rather than an open-air balcony.

We miss NYC brunches a lot. So this weekend we were determined to find the Buenos Aires equivalent. Our internet research led us to Quimbombó, a natural food restaurant on Plaza Armenia with a “sun-kissed” rooftop and couches to lounge on while you soak in the sun. Quimbombó did not disappoint. We ordered the scrambled eggs dish, which ended up being a feast. The eggs were accompanied by four pieces of multigrain toast with a delicious marmalade and soft cheese as well as a dish of yogurt and fruit salad. And coffee and juice. All for 26 pesos, which is less than $7!!!

I would definitely like to fit in some more Buenos Aires’ brunches before we depart.

Today we tried to buy a piñata for our friend’s birthday. We were told to head to Lavalle Street in an immigrant neighborhood called Once, where many cheap and random things can be acquired (this is where JB bought a very cheap — and most likely stolen — cell phone and SIM card). Upon reaching Lavalle Street, we inquired in a shop selling very weird sparkly candles as to where we could find a piñata and were directed to a type of shop called a cotillón, which is basically a party supply store. However, upon entering our first cotillón, we soon discovered that this type of party supply store was much bigger, crazier, and more colorful than any party supply store we had ever encountered. And while they didn’t seem to carry the type of pre-filled piñata we were hoping to get, they did sell large quantities of just about any other item that any person could ever dream of wanting at a party. There were fake Academy Award trophies, wigs of every color, outlandish costumes, whistles, huge mad hatter hats, confetti, maracas in every shape imaginable including certain body parts, streamers, cake toppers, random party favors, masks, and the list goes on and on. The fact that so many of these stores existed and were rather busy for an early Saturday morning provides some evidence as to how seriously the Argentines take partying.

our first porteño party was a pancho fiesta. in buenos aires, panchos are hot dogs. when we first heard about the pancho fiesta,  we i surmised that the panchos in buenos aires were most likely a fancier type of hot dog than we were accustomed because surely a city of meat connoisseurs could create a better version of our american hot dog (or at the very least, create one that is made of a clearly identifiable meat). however, we were wrong — panchos are plain ol’ america hot dogs.

but this is the “paris of south america,” so the panchos served at this party were accompanied with champán, lots and lots of champán. and perhaps those bottomless glasses of champán contributed to my biggest spanish miscommunication to date: i thought someone had asked me if i understood him, to which i replied “a little bit.” as it turned out, he was actually asking me if i was bisexual.

buenos aires has a number of green spaces dotting the various neighborhoods throughout the city. JB and i have only taken advantage of these lovely parks a few times since our arrival in the city, but i anticipate much more park time in our future here.

look at those rocks! i could imagine sarahla, geology enthusiast, freaking out over this sight.

flying over the andes near santiago.