Conquering Buenos Aires #IsraeliStyle

Friday morning we woke up and went back to Florida street to change money properly. We bargained hard and got a very respectable exchange rate. It's quite scary to walk out of a sketchy place with wads and wads of cash.

Stopping for a quick breakfast to fuel up for our bike tour of Buenos Aires, I ordered a grilled veggie sandwich, which turned out to be a gazunta sandwich. We ate as we power walked to the bike place and for the first time in my life (possibly?), I was the recipient of a food-sound cat call. It went like this: "YUMMM!!!!!" We arrived at the bike shop and the comments on my sandwich continued. 

Willis

After a quick orientation to the day, we met our bikes. Melissa had a complete meltdown that the name of her bike was Willis. The bike shop guys were asking if she had an ex by that name but it turns out, she really wanted to name her bike after her spanish name, Luz. 

La Boca Stadium

We started the tour in San Telmo and learned about the history of Buenos Aires, which was originally settled by the Spanish in search of gold. We continued on to La Boca and saw the (in)famous soccer stadium. Games get incredibly loud
and feisty, often breaking windows of homes nearby. Visiting team fans are no longer permitted in the stadium due to safety concerns. We rode through La Boca on bike paths until we reached La Caminito, the brightly painted area of La Boca, where tango originated by poor immigrants living there. Our guide the made matte, a traditional caffeinated drink and offered it to the group, The whole idea of sanitation seemed to be lacking so I passed. There was street art everywhere, much of it telling the tragic story of persecution and disappearance. Afterwards, we rode on to Puerto Madero, a mostly uninhabited very expensive neighborhood, where mostly celebrities and athletes live, named for the defunct port that took so long to build that it was too small for modern ships by the time it opened so it was never really operational. We then stopped for lunch and learned a bit too much about our guide's relationship issues. 

We then explored Retiro neighborhood, the main transportation hub of Buenos Aires and then Ricoletta, where we saw the law school and the cemetery. This time we successfully found Eva Peron/Duarte's grave. It's pretty nondescript except for all the people waiting to see it. Afterwards, we biked through Micro Centro, the "heart of the city" and ended up at the Pink House, which is the Argentinian version of the White House. The surrounding plaza was being set up for the Dakar rally, a global motorcycle event. The tour was a great way to see so much of Buenos Aires in a short amount of time! After we concluded the 8-hour bike tour, we raced to buy food for shabbat. Melissa had her second meltdown because she really really really wanted to get ice cream before shabbat and didn't want to hear that we didn't have time. 

Ricoletta Cemetery

Evita's Grave in Ricoletta Cemetery

When we got back to the hostel, we quickly discovered that the Chabad we had arranged to go to is almost a 3 hour walk from our hostel so we scrambled to come up with an alternative plan. Being in Little Israel, we mentioned to an Israeli in the hostel that we are religious and they told us about a chabad only a few blocks away. It was one of the coolest chabad experiences either of us has ever had. After Kabalat Shabbat, we sat outside with about 60 Israelis all traveling South America after the army. Like everyone we have met so far this trip, they were all incredibly nice and it gave us the chance to practice our Hebrew. After dinner, we went with some our new friends to see the Pink House and the Opera House, Teatro Colon, lit up at night. 

In the morning, Mel and I walked back to the Pink House to see if we could do a free tour but they were closed for the rally. Then, we went back to Chabad for shul and lunch. Lunch was much smaller than dinner but one thing was consistent with the night before and struck us profoundly. The guys were all incredibly helpful in a way that we don't see very often. They exhibited what Camp Stone calls a Rosh Gadol, Each person was constantly looking out for others and being proactive to see how they can help. If anything was finished, someone immediately got up to refill it. No one asked how they can help, they just figured out what needed to be done and did it. It was really nice to see and a lesson we should take home with us. Our theory is that this mentality comes from being in the army. Regardless, it was beautiful. 

We then went with our new Israeli friend, David, and walked back to Ricoletta to the Fine Arts Museum. He then walked back and Mel and I continued to Once, the Jewish neighborhood for a self guided walking tour. We saw magnificent shuls and a thriving community. Men wore kippot in the streets. Jews we met said they don't have issues with Antisemitism or security. We were struck how amazing it is to be part of something so global and ancient that we could walk into a shul in South America and it looks the same as shuls across the rest of the world. 

We ended our walking tour with Templo Libertad. Unfortunately, we forgot our passports but convinced the security guard to let us in by telling him our ID is in our money belts under our dresses so we couldn't access them. It worked. :) 

Exhausted and hungry after a long day of walking and site seeing, we returned to the hostel. Only, we couldn't find it. After frantically looking at a map and street signs, we realized that we had successfully gotten back and were standing right in front of it. After shabbat, Melissa went to Chabad and BBQ'ed with David. That hamburger made her a very happy girl. But she never did get her ice cream. Chabad didn't have anything vegetarian so I went for pasta with David's travel buddy, Bezik and another Israeli in the hostel. Then, we went to see the famous Buenos Aires night life. Buenos Aires is REALLY the city that never sleeps. We bought tickets for the club from an Israeli promoter and went with our new friends to their friend's hotel to "gather." I left my pocketbook at their hotel and will hopefully be seeing it tomorrow when David and Bezik arrive in Iguazu. I guess we have been spending alot of time together because when the new guys asked us questions, we answered in Hebrew in unison. It got weird in a way that only Katie and I have been able to achieve. 

The club was really fun and we danced as awkwardly as we wanted. Melissa peed twice. Outside. Obviously.  Then, we found ourselves a taxi to return to the hotel for our flight to Iguazu early this morning. This was the scariest part because you hear stories of taxis taking advantage of tourists. We climbed into the car that said "radio taxi" since those are supposedly more reliable. The interaction started out problematic... I tried to give the address of the hostel (1385 Avenida De Mayo) but I kept mixing up Spanish and Hebrew and I didn't even realize until Melissa put me in my place! "Uno... Shalosh... Shmoneh-" "Emily, no!" 

When we arrived at our hotel, I went to pay the driver the amount on the meter. I gave him money waiting for change but instead of change he returned "my bill" to me because "it was ripped." He indicated that we needed to give him a different bill. Having heard similar stories of taxi drivers swapping bills out for fake, ripped bills and demanding more money, I recognized his trick but didn't know what to do. I don't speak Spanish and even if I did, I don't know how I'd get him straight. So I decided to forgo our change, pushed Melissa out of the car and ran away. I guess thats a success story.