Alright, maté?

Maté is a traditional South American caffeine-rich drink, quite similar to green tea. And it’s EVERYWHERE in Argentina.

First things first: how do you prepare and enjoy it? Our friend J showed us the ropes at her flat so of course we now consider ourselves experts 🙂 Take your maté cup (an ordinary mug won’t do), fill it halfway up with maté leaves. Pour hot (not boiling) water from your thermos into the side of the cup, holding your metal maté straw in place. Don’t jiggle it around like we did – this is a rookie error and apparently blocks the straw! Then after a few minutes sip through the straw until all the liquid is gone. Then top the cup up, pouring the water from the thermos into the original area that the water was poured before you drank. This prevents disturbance apparently, and keeps the flavour. DO NOT MIX IT! FOR GOD’S SAKE DON’T MIX IT! Read some of the comments below this video to see the response this gets from devotees. Then pass the cup to your neighbour. And how does it taste? Like green tea but more intense and probably more addictive!

If we were being poetic/pretentious we’d say the act of maté-drinking infuses Argentinian life like the flavour of the leaves infuses the hot water. Instead we’ll simply say: everyone’s at it. Tour guides taking a furtive sip in between breathless rants about geology as the bus lurches uphill, commuters plonked on buses and trains, office workers on their lunch break, families on a Sunday stroll, bands being interviewed on TV, our Airbnb hosts recovering from a hangover, couples enjoying trysts in dimly lit parks…it’s comprehensively embedded in Argentinian culture.

We’ve seen similar habits in south east Asia (chewing betel nut) and of course coco leaves are a big thing in Bolivia but the sheer dedication to lugging around the paraphernalia needed to enjoy maté is a sign of how important it is to a lot of people! It’s a bit like having a cuppa but lived out in the unlikeliest places when we would consider having a hot drink simply not practical. Like at Iguazu Falls where you have to contend with slippery boardwalks, huge crowds, getting soaked to the skin, thundering noise and securing your all-important photos without getting your phone all wet or falling over the edge. Some visitors were happy to flit around with a cup of boiling tea during this chaos and good on them because none of it went on us.

Just a snapshot of the varieties of mate on supermarket shelves in Buenos Aires

D’s reflections on how this would go down in the UK…Imagine someone walking around with a flask, a mug and some green tea bags, continuously topping it up through the day. Imagine a group of teenagers, who instead of going out on the lash on a Friday, go down to the local square to peacefully drink green tea, chat, dance and listen to music.

In London, walking around with a thermos, in your twenties, you’re probably either trying to flap your peacock wings on the streets of Shoreditch, or you’re openly proud of being part of the local diesel-train spotting group – here’s a link to find yours – or you’re just Duane Dibley.

That’s my instinctive and undoubtedly narrow-minded view, but it’s probably a view that holds true for most of the population. That aside, if you’re a hipster, train spotter or something in between, you can buy maté online via Amazon and in stores in the UK (although they’re bagged – not the authentic raw product). I can’t imagine you’re going to see characters on your local high street – from the menacing youth to the OAP – bowling around with maté soon. More likely it’ll be a clandestine event in the comfort of your home, surrounded by your other hipster friends. Oh yeah, Eric Dier drinks it too.

We’ve now walked over the border into Bolivia where coco tea, coco sweets and coco leaves are probably the local equivalents of maté. The sweets and tea have so far proven pretty effective in dealing with the very mild effects of high altitude in Humahuaca and La Quiaca but we’re heading higher from now on. We’ve already spied a few oxygen cylinders placed discreetly in hotel lobbies and oddly between us have fallen up the same flight of stairs three times in 24 hours. Possibly getting light-headed without realising it or maybe the wine we brought here from Cafayete was just too yummy. Just tell us if our lips are turning blue please.

Buenos Aires

We’ve now spent exactly a week in Buenos Aires! It’s a good time to reflect on what we’ve been up to since our last entry and share some of the cool stuff we’ve done that’s made us decide to spend seven more days here. Logistics are pretty straightforward (apart from a few South American quirks…of which a bit more in future posts!) so it’s a nice base from which to continue decompressing post our London lives while doing some of the things we enjoy but never had time for back in the UK. Such as…going to the gym – we joined up for a week at a pretty basic but does-the-job neighbourhood place – reading, learning about Argentine culture and having enough time to absorb what’s going on around us in the city. The weather’s been pretty much perfect. Strong sunlight, no rain, a welcome lack of wind and just becoming autumnal. Porteños – Spanish word for someone who hails from a port with this term most usually applied to people from Buenos Aires – are gregarious as you’d expect and as the city is best at night we’ve seen a few live music acts including a really great trio at El Universal, La Bomba de Tiempo and some funk at a club called La Grande and a night at La Catedral (apparently a ‘bohemian tango temple’) are on the cards before we leave. And yes, that will involve me and D actually having to tango…! 1

Centro cultural Kirchner
Interactive chalkboard art!
Dali quote!
Evita railing against social ills
Caballito historic tram
Outside Teatro Colon
Amazing atmosphere and acoustics in Teatro Colon
Café Tortoni

Learning more about Argentina’s politics and the legacy of dictatorship have been valuable and a separate blog post on those thought-provoking aspects of our trip will follow. But as you can see from these pics, we’ve complemented this relatively heavy-going fare with lots of culture. Snagging £3 standing tickets to see contemporary ballet in Teatro Colon and hearing a full orchestra in that amazing cavernous space was an evening well spent and a little surreal after having watched England go down 3-1 to the Netherlands in an English-themed boozer called The Gibraltar immediately beforehand (not sure if that counts as ‘culture’). We also checked out a Dali exhibit and the amazing recycled space of the city’s old post office now turned into the ultra-modern Centro Cultural Kirchner with its auditorium-inside-a-huge-metal-animal that could fill a football stadium easily. Has to be seen to be believed. As does the phenomenon below.

Professional dog walkers are a common sight in the central barrios but the number of hounds under this guy’s command surpasses anything else we’ve seen. Surely this is a bit terrifying if you’re one of the smaller pups? How their toilet trips are coordinated doesn’t bear thinking about…

D will share some reflections on the Casa Rosada – presidential palace – and the local drink of choice (mate) and the rituals surrounding it in his next post. Our next stops after Buenos Aires are now nailed down as Iguazu falls on the Brazilian border followed by Salta in the north west and its surroundings where a bit of a desert vibe is in order. The 18hr night bus to the falls promises camas (beds) but let’s see how that turns out in reality 🙂

The Journey Begins

Hello – thanks for joining us!

In this blog, Rachel (and Dunstan here and there) will be sharing our thoughts on travelling through various countries in South America over 3 months.

Now there’s probably loads of blogs out there about travelling around South America, with inspirational photos, raving descriptions, that will make you feel jealous whilst you’re on a 90 minute commute to London as it rains outside. Then there will probably be many that say that they’re different from this and offer a more ‘authentic’ view of life over here. Yawn.

This blog will be a simple journal of our day-to-day experiences in South America – our opinions on things to see, costs and itineraries etc.

To give some context of who we are, hopefully to help understand why we make certain decisions, we’re both 34 and had good incomes and savings, and are travelling for 2.5/3 months without any strict plan. We speak survival Spanish, and important to mention also is that we decided to go during the autumn/winter in South America (summer in Europe).

Let’s go further back….after spending almost two decades between us in London town, Rachel was offered a PhD place, outside of London, and Dunstan was contracting. We decided that this would be a perfect time to go somewhere we’d never been and we decided that South America would be great seeing as we’d heard so many positive things from others.

Originally we booked flights to Buenos Aires through Norwegian Air around 2 months before we left, purely as a way to ensure we go actually go! At this stage we didn’t have any idea if were going to stay in London when we got back etc so everything was up in the air. However, once we knew our plans, we had 1 month to find people to rent our flat in London, pack and find somewhere to store our things, organise stuff for our travel whilst sustaining 9-5 jobs. It was exhausting and stressful to put it mildly. 😞

Bit of an early fail when the airport cash machines had run out of currency. So we paid for coffee in the airport in dollars to get change in Pesos. It’s fair to say we were a bit blinded by the various exchange rates at this point so she could have given us anything to be honest.

Our initial view of Buenos Aires was somewhat confused as the driver – whose car had a hole in the bottom of the chassis (we could see straight through whilst driving at 60 mph) – mentioned that the city was very green. This was mentioned in the face of 6+ lanes of traffic that seem to permeate the entire city. Despite the clear lie, he was a nice person and helped us find our accommodation via a dropoff to pick up the keys to our accommodation.

The Airbnb – where we am writing this from – is nice. A room for £50 for 7 nights between two i.e. £25/person, or £2-£3 per person per night which is ridiculously cheap.

Anyway, what did we do on our first day? We unpacked our things properly knowing that we’d be in one place at least 7 nights and decided to go for a wander. Our Airbnb is situated in Palermo, close to Avenida de Santa Fe which is one of the main arteries through Buenos Aires. Think of the south circular running through the whole of London but twice as wide and with more shops and ‘life’ on it. Palermo itself is a cool area with many nice restaurants of all types, some really good coffee shops, bakeries, bars and all other things you get in what is a middle-class area of Buenos Aires. We’ve not a perspective of what this area is like during other times of the year, but it feels especially nice now and ideal to acclimatise coming from London. Although it’s close to winter, the temperature is around 15 degrees, the sky is clear blue, and the autumnal colours can be seen on the high trees from the pavements.

After leaving the flat, we headed to Palermo station, and crossed the monstrously wide highway in the middle of the city walking past a huge mosque. Traffic priority isn’t straightforward. At times, it feels like two cars are about to collide at a crossroads (as the city is built in blocks roads cross…a lot) on and then it all seems calm and controlled. Other times it feels that when crossing the pedestrian crossing, you’re about to get mown down by a taxi only for it to slow down and stop just before you. It’s unnerving initially but you get used to it and you become more confident – hopefully not too confident.

Back to wandering……maybe due to our lack of pre-reading about Buenos Aires, we were surprised to see such a huge mosque in quite a central place in the city. We didn’t imagine that there would be a Muslim community. The mosque itself wasn’t the most ornate but packed a punch in terms of size.

From here, we kept walking and walking, aiming towards the Japanese Gardens. We certainly underestimated how long this would take, and how big the city is. The Japanese gardens were cool with huge koi and lots of locals indulging their selfie habits in the unique surroundings. It was quite surreal to have gone from London to Argentina to “Japan” all within the space of about 14 hours. Discombobulating.

After trekking back to our flat, we quickly changed, met our friend J, who has lived here for over a year as a teacher. We grabbed some beers and had our first try of empanadas – handheld local pasties stuffed with random fillings – and went to a show.

La Bomba De Tiempo (Time Bomb) is a percussion group that do sets every Monday. The venue – a former warehouse and now a huge cultural ‘city’ – was around 20 minutes by Uber from Palermo. Ubers only take cash here – pretty weird! The music itself was great, the vibe was energetic, the communication between the performers tangible. The smell of hashish was pungent, and the beer came in litres. People were having a great time dancing and jumping around but nobody seemed drunk. Somewhere similar in the UK there would surely have been some ruckus or some people the worse for wear.

A packed first day. Sleep was not hard to come by.