Mystery: Where Are the People?

I arrived in Salta late yesterday and was promptly met by a ridiculous shortage of available rooms. Seriously, there was a huge line at the tourism office at 8pm of people just looking for a place to stay after getting turned down by the first several places they tried. And even after getting relatively gouged my first night, I only was able to get another place on the express condition that I am out by 10am tomorrow because the place is completely booked Fri and Sat.

With this kind of crush in the hotels, why is it that every restaurant I've seen tonight is almost dead? Where are the people?

For fun, though, I'm going to include a photo of the wall at Luna Verde, where I'm eating dinner (and also the first place in Argentina that put picante on my table as a matter of course. Score!):




Best wishes to all of you out there in the world!

A night in Buffalo

OK, so I haven't been great about updating my blog, but I have a huge backlog of half-finished entries. I just found this one in my phone. I wrote it on my phone while I was out having dinner and drinks in Buffalo, NY. I think I intended to polish it up, but I think it's a good read as-is. The numbering at the end is me trying to distinguish between the different drinks I was having. Nothing has been changed except for the addition of one picture and the correction of one typo where I said "in" and meant "on." I hope you enjoy. This was on the evening of May 14, 2010.
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So I'm in Buffalo for the night, unexpectedly. Since I know nobody here, I am going out and have plenty of time to blog on my phone as I am not distracted by conversation. Yes, I am a total loner tonight. As such, I will give you a review of my drinks and locations.

Salsarita: the concierge at my hostel told me about this place. He said it wasn't bad Mexican food (he was comparing it to SF taquerias, which are the gold standard as far as I'm concerned). I was expecting a hole-in-the-wall and the place looked like a chain restaurant. Should have skipped out then. It's a level up from Taco Bell (aka the Worst Food Ever), but is 83 levels behind the lowest rung for SF taquerias. I award you no points and may God have mercy on your soul.

Allen Street Hardware: nice venue. [Ed. note: here's a pic from that night:

Allen Street Harware]

Red walls covered in original pieces of art, a huge bar, and 4 beers on tap, none of which I've never seen before. It also appears to serve some pretty good food for reasonable prices. I hate that fucking concierge right now as I'm full on shitty Mexican food and this menu looks über-tasty! Here's what I drank:
1) Piledriver IPA ($4.50 pint): made exclusively for this particular bar/restaurant, it is an excellent IPA. Milder hops than most IPAs, but with that same distinctive IPA taste and a lingering finish.
2) The first IPA filled me up quite a bit, so I'm not trying their other IPA, called Tröegs, for my next beer as the bartender said it is "really hoppy." Instead, I opt for the Rare Vos Belgian brew out of Cooperstown ($4.50 pint). Delicious! Smooth, but not too floral and sweet as some Belgians can be. It tastes like a pilsner with a faint hint of delicious root beer. Just enough flavor to let you know it's Belgian style.
3) HOLY CRAP the other bartender was wrong about the other beer being an IPA. It's the fantastic Nugget Nectar by Tröegs.
4) Check receipt in pocket
5) hoegarden
6) I am fuuuukt! Woo hoo! mamas little yella pils- oskar blues


Scotty is the MAN!!!!


[Ed. note: Scotty was my bartender, who was probably the best bartender I've ever had. Incredibly patient and attentive and yet somehow able to handle a crazy number of customers simultaneously. He gave me a free beer even before I told him that I thought he was the best. Of course, the next day I was talking with someone at brunch and mentioned Scotty and they said "Oh yeah, he's won 'Best Bartender' in Buffalo a couple times." Go Scotty, go!]

Location:Buffalo, NY

A Beautiful Thing in Uruguay

I am currently in Montevideo, Uruguay. Yesterday, the country held a huge reception for their World Cup team, who placed fourth in the tournament, with their only two losses being incredibly close heartbreakers at the end. I cannot imagine that the country could have shown more support for their team even if it won the World Cup. Here is a good video summarizing the reception the country provided for its team:



Please keep in mind that this was done in around 42 degree weather with around 70% humidity and a wind chill reaching close to freezing. They were out there for hours upon hours waiting for the plane to land and then the caravan to bring them from the airport to the legislative building. All for a team that placed FOURTH in the World Cup. You think anyone in Germany is doing anything close to this for their third place finish?

When comparing with any other country, though, it's important to keep in mind that Uruguay was the second smallest country to even qualify for the World Cup (Slovenia was smallest) and by far the smallest country to qualify for the Round of 16. How small? Only 3.3 million people in the whole country! That's approximately 1/90th the size of the United States. That's smaller than Los Angeles proper at 3.8 million (as opposed to "greater Los Angeles") and just slightly bigger than Chicago proper at 2.9 million.

At any rate, I just wanted to share that I'm here experiencing it and I cannot envision a greater argument for why the human race even plays sports than the completely effusive pride and gratitude that this country is showing for it's futbol team. It's like watching Hoosiers in real life. Whether it's deserved or not, I must tip my hat to Uruguay's team and the Uruguayan fans. Tomorrow I go looking for my own Forlan jersey!

This Makes Sense

OK, so Spain won the World Cup. Watching the finals between Spain and Holland was a great experience. I enjoyed good friends, good food, good wine, and a good game. I have to say, though, that a majority of Buenos Aires seemed to support Holland. When asking a friend about this, one supporting fact she mentioned was that the Independence Day that Argentina celebrated a couple days ago was independence from Spain's dominance. That makes perfect sense to me, but puts into interesting contrast the US's close relationship with England, even after independence. I think the main reason the US is close with England is because - with the exception of the Native Americans - England's relationship with the US wasn't as oppressive as Spain's with South America. What are your thoughts?

Congrats to Spain on the final, although with the flopping they were doing at the end, I was definitely pulling for Holland. I hope you all enjoyed the World Cup. I have to say that being able to enjoy all the games here in Buenos Aires was an absolute privilege. I'll miss this city, but have enjoyed my time here.

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2010-07-12 EDIT: So I wrote this blog entry without much thought and with much wine. Clearly England was horribly cruel to African slaves and other groups and my hypothesis falls apart in hindsight. Mea culpa. Anyone else have a theory?