Today was the rainy day where we ditched the plans to take an hour ferry to Uruguay. If it was raining in BsAs, it was raining an hour away we were told.

The coolest part about today was the story about finding all the information about my great grandma from our government office goose chase. You can read more about this adventure in my post called A Family History.

The second government building we were directed to had been around for some time.

As you will see in the post with the longer story, we had a contact who had a wealth of information. She had asked us to come back in an hour so we had time to kill. We went to a nearby coffee shop called Havanna. It’s like Starbucks – they were on nearly every corner. Each of the coffees came with a shot glass of water. In Argentina, and probably everywhere except the US, they do not walk around with coffee to go. It is meant to be enjoyed at a table. Except it was packed, so we had to sit at the coffee bar.

As you may have already read in the other post, once we got the info, it also included the address of the apartment building where my great grandma was born and where her family lived. Here is a picture of the outside of the building.

Hopefully it’s the same apartment building but we will never know for sure. The place looks like it could have been the same; as it did look old yet nicely restored.

To celebrate our find we went shopping, or rather, I shopped. And we ate. Since we couldn’t get used to the late dinners – see post ‘Dinnertime or Bedtime’ for the deets. Instead, for a late lunch, we went to a steak house.

They don’t mess around with their cow and pig parts.

There was even an electronic screen that highlighted a part of the cow, told you its name in English and Spanish, flashed and then moved onto another part of the cow to do the same instructional type video. It was hard to capture on camera so these still photos of the signs hanging on the walls will do and have a similar effect.

Since I don’t eat steak the waiter suggested that my boyfriend ordered a half portion. When they delivered it to our table he was certain  they goofed. Even my meal – which was an appetizer, they gave me half – which could have fed four adults, easily. There was so much food I had wished I didn’t order my appetizer. I could have been full just on the sides that came with the steak!

We were seated at a table for four people, and there was seriously enough food for two more people to come and join us.

As we were still full from lunch many hours later, dinner consisted of ice cream.

Today we had two tours in one day – a morning tour and an afternoon tour. No matter what we do or what it requires from us, I swore it won’t be as long or as exhausting as the 12 hour hiking on a glacier day.

Our first tour, at 10am, was a four hour boat tour around the bottom of South America, where we saw the Andes and the route to Antarctica. We didn’t go to Antarctica as that is two days on the water and a very expensive trip so that’s for another time. We did see birds and sea lions from the boat. We also got off the boat and hiked a bit up a small island to get fantastic panoramic views of Argentina, Chile, the Andes and the open seas.

Easy peasy as compared to the glacier hike day.

Once back on shore, we had 45 minutes so grabbed sandwiches for a quick lunch. Then we were on our way – we took an hour bus ride to get to a boat that would take us 15 minutes to an island where we would walk with penguins. Super cool.

Long story long, the bus ride to get to the boat to get to the island was fine. Paved roads, controlled driving, gorgeous scenery.

The bus ride back was another story. Earlier in the trip I had discovered Serrano ham potato chips…

and had packed them for the bus ride. Yes, there were as good as they sound. Unfortunately, bad timing to eat them as they didn’t sit to well with me on this bus ride. The driver thought he was on the Autobahnen alas we were on windy, dirt roads. No photos from the drive back since I had been praying for the better part of an hour that I would not throw up. And I don’t get carsick typically! I had been in the window seat but had to move to an aisle. I knew if I asked him to stop the bus, I wouldn’t want to get back in, so I kept quiet.

Once we exited the bus, I told the bus driver I didn’t feel well. He nodded knowingly and said, were you in the back of the bus? Yep. We were the second to last row in the 8 row bus.

Then we crossed the street to tell the guy that had booked our tour thank you, because it was as cool as he had said. I also told him I didn’t feel well. He also asked, were you in the back of the bus. Ughhhhhh. I wish they had told me!!!

Even though my boyfriend blames the delicious potato chips for my stomachache, I still blame the driving.

If I had to put a theme to our second day, it would be eating! And eat we did.

We started our day with our first breakfast in Argentina and it was self-serve in our hotel, with typical Argentine breakfast foods – croissants, jams, cheese and meats.

For lunch we received a recommendation in Puerto Madero by a guide on our city walking tour. We walked to a restaurant called Happenings. Puerto Madero is the up and coming barrio (neighborhood) in BsAs. The area was a shipping area but recently transformed into a modern hotspot with lots of restaurants, high-rise apartment buildings and very trendy, and beautiful, people.

Our table was right on the water, and the place was full of businessmen so we assumed it would be good. Portions were huge, the steak was juicy…

The gnocci were the biggest we had ever seen…

Needless to say the flavors of lunch did not disappoint.

After lunch, we took part in an Argentine tradition. Ice cream! The hot weather and strength of the sun did not allow for photos to be taken as we had to eat it before it started to melt!

Dinner, many hours later, was at restaurant de puertas cerradas – closed door restaurant – with no published address, and attendance by reservation only.

Basically, we pay to eat dinner at someone’s home, where they do all the cooking, and our dining companions are perfect strangers. To some, not an ideal situation…for us, it was a blast! We got to meet people from all over the world and eat fantastic food! Attendees represented the US – two of us and our chef. Our host was from Peru and the rest of the dinner party included travelers from Australia, London and Holland. By the time we finished our welcome cocktails, we had already learned so much about the travels of our companions for the evening.

Dinner is a five course meal. Dan, the chef, gets his inspiration from significant dates in history.  Our dinner happened to fall on the weekend of the founding of Georgia (the US state) and the day that Chile was proclaimed an independent republic. The menu was a combination of the two cultures, and very tasty! Here’s the link to the menu: http://casasaltshaker.com/20110211.htm

Here, you can see Dan’s write-up on how he decided to mix the food of two places in order to create a five course meal.
http://www.saltshaker.net/20110216/from-savannah-to-santiago-and-back-again

Here’s a photo of the pappardelle — a tie in from southern style mac and cheese, with a Chilean tilt of a cheddar salsa!

And the dessert, a Georgia peach inside an empanada with a South American favorite, dulce de leche, a caramel sauce. 

We only had a chance to take two photos of dinner but you will see photos from the rest of our meal in the link above. Buen apetito!