Buenos Aires was colder than expected. The meager blankets provided by the hostel were hardly adequate and each night I found myself pulling on my puffy at some point in the middle of the night. The handful of people I saw sleeping on the sidewalks and church steps cocooned in threadbare blankets reminded me as always of how grateful I am to have a bed of some sort each night. It's not always in the same place, and that bed could be a sleeping pad, a borrowed couch, or an air mattress, but a bed nonetheless.
The cool temps made for pleasant days wandering the city. The city is rife with shady tree-lined boulevards and public parks and gardens which made it an altogether pleasant time of the year to be in Buenos Aires, which I imagine in the height of summer turns into a sweltering concrete jungle. My travel companion and I wandered the neighborhoods, seeking out particular cemeteries, cathedrals, and art museums, and admiring the gardens, sculptures, and architecture as we walked.
I must admit that my food experiences in Argentina, along with Chile and Uruguay, was a little disappointing. I am certain that there are some fantastically amazing restaurants to be found in the southern reaches of the Americas, just as there are to be found anywhere in the world really, but when it came to local cuisine, that which is readily available to a budget traveler such as myself, I was faced with the same three mediocre choices: pizza, pasta, sandwiches, and the occasional Empanada (which I love. It's true. Anything stuffed into a little pocked of dough and fried is alright with me).
It is true that Argentina is well known for its beef, and perhaps rightly so, but even Argentina's beef failed to make me an enthusiastic carnivore, in large part because of the lack of imagination in what they do with it. (As a disclaimer, I should perhaps remind you that I was in only a handful of places in the country, and for not more than a couple of weeks total). There were plenty of Parrillas serving up grilled meat of all sorts and from all parts of the animal (I stuck to eating the more familiar parts like loins and avoided things like intestine), but that was the extent of the options: which piece of what animal you would like off the grill. No added anything. No sides, no fixins, no incorporating the meat into dishes.
Perhaps traveling in places like India, Thailand, and Vietnam, has set my standards high for food while traveling. In these places, what I ate was intimately intertwined with my experience of the place, and in many ways defined it. Perhaps it would be silly to choose travel destinations based entirely on local cuisine, but this particular trip made me realize that it's a consideration to be added to the list.
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