Another spicy day in BA...

Buenos Aires (Congreso District), Argentina

March 27, 2007
S 34°36.583
W 058°23.472

Last night, still having a serious craving for spicy food, we reviewed the list of international cuisine at our fingertips and decided to give the Korean restaurant, Biwon, a try. We shared a nice, spicy soup and bibimbap. The soup put a little sweat on our brow, while the bibimbap was definitely tamed down by the Korean owners; they obviously thought we couldn’t take the heat.

There was a business dinner taking place at a semi-private table next to us with a great deal of soju, wine and beer. I knew the majority of Koreans doing business in South America were probably involved in telecommunications, specifically wireless devices. After thirty minutes or so my instinct was confirmed when they mentioned Samsung and the celebration was for the engineers who just finished a device implementation. I felt their excitement—briefly—but, I gradually let it go… now reveling in my new life as a traveler.

As we walked out, three more liters of beer and two more bottles of soju were brought to the engineers. We weren’t sure how these guys were going to make it to work in the morning, we guessed they weren’t!

We woke up this morning to pouring rain and spent the first three hours in a cafe with free Wifi trying to take care of a few things. Coincidentally, as our battery was close to dead, the rain turned to a drizzle and we quickly headed out to see more of the city. We explored the antique barrio of San Telmo; mostly window shopping, and thinking of my youth when my parents dragged me to antique shows—even on my birthday! If you like antiques, this is the place to go shopping. Sundays are an antique lover’s paradise when the antique festival is held in the Plaza de Dorrego.

We enjoyed wandering the streets to see what the day would bring us; luckily it didn’t bring anymore rain. We were able to wander for several more hours before the drops started coming down again and we scrambled back to our hotel.

A few more things about Buenos Aires… they don’t observe siesta in the capitol city! Finally, we don’t have to worry about things being closed from 1PM-4PM. Tomorrow we move into our apartment for the next 16 days and finally get a home cooked meal. We can’t wait!