Car Talk and a Little Macking...

Buenos Aires (Palermo District), Argentina

April 3, 2007
S 34°35.045
W 058°24.500

Fin de Semana Largo continued into Monday, making Sunday another perfect night to go out and hit the town. The Monday holiday, combined with the first day of sunshine in eight days, was also perfect to get outside and enjoy the weather. We did both.

We had reservation for 11:30 PM (we’re so cool) at a chic Vietnamese restaurant, Green Bamboo, recommended to us by a lady I worked with, Joanne. We arrived “fashionably” early and had to wait outside until the hostess let us in through the locked door. We walked into the dimly light room and made our way to the bar until our table was ready. Asian trinkets were scattered across the top of the bar with little room to place a drink; the bar obviously isn’t used very often. We played with the bobble-head tigers and admired the Asian lava lamps while we polished-off a couple beers prior to being seated.

We shared another great bottle of Malbec, a delicious shaking lamb, spring rolls, and a spicy, lightly breaded, white fish with cherry tomatoes. The restaurant didn’t compare to the top Vietnamese places at home; however, the cuisine was as authentic as I would expect and we welcomed a reprieve from the numerous parillas. There are still a few more Asian fusion places we hope to visit before we head back to San Francisco in a couple weeks.

We jumped in a cab to avoid the thunderstorms and made it back to our apartment by 1:00 AM and watched a little late-night Argentinean TV (which we have found to be quite liberal) before heading to bed.

We were lucky enough to catch an automotive comparison show on one of the local stations. The show compared the Mini-Cooper, the Chevy Spark and the Fiat Nuevo 500—all sub-compact models, approximately the size of the Mini. All cars were rated in four different categories: comfort, suspension, safety and durability. The best part about the show, and why it’s worth mentioning, is that it was based on having sexual intercourse in the vehicle. So… comfort, suspension, and of course safety and durability were all rated during coitus. The program actually showed a couple vigorously testing out each sub-compact car before giving their rating. The show explained the importance of cars to young couples in South America. Most children live with their parents until they’re married and thus the car is their only safe refuge for getting intimate. The program also outlined the importance of putting newspaper in your window to avoid being interrupted during the act.

I won’t hold you in suspense any longer… the winner was the Mini-Cooper; the Cooper’s safety and reliability put it on top of the Spark and Nuevo 500 (pun intended).

As you can guess, we had to watch the whole show to find out the winner before turning off the lights. This means we had a late start on Monday morning—good thing it was a holiday and we didn’t have anywhere to go!

Our plan was to spend the day at the racetrack watching the ponies run, but we first needed to make a “quick” detour to the ATM to get some cash. As expected our trip to the bank wasn’t easy, nor was it quick. What more do I need to say… after attempting to get cash from at least five different ATM’s we gave up and altered our plan.

We opted to head to one of our neighborhood parks instead. We went to Parque 3 de Febrero. The park reminded us of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park—complete with a Japanese Tea Garden and planetarium. There were plenty of in-line skaters, bicyclists and runners; all taking advantage of the vacant streets that were closed to the holiday traffic. We found a patch of sunny grass after walking a few miles through the park. As soon as we sat down, a flock of wild parrots landed in a tree next to us, squawking above our heads and making us feel right at home. The ground was a little damp after the severe thunderstorms the night before, but this didn’t stop the teenagers and those in their early 20's from making-out (macking) and rolling around the lawn.

As the sun started to set, we decided to head back to our apartment and leave the love-birds to mack away the rest of the evening in the park.

The best part… another Fin de Semana Largo (long weekend) starts again on Thursday!