Update Tandil

After the visit from Bob and family came Libby. Her flight got in way early on a Sunday. So early that my cheap trasero hired a car to take me to the airport to meet her. I had originally planned to get up at like 4:30 am and then go wait for the #8 Red bus on Avenida Rivadavia. Fortunately, common sense got the better of me. I reasoned to myself that I'd be lucky to catch the number 8 Red bus that early in the morning and on a Sunday no less. Even if I could catch the bus, it'd be a long, miserable, tiring journey and I'd be in a rotten mood to meet my sister who had paid an arm and a leg to come see me. So I called a car to take me to EZE.

Libby arrived bright eyed and ready to tackle the city. I was ready for a nap. After a short wait we jumped on a bus and I made a seemless transaction with the bus driver to pay for myself and Libby. I acted nonchalantly about it, but was hoping that Libby had seen how street savvy her little brother had become.

On the bus, Lib jabbered excitedly and asked un monton de questions while I tried to feign interest in the surrounding landscape. The trip back from the airport, while once exciting, like driving into an amusement park as a kid, has since become a time for reading or sleeping if possible. The landscape is flat with a bit of farmland, a bit of wasteland, and the increasingly big towns leading up to the big city. Libby asked a number of questions about buildings and signs and the general layout. I wasn't able to answer many of them. I think I had simply never considered much of what she was asking. My brother Kevin asked similar questions, about landscape, trees, buildings. Not being able to answer their questions and realizing that I had never considered what they in their first 20 minutes were considering made me feel like I was not paying attention, like I have been too wrapped up in myself to look around me and consider the world. Or that maybe I simply haven't been very perceptive and was not getting much out of my experience compared to what they were sucking out in a short time. It also made me realize that maybe I think about and consider people much more than my surroundings.

Libby and I jumped off the bus about 2 or so miles from my apartment. While it's not much for me, the walk's distance prompted Libby to ask 'are we there yet' as many times as her 4 kids do on a trip from Hiram to Cincinnati. She only told me this when she was back in the US, but she hurt her foot badly that first walk on the first day. I think because she had somehow decided that leather Jesus sandals would be sufficient for the city. Anyone who has walked on the torn up/patched up/neglected/in constant state of repair sidewalks and streets of Buenos Aires knows that you better have running shoes with support or you're asking for it. And Libby did hurt herself pretty bad, earning one of those conditions with a name like planto-fashee-itis, which sounds like her foot mutated into a football sized mushroom, but really means that she pulled an important muscle.

To make a longish and not terribly interesting story a bit shorter, Libby and I ate our way through Buenos Aires for a few days. Big surprise:) Filet mignon, facturas, media lunas, tiramisu, flan, bife de chorizo, helado, empanadas, pizza, milanesas. Yum, yeah!, we're fatter, happier, and artery clogged for having done it.

The highlight of the trip was a truly crazy little excursion to Tandil, a small town in the Pampa of Argentina. My brother Kevin and I pioneered the Tandil experience during his trip and so I was ready to go back with my slightly less adventurous and creature comfort loving sister.

Unfortunately, I had to work during much of Libby's trip and it wasn't easy to find much time to get out of the city, especially when she was only here for 6 days total. But, we figured out a way to make it happen. Lib and I left completed our trip to Tandil in about 25 hours total. Here's how we did it.

At midnight on a Tuesday we left the Retiro bus station. We did our best to sleep on the bus and arrived in Tandil 5 hours and 15 minutes later. Sleep deprived and ornery, we shuffled into the downright cold bus station, used the bathroom, waited for the tourist information station to open up, and then with maps in hand started out in the dark walking toward the center of town. I could tell Libby was pissed at me. She was clearly wondering what the @#$% I had gotten her into, why she was in the middle of some crappy little town in Argentina before sunrise. I did my best to lighten the mood by cracking jokes and pointing out morning song birds and truth be told, Libby's attitude changed for the better pretty quickly.

Upon making it to the center of town, we stopped in the church on the main square. Not because we're very religious and wanted to start the day with a prayer, but because it was the only place open so early and we were shivering badly and needed to warm up. We hung out as long as we could and then some type of mass or prayer session started up. When our sense of feeling out of place overcame our cold, we left and circled the town square until we found an open cafe.

We warmed up a bit in a British-inspired cafe with tea and coffee and when the sun was up, started out to see a giant statue of Jesus for which Tandil is known. For whatever reason, Tandil is a religious pilgramage mecca especially during Easter or La Semana Santa as the week involving Easter is known in Latin America. It's common for people to travel to Tandil during the week before Easter and to perform the stations of the cross surrounding the giant stone statue of Jesus.

Libby and I hiked toward the statue just to see it and to see what other hiking we might be able to do. After an anticlimatic meeting with the stone Jesus, we noticed that trails leading behind the statue seemed to lead up a pretty sizable granite hill or sierra as they are known here. Needing some good exercise, fresh air, and a view of the city, and because it was there, we hiked and in some parts scrambled up. It was a fun and only slightly dangerous scramble that ended in a beautiful view of city as well as the surrounding farm land. We sat for over a half hour chatting and taking in the fresh air.

On the way down from the stone sierra, we stopped at a grocery store for kilos of dulce de leche. Everything seems to be significantly cheaper in Tandil than in Buenos Aires, especially food. In many cases, food is half as expensive and better in Tandil than BA. So, we ended up buying about 8 kilos of dulce de leche for gifts for family and friends. It didn't occur to me until after the buying spree that Libby was going to have an old swimming back problem and that I alone would be carrying all 8 kilos as well as our almost 4 liters of water. And we had a long walk ahead of us not only to the restaurant where we had planned to each lunch, but all around town that day until we arrived back at the bus station at 6pm. Nice.

I should mention too that one of the reasons I like making the trip out to Tandil is that the people there tend to be truly kind in comparison to the people in Buenos Aires. When Buenos Aires is crowded with people, I typically have, as Libby can attest, anywhere between 3-5 stressful transactions per day and usually with people from whom I am buying things or doing business. It's as if they are doing me a favor by taking my money. In Tandil, it's the opposite and I don't even get the sense that people are being nice because they want my money. I actually think they're just being nice for the sake of being nice or it's the culture. Truth be told, Tandil doesn't have all that much going for it landscape-wise. It does have some rolling hills, but there are many more pretty landscapes in Ohio. What Tandil does have is genuinely kind people, great and cheap food, homemade cheese and dulce de leche, leather goods, parilla tools(grilling implements), knives, and spiritual significance. For me, these characteristics are enough to make the 5 hours bus trip to get away from Buenos Aires.

One big reason I choose to take Libby to Tandil was to eat at an all you can eat buffett called Lo de Martin. I first ate there with my brother Kevin upon recommendation from my Argentine friend Esteban. Most buffetts, I admit, are pretty gross low quality filler canned boxed processed food nightmares. No es asi con Lo de Martin. Lo de Martin is a buffett where the majority of foods are made fresh. There is a meat station, a pasta station, a fish station, a milanesa station, and a dessert station, each with a chef like guy standing behind the counter ready to take your order. Lo de Martin was the first place where I was able to try both lamb and suckling pig, to the horror of my vegetarian and more humanitarian older brother. While I tore into new meat experiences, Kevin slurped down a fresh plate of gnocchis followed up by plates of cheese and salads and then a huge assortment of Argentine desserts. My first experience at Lo de Martin was my 30th birthday lunch. It made me happier than any one lunch ought to.

So a big reason for returning to Tandil was to return to this restaurant. Who you might ask travels over 5 hours by bus in the middle of the night to a small bufu Argentine town for an all you can eat buffett? My sister and I do. We are unrepentantly food obsessed and Lo de Martin was our spiritual pilgrammage. It did not disappoint.

I tried hard not to talk up Lo de Martin. I didn't want Libby to have expectations for it that would be hard to live up to. I held in my enthusiasm as much as possible (which is not that much), and we strode in tiredly at about 1:30pm, weighed down by dulce de leche and super hungry from not having had much for breakfast. Upon surveying the surroundings, Libby was quickly impressed. She admitted that it was like no other all you can eat buffett she had ever been to and proceeded to order plate after plate of lamb, beef, blood sausage, specialty meats, cheeses, salads, pastas, and then a huge plate of desserts. I don't think the smile left her face the entire meal. I know it didn't leave mine. Happiness is lunch at Lo De Martin's. And all for 29 pesos or about 8 bucks for an all you can eat gourmet meal.

Fat, happy, and refueled, we left my favorite all around restaurant in Argentina to buy gifts before running back to the bus station to catch our bus back into town. Libby was floored by the assortment of cool leather gear and bought more than I've ever seen her buy in any one shopping session. Her buying even inspired my buying. I realized after I had bought my leather parilla tool case that while it was a cool gift, part of why I did it was because I was tired and caught up in the euphoria of Libby buying stuff. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad now I have it, but I wasn't thinking rationally and I'm not sure she was either.

After checking in at one last leather goods shop to find a big piece of leather for my dad's art show project, we hustled back to the bus station just in time to use the bathroom and catch our bus back to Buenos Aires. The bus pulled out at 6:15pm and arrived in BA at around midnight. The trip back watching the sunset was truly beautiful. One of the best sunsets and views of La Pampa that I've ever witnessed. I drifted off to sleep while Libby stayed up to watch La Pampa and then a terrible Owen Wilson man-on-dog movie that they showed on the bus.

As we arrived in BA, the city was gridlocked in a mass exodus of people leaving town for La Semana Santa. People here leave the city whenever they get the chance. And that means almost everyone. The bus stations were so busy that we couldn't get anywhere near them and we were consequently dropped off at a nearby gas station. Again, we were going to take a city bus back to my apartment, but considering the late hour and our exhaustion, I hailed the first secure looking cab I could and Libby and I were beamed back to my apartment before midnight. The cab ride was quite possibly the fastest in my life. The driver was over 70 but drove as if he had the testosterone level of a 16 year old high school linebacker. He must have been taking viagra for drivers because this guy was not only fast, but he was clearly really good. Nuff said.

The rest of Lib's trip was somewhat like the beginning. I had work to finish up and needed to prepare to come home to take part in job interviews, which I will blog about later. On the afternoon that we took off, we hired a car together and left the city behind. It marked the end to my last long stretch of time in Buenos Aires. I'd go home, find a job, return, sell off my stuff, wrap up my work, prepare for the trip I'm leading down here in December, hang out with visiting friends from LA, and then give up the keys to my apartment and head to my parents to spend the summer with family.

Was I sad to know that the experience was almost over or what was I feeling? I guess I didn't know what to feel and I still don't. I'm too busy experiencing and doing to feel or to know how this whole thing has impacted me or how I will look back on it. For now, all I know is that I'd like one day to be able to make sense and meaning out of everything that has happened here. I'd like to be able to honestly identify my thoughts and feelings about Buenos Aires and so long as I do that, I'll feel satisfied with myself. I think too often we say what we think we are supposed to say, but not what we really feel. We say, yeah, it was an awesome experience, best thing I've ever done. Maybe we say it because that's just what people do and because the people who asked don't really care about our response anyway; they asked because they thought they were supposed to ask, because it's polite conversation protocol. I think I've been responding to people this way most of my life, telling them what they want to hear, but not expressing my true self. So my point is that one day I'd like to cut through what I'm supposed to feel about this experience and get to the truth. Maybe I'll realize it was a misguided adventure that resulted in a year lost of my life and career. Maybe I'll realize it opened my eyes to all kinds of new possibilities. Maybe I'll realize that it was just another weird twist to a life with a pattern of weird twists. Who knows.