BA Update 4 - Fanatical Football and Dont Cry for Don Juan

So was going to sleep in this morning but the old fashioned tick tick tick clock had other ideas and the bring bring bring alarm went off at 630 for 5 whole minutes. 

Yesterday  was primarily recovery and then football match. Two local teams River (who we and 80% of the stadium were supporting) and Racing who come from 2 hours away.  Left hotel at 1pm with about 30 of us.  Many of whom (not me) got in from clubbing at 7.  Think rag tag fugitive fleet, coke, chips, panda eyes.  Quiet bus ride.  Weaved our way through the other 65 thousand going to the game (all apparently on foot).  Took an hour.  Sat in blazing sun, being blared at by music and ads and then the fun started as the stands filled up and the banners unfurled.  Racing scored within the first 5 mins, stand (all concrete and old enough to have concrete cancer) is vibrating from the entire stadium jumping up and down rhythmically to various chants and banter (“you’re going down to b league” prompted “you’ll always be C-League:”, lots of rude gestures, chairs thrown, riot police, ), sure footed goat-people holding huge trays of coke, icecreams, hamburgers, scamper up and down the steep steep stadium, pushing their way through wall after wall of humanity to sell. Right next to domestic airport so every 3 minutes there’s the scream of a plane banking and dropping quickly to make the landing.  Incredible.  Sun drops. Incredibly cold.  I now own an “official river de soy” scarf which was the only thing left which could add some warmth!

Dinner was a group of us down at the Porte Madero, a lot like King St wharf but much longer and more local.  Steak, steak, steak, malbec, malbec, malbec.  Mirasol coped well with the chaos.

Today has been a day of shopping in the markets.  Hours spent wandering through San Telmo markets (new hotel, the Mareno half a block away) which are antiques, jewellery, etc.  everything from Limoges dining sets to handmade jewellery to art.  Then to racoleta where Damian and Nicole went to visit the cemetery and we wandered the markets.  Lunch at Los Delicias, which we stumbled upon.  Packed with locals, many elderly and well dressed.  Could have been an rsl or retirement home or perhaps just pension day given the number of walking frames but the food was magnificent so maybe that was what attacted such a mass of family togetherness.  Red wine, pastas, steak, fish, and the bill was $65 for 5 of us (2 bottles of malbec and bee!).  Damian now focused on finding cowboy boots and I've come back to the hotel for a kip.  Dinner at 10 in Palermo at Don Juan, one of the best steakhouses in BA.

Unfortunately however it appears that Don Juan is indeed mythical..... So we're off to San Juan instead.  fingers crossed coz would hate to waste a meal in BA (no more Cluneys repeats thank you!)