Four Nights and a Wedding

We kicked off our sojourn in South America rather appropriately - with a party. To be exact, a four-day New Year's celebration at a hotel in Palermo Hollywood (a subsection of Buenos Aires' "hippest" neighborhood) with eight longtime friends: Andy, Laurel, Katie, Raleigh, Brett, Adam, Jennifer and Alison. The fiesta culminated on NYE with an al fresco dinner on the hottest and muggiest night of the year (both 2006 and 2007, apparently). But the chilled Torrontes (a sweet white wine produced only in Argentina) helped immensely, as you can see.

Two days earlier, fresh off the boat, er, plane, we attended the wedding of our great friends Diego and Paloma, who live in Nicaragua and have recently opened a hotel at the beach named El Toro. He's from Argentina. She's from Spain. The all-night wedding (9 p.m. to 5:30 a.m.) was an excellent introduction to Argentina's most torrid passions: late nights, wine, barbequed meats, tango dancing (the Tango World Cup runner-ups were present), Diego Maradona (the infamous Argentine soccer player) and confectionary excess. To wit, I present the following photos.

When we entered the grounds of the "quinta" (ranch) where the wedding was held, the first thing we saw (and smelled) was "asado" (barbeque). Big hunks of meat and rows of sausages, including blood sausages, on large outdoor grills and spits like this one.

The amazing tango dancers who performed at the wedding are childhood friends of Diego. They now live and dance professionally in Germany. We have video of their spellbinding dances (they performed 3) but haven't yet figured out how we upload it to the blog. Stay tuned!


The dessert bar was beyond boggling. Probably 20 different cakes and pies, all mysterious and mouth-watering. It was so boggling in fact that Matt's indecision - and fullness from all the meat we ate earlier - led him to miss the entire thing!



And finally, a photo of the happy newlyweds (far right) as well the wedding's other celebrity. To Paloma's immediate left in the black jacket is her uncle, a well-known singer in Spain. She had told us about him but we didn't know how famous he really was. Well, we found out pretty quickly. Based on his tight black pants alone, you knew he was a rock star. And when one of his songs played on the dancefloor, everyone clapped, shouted and sang along. From the kids to the parents, they knew every single word.