Choripan

Note: I just discovered that I had a bunch of drafts on this blog that I never posted for some reason. This one really stuck out, because I'm not sure what more needs to be said: Choripan fucking rules.

Choripan is the best thing ever.

I thought I've had chorizo sausage before, but I was incorrect. It's way different down here. I can't exactly put my finger on it, it's not spicy, it's a bit sweeter, it's not as tough as what I'm used to, and it's just goddamned delicious. Put it on an awesome roll and top it off with some chimichurri (also one of the greatest things ever) and some salsa criolla (tomatoes, onions, and who knows what else, in a vinegar based sauce), and you've got yourself something magical. I think I've probably averaged about one choripan every 3 days, so I'm going to recount some of the more memorable ones.

Freddys next to Mercado San Telmo

Desnivel on Defensa in San Telmo

Random vendor during the Pride festival in centro

Somewhere on El Caminito in La Boca

Backyard off of Defensa in San Telmo

Tigre

We took a couple trains up the coast from Buenos Aires to check out Tigre. Here are the pictures.

The train ride itself was actually pretty interesting. It took us a few minutes to figure out how to buy tickets, since most people have Sube cards, which is like the Clipper card of Buenos Aires. Down here there are multiple types of independently run transit companies (buses, subways, commuter trains), so I think next time I'm going to actually figure out that whole system. Although, once we found the ticket counter, and found out that the Mitre only cost 3 pesos (about 25 cents), I became less motivated to get a Sube card.

We took the Tren Mitre on the B. Mitre line (there are three lines, and one of them has the same name as the train itself, that one was fun to figure out) to the end, to transfer onto the Tren de la Costa. There are other ways to get to Tigre, but this one is definitely the coolest.

Once you get your ticket for the Tren de la Costa, you can actually get off and back on at any stop along the way. It goes through some beautiful suburbs, some bourgie (I have never tried to spell that word before) tourist shopping malls, and a couple very poor neighborhoods, the whole mix. We got off in Acassusa since we had read it was a pretty cool little town. It felt a lot like a mini Santa Cruz to me, which I'm a huge fan of, obviously. We grabbed lunch at an awesome little restaurant right on the coast. You could see Uruguay way in the distance (at least, I think that's what it was), there was a skate park and a climbing wall next door, and on the other side was a kite boarding rental shop. Not to mention, the place had an awesome dog, Rita. We got some pretty solid food, bur more importantly, I was introduced to a Branca Menta with Sprite. This sounds disgusting, but believe me, it is fantastic.

After lunch, we hop back on the Tren and make our way to Tigre. We must have gotten on at the same time that some fancy private school got out, because the train was loaded with kids in school uniforms, and they all had iPhones (which are very hard to get down here).

Once we finally get to Tigre, it's probably about 4pm, and little did we realize that on weekdays everything pretty much shuts down around then. Luckily we were able to sneak onto the last boat that tours through the delta just as it was leaving. We did a long lap of a couple islands within the delta, while the tour guide was giving us a quick history in Spanish. I think I got about 30% of what she was saying, the biggest takeaway is that dealing with garbage is complicated. The whole trip was very beautiful though, I definitely get why the area is turning into a bit more of a luxury home experience.

On the trip back, the lady at the boleteria gave me the RESIDENTE price for the Tren de la Costa, so that was a pretty solid ego boost right there.

Overall, definitely a good day-trip to get out of the city.

Cambio Cambio Cambio!

Inflation here is a pretty real thing, to the point where there's a huge market for actual physical US dollars. I knew this going in, but it's kind of surprising to see it in the flesh. Here's what my last two trips to the "blue market" looked like:

1. Give Nicole everything of value I have (other than the USD) just in case I get in over my head.
2. Go to Florida Street.
3. Wait approximately 15 seconds for someone to yell out "cambio!"
4. Ask the dude what his rate is (this is the one time where not knowing much Spanish has actually paid off, if you're going to do some shady, pseudo-legal transaction, it helps to be a man of few words).
5. Let him know how much I want to change.
6. Follow him into some empty shopping mall into an emptier corner.
7. Some scruffy looking dude counts out pesos in front of me (13 pesos per dollar is what I got, banks give you 8.4:1 currently).
8. I inspect each $100 peso note he gives me, having read how to spot a fake on the internet (this is normal practice here pretty much everywhere).
9. I give him a wad of US Dollars, he inspects them as well.
10. We exchange a quick "gracias" and I'm on my way.

So far I've done this twice, and the first time I felt like some kind of ultimate international badass. The second time was more of a "goddamn it, we need to go to the bank, and there's only one, and it's a mile away" feeling, so that didn't last too long. Also, the first time, the dude I talked to on the street waited there with the money dude while the whole transaction happened and escorted me out when it was done, and the second time, he just went back out immediately. I think Nicole might have gotten a bit of a shock when he saw the dude come out without me that second time, haha.

It's a pretty crazy situation, the fact that there's this level of inflation here right now. From reading online, I saw some first-hand accounts of people doing this exchange back in February this year, when this "blue market" rate was 7.5:1. At 13:1 (I've heard you can get closer to 13.5:1 right now if you actually shop around and haggle), that's a pretty insane difference in just 9 months.

I definitely feel like an asshole taking advantage of the situation, but you can see why there's serious appeal to bring in USD into Argentina. And to be honest, Argentina isn't actually that cheap unless you're getting this exchange rate, otherwise I'd say it's pretty on par with US prices. Well, except for wine, that's cheap in pretty much any currency. Seriously, we've been getting great bottles of wine for like 45 pesos, which is $5.30 at the official exchange rate, and $3.46 at the blue market rate. So yeah, pretty much cheaper than water!

So in conclusion, this whole process is definitely shady, but not as shady as I would have thought.