February 4, 2023 - El Calafate to Buenos Aires, Argentina

Today was a travel day for Tobey and me, from El Calafate to Buenos Aires. After our 10:00 am flight, we arrived back in the capital city and at our hotel by 2:00 pm. We are staying at Hotel Clasico again, so we know the neighborhood. Once checked in, we quickly changed into shorts and were off to exchange money and have lunch. We were looking at different restaurants and the sign board at Chacaito caught my eye. They had a picture of something similar to this and we. decided to try it - not having any idea what it was! The tasting plate for two with two soft drinks and tip was $3200 pesos - less than $9USD. Turns out it was Venezuelan food and it was really good The round tostada looking things on the left had veggies and a sauce on a tasty fried bread. The top rounds tasted a little like hush puppies filled with tuna and avacado. The skinny ones were "cheese-in-a-blanket" that we dipped in the slightly spicy green avacado sauce. The last - and best - thing we tried were the cachapas which are a corn pancake filled with cheese. They had a kind of sweet and salty taste and were so good that I need to learn how to make them.

After lunch we spent some time walking around before heading back to the hotel to cool down this afternoon. It's 85 and humid, so much warmer than what we have had for the last week.

This evening after dinner of entrana and papas fritas (grilled skirt steak and french fries) at Don Niceto's neighborhood restaurant, we spent some time walking around the area. On our way back Tobey heard music and spotted lights flashing so we changed course and came across one of the corsos (carnaval) celebrations. Carnaval Portenos is a grand fiesta that takes place every year throughout the month of February.
Through the different neighborhoods, colorful local "murga", or carnival dance troupes take to the streets. Over 100 different troups will perform during the month and we happened upon one celebration and saw two different groups. The troupe members ranged from babies to grandparents, all dancing and singing and playing instruments. It was so fun to see!


Video of one troupe https://youtube.com/shorts/8UH9NyzE9UM?feature=share   and 

https://youtube.com/shorts/ss9xj7haM78?feature=share

This was the second group that was just starting - at 10:30 tonight! Second group video: https://youtube.com/shorts/lmFzGlkLTZ0?feature=share

We watched for a while before heading back to the hotel since we have an early morning tomorrow. We are picking up a car and driving to Puan to see our exchange student, Mateo, and his family. Wish us luck with the driving!!