Buenos Aires in Conde Nast Traveler

Okay, okay, THIS is the last post. :)

But I had to mention that since my return, every time I turn around, I see an article in a major publication about how Buenos Aires is the place to be. Are they trying to rub it in? Here's another huge feature article about the city's revival from the February 2007 issue of Conde Nast Traveler magazine.

"Buenos Aires in Bloom"
http://www.concierge.com/cntraveler/articles/detail?articleId=10586

The excerpt that perhaps best sums up the momentum you feel in BA:

The city that used to promote itself as the Paris of South America, with its wide boulevards, café culture, and opera house to rival the Palais Garnier, has at last shed its stubborn European envy and become—first grimly and then exuberantly—a wholly different and distinct place, going from derivative to innovative almost overnight. But it took a tragedy—Argentina's devastating 2001 economic meltdown, one of the biggest financial collapses anywhere, ever—to shake this city of three million (fifteen million if you count the entire metropolitan area) out of its creative deep sleep and into its current fizzy era of entrepreneurship and invention. The Porteños (as Buenos Aires residents call themselves) I met on my most recent trip—leading designers, artists, gallery owners, chefs, and hoteliers—have unleashed an unprecedented amount of energy into their city, making for what must be the most colorful financial recovery in history, not to mention one of the world's most profound, and thrilling, makeovers.

Such energy is, it seems, contagious. For who isn't talking about Buenos Aires these days—its food, its galleries, its bars and boutiques? And there are other reasons too: Despite the city's size (it is divided into forty-eight barrios, and you can spend forty minutes in a cab just getting across town) and distance from the United States (an eleven-hour flight from the East Coast, but with a time difference of only an hour or two), it is both accessible and, still, affordable. There is also the irresistible feeling as you walk through here that you are witnessing that rarest of occasions—the very moment of transition, a city in its adolescence, transforming itself from what it was into something different and new, redrawing its boundaries and rethinking its identity, the public face it presents to the rest of the world.

The Epilogue: Peru

It's not over....yet! I'm putting up one last post to show some photos from our five-day layover in Peru on the way back to LA.

First, here's a shot taken from the beautiful clifftop malecon (promenade) in Lima's upscale Miraflores neighborhood, where our friend Matt Gehrke lives. (Matt Gehrke and Matt Prezzano met when they both were posted in Nicaragua with the Peace Corps.) His apartment is two blocks from the ocean, which means the city's countless surf breaks (many more than LA has) are just a quick walk away. Like LA, Lima's westward orientation make for very pretty sunsets, but the ocean temperature is much warmer. Note that the greenery you see here is not natural, by the way. Lima is located in the middle of a true desert (outside of town you see nothing but sand dunes), and only the irrigated areas have any greenery.

Lima was a very interesting contrast to Buenos Aires in many other ways too, and it helped us reflect on our experience there. First and foremost, Lima felt like Latin America, and it reminded us that Buenos Aires really doesn't feel that way at all. From the architecture to the way of life, Buenos Aires is more like a slice of Europe that happens to be in South America. We also discovered that it's a few steps ahead in terms of anti-smoking laws in bars/restaurants and metered taxis (versus pre-trip price haggling), two things that Lima doesn't have. Here's a photo of someone paragliding (or is it hangliding?) off the cliffs in Miraflores, thanks to the ideal conditions.

What Lima does have is an enviable, temperate climate (between 70 and 80 degrees year-round, which means A/C is not needed) and a truly unique cuisine that I think might even be more interesting than native Argentine cuisine. (Yes, I said it. More on that in a minute.) And while there's a lot of nondescript modern construction in Lima, there is some beautiful colonial architecture to be found, especially downtown and in the Barranca neighborhood. Here's one building I particularly loved for its colorful paint job.



Next is a shot of Matt with Matt Gehrke and his girlfriend Giuliana in El Centro, Lima's historic downtown. To give you a quick backgrounder, Matt Gehrke moved to Lima eight months ago to become the regional director for a NGO that promotes transparency in finance. Giuliana, who is from Lima, is currently earning her PhD in architecture/urban planning. They were fantastic hosts and took a lot of time to show us Lima's sights and cuisine, including anticucho, or kebabs made with the heart muscle of the cow, and saltado, a stir fried dish using soy sauce that reflects the Japanese influence on the cuisine. I really liked both dishes, as well as the numerous spices and fruits that are found only in Peru. At a top-notch seafood restaurant called Segundo Muelle (www.segundomuelle.com), we had some spectacular desserts made of fruits I'd never heard of and also tried a strawberry-dulce de leche custard that knocked my socks off.



During our stopover in Peru, we also spent two nights in San Bartolo, a sleepy beach town about 40 minutes south of Lima that's known for its surf breaks. (In fact, there was as surf tournamount going on when we were there.) Here's a shot of the great view from our cliffside hotel, which I must add had the most eccentric and cluttered decor I've ever seen, as if we'd stepped into crazy Uncle Sal's beach cottage from the 60s. But who cares about that when you can hear the waves crashing, enjoy the sea breeze and watch local surfers at two different breaks all day long? I should mention that Sofia Mulanovich (www.sofiamulanovich.com), the 2004 Women's World Surfing Champ, hails from Peru. Matt actually thinks he spotted her in the water while surfing one morning.



In the last picture, taken on our balcony, you'll see the hotel's chatty Italian owner trying to convince Matt to buy property in San Bartolo with him. He urged, "Let's make business!" We declined, which disappointed him. "The town needs people like you," he lamented, before quickly launching into another story. So with that final anecdote, this brings the Buenos Aires adventure, and the blog, to a close...for now. A big thank you to everyone who read and commented on the blog over the past months. We'll let you know when there's a new adventure to follow!