Day 3

Today we headed out to an area called Tigre which was along the coast and turned out to be a delightful seaside town with shady streets lined with upscale houses. We took a boat trip with other gringos down a river lined with vacation houses. At one point, we passed an old wooden house which was inexplicably housed in glass. Turns out it was the ancestral home of an ex-president and they were protecting it from humidity damage. Still, though. Very odd looking.

While there we headed for a craft market and to my amazement, it actually had stuff worth buying. Hold the front page! Lucia and Vicente then got us to try a "parilla" - a South American mixed grill. A better description would be mixed random animal parts. Most of it was inedible. They had huge black pudding sausages with huge lumps of fat throughout, bony chops, massive medium rare steak, and cows' cheeks, which I was assured would go down better with lemon juice but this just made them sour as well as inedible.

We'd heard all about how dangerous Baires was with muggings and pickpocketing part of daily life. I never saw any dodgy types hanging around though but just in case, we kept a firm grasp on our belongings. Vicente, this being his first time in the city, said he'd reckoned it would be more "duro" - harder, more dangerous - but felt safe enough.

That night, me and Tee headed out for one of the most amazing steaks of my life in a famous restaurant surrounded by types that tourist guides describe as a "bohemian crowd". Most of them looked like tossers to me though. The steak was indeed divine, enough even to apparently make my vegetarian friend Mackers "turn" the time he was there. Meat so good you momentarily stop caring about the slaughter of animals. That's some good eatin'.

Next we headed to a famous place on the tourist trail called Cafe Tortoni's, which would have tango on. Inside, we felt underdressed for the classy crowd and mirrors and polished brass surfaces everywhere. It was dear to pay in to the tango show, but was totally worth it. They I, uh, fell asleep. This is just something I do. Get used to it.