Mayan: Buenos Aires

What a crazy city! One minute you're watching young kids pickpocketing and surviving on the streets or hearing the latest first-hand story about motochorros stealing someone's bag, the next you're sitting comfortably in a cafe that was host to some of Latin America's most famous writers with a jarito (long black) or cortardo (macchiato) with medialunas de grasa.

Our days usually start with the commute from our base in Lomas de Zamora, on a train that is ridiculously packed with people, to whichever cafeteria or place of interest Marcela (our Spanish teacher) has chosen for our class that day. It was Marcela's idea to teach us this way, and I cant believe we never studied a language this way before! We're learning a lot about this city, country and continent, although we get a little bit lost every day, and were always late. Each day, after our classes we keep exploring the barrio (quarter/neighbourhood) and practicing our Spanish on the locals. There's a lot of coffee drinking involved :)

We met Marcela through Romi and Pablo who offered us a place for couchsurfing in their home in BA for a couple of weeks. In the evenings when they return from work, and we return from our day of exploring, we cook together in their quincho. One rainy weekend we spent the whole time cooking, with some breaks for eating and watching soccer (vamos Boca carajo!) We contributed beer stew, damper, scones and sausage rolls as an Australian presence on the table.

From patagonia to the big smoke of buenos aires is a bit of a shock! The poverty, pollution, and crime of urban life here is often spoken about, and is certainly a depressing and scary side. We've seen guys pull out knives, been followed by children trying to scare us into giving them money ( thanks marcela for saving us!) and every single person we have met has at least once recently been rolled. But its also so vibrant and the cultural heart of the country. Some things that have stood out for us have included:
- you order coffee with your hands, no speaking required
- this has to be the most planned city on the planet: every block is a square, even in the suburbs
- there is a sense of nostalgia in the tango clubs, antique shops, and conversations, that hark back to the late 1920s and/or early 2001

English lessons with Marcela
San Telmo - El Federal