Northern Heat

Hola from Buenos Aires!

Well, our first night was short but punctuated by thunder and lightning, as the heavy humidity we encountered upon our arrival at the airport in BA turned into a night-long storm. We woke up to more rain, but by early morning it was dry, if cloudy. We met up with Zoe, Harry’s friend, for lunch (she’s studying spanish here for six weeks). Then Dad and I went about planning our last week here. We booked a boat to Montevideo, Uruguay, where we will spend a couple of days. I plan to swim in the Atlantic ocean, thus beating my record of two oceans in a single trip which I did last year. I expect that this will be a slightly warmer dip than the Antarctic.

Then tonight Dad and I were making our leisurely way back to the hostel trying to find a restaurant on the way, and we stumbled across a great little family-run place. Dad ordered chicken and I ordered a steak “muy jugoso”, meaning “rare”. When the food arrived, I had two pieces of meat, neither of which was rare, but it was obvious they had tried (rare is not something normally done here; despite their great reputation for steak the argentinians like it well done). So as often happens when in a country where you don’t always know what you’re ordering, I didn’t say a word, ate what was given to me. Fine and done. Except that a very strange thing happened… the waiter came to the table, looked at the meat that I hadn’t eaten, and said,’this isn’t juicy, this is dry, I’ll bring you some more’. And sure enough, a few minutes later a brand new steak was brought to me, much thicker cut than the last, very juicy. Without me saying a word! Or even thinking of it! As I said before, in a place where I don’t totally understand the language, sometimes even I don’t know what I’m ordering, but I don’t mind when I get myself into a situation where what I ordered may not be what I *expected*, but who am I to say that the waiter made a mistake? This time, I did know what I *tried* to order, but from previous experience knew that rare steak is a rare thing in Argentina (haha). And the cost for this feast? Two bottles of wine, 1/4 chicken, fries, salad, and what came out to three steaks… including a generous tip, under twenty dollars.

Anyways, it was a rare (again, haha) display of extraordinary customer service in this lovely country that makes this small familly restaurant stand out in this six-week trip. People and places in this wide world of ours will never cease to amaze me. No wonder this bug is catching.