Super Argentinianosity 2.0
Saturday night we went to a tango place to see some younger tango musicians. You can get food and wine/beer and dance the tango. No tourists in sight that I could see. It was a bit in the boonies, straight south from where I live about a 1/2 hour cab ride. We ate "locro" which is a kind of corn and bean based stew. Very argentine, and quite tasty as well. Here's us eating the locro.... 
Here are the musicians.
Sunday we did two very Argentine things - went to a fair that is held every Sunday in an area of town called Mataderos which is JUST before leaving the boundary of the capital. Its basically very heartland type things. Traditional dances...
We had THE BEST STEAK SANDWICHES EVERRRRRRR. Since we have grown up eating steak, we can say with confidence that it would be very difficult to beat this bbq. Just steak and bread. No A1 sauce, no salt, no chimichurri. Wow. We tried some other dishes from up north, but nothing to write home about (or on the blog about ;).
Then we took a remis (hired car, pronounced "reh-mees") that was seriously banged up and driven by a crusty but endearing 50+ lady to the soccer stadium to check out the River Plate v. San Lorenzo game at San Lorenzo's stadium which may I add is right in front of a villa miseria (a shanty town/ slum). When we jumped out of the remis and could already hear the crazy chanting - it really gets your blood going hearing drums and cheering like that.
The seats could not be better - second row in the center of the field, a $50 peso ticket. 
On either end of the field are the areas where the psycho fans sit. Its unassigned and you just stand the whole time and jump and sing along with the team songs. There are people underneath the flags that dont even see the match. Here is the San Lorenzo side (as a side note, Viggo Mortensen of Lord of the Rings grew up in Argentina until the age of 11. He is a diehard San Lorenzo fan, its also my mom's team. All Argentine's pick a team, just how it is...) Below is the San Lorenzo side 
Here is the River Plate side - they were in first place until this match where they tied 0-0 and then another club, Boca won their game so they lost their position. This team has its stadium right next to the place where I take horseback riding...so its the exact opposite of a villa miseria. Its madness. 
. See this man to my right? Dont let his calm expression fool you - my right ear was bleeding from his constant ranting and cussing, 
and he nearly elbowed me a couple of times because of his sudden leaping up to make references to the private parts of the players or referee's mothers. That says nothing for the kid behind me and to my right - unfortunately not in the pic - but for a skinny kid he had some serious lungs, combine that with a seemingly limitless knowledge of fight songs and you're in for some serious auditory damage. He and every man woman and child was extremely opinionated. Check out this crazy old guy nearly falling over the railing...he was psycho. 
Here is another fan pic...
My neighbors starting to get vocal...
Bobby, Fernando and the fellow next to Fern who was actually normal. Enthusiastic about the game,but quite able to contain himself...
Here's the final photo I got with a functioning screen...
you see, some a**hole thought it appropriate to throw coins at the opposing team as they exited the stadium. One of those coins hit the corner of my camera's screen and permanently disabled it. Thanks a lot you stupid brute. Sigh...
Anyhow, on the way out we walked past that villa miseria. In this picture you see all the more well-to-do types herded into the parking lot waiting to leave and just beyond that wall, the shanty town.
Pretty eye-opening to look right into it at night and seeing one of their little streets all lit up with stolen electricity. In places like that Bobby and Fern and I would IMMEDIATELY get jumped. People there know eachother and can pick out strangers in a hearbeat. After the game we headed home and stayed put. It was quite a day. Oh, and the reason the people were corraled in there was because the fans of the other team are made to leave first, then the regular fans, then the crazy fans you saw in the photo with the flags. Its to put as much distance between the two groups of maniacs as possible to avoid fights!!
Here are the musicians.
Sunday we did two very Argentine things - went to a fair that is held every Sunday in an area of town called Mataderos which is JUST before leaving the boundary of the capital. Its basically very heartland type things. Traditional dances...
We had THE BEST STEAK SANDWICHES EVERRRRRRR. Since we have grown up eating steak, we can say with confidence that it would be very difficult to beat this bbq. Just steak and bread. No A1 sauce, no salt, no chimichurri. Wow. We tried some other dishes from up north, but nothing to write home about (or on the blog about ;). Then we took a remis (hired car, pronounced "reh-mees") that was seriously banged up and driven by a crusty but endearing 50+ lady to the soccer stadium to check out the River Plate v. San Lorenzo game at San Lorenzo's stadium which may I add is right in front of a villa miseria (a shanty town/ slum). When we jumped out of the remis and could already hear the crazy chanting - it really gets your blood going hearing drums and cheering like that.
The seats could not be better - second row in the center of the field, a $50 peso ticket. 
On either end of the field are the areas where the psycho fans sit. Its unassigned and you just stand the whole time and jump and sing along with the team songs. There are people underneath the flags that dont even see the match. Here is the San Lorenzo side (as a side note, Viggo Mortensen of Lord of the Rings grew up in Argentina until the age of 11. He is a diehard San Lorenzo fan, its also my mom's team. All Argentine's pick a team, just how it is...) Below is the San Lorenzo side 
Here is the River Plate side - they were in first place until this match where they tied 0-0 and then another club, Boca won their game so they lost their position. This team has its stadium right next to the place where I take horseback riding...so its the exact opposite of a villa miseria. Its madness. 
. See this man to my right? Dont let his calm expression fool you - my right ear was bleeding from his constant ranting and cussing, 
and he nearly elbowed me a couple of times because of his sudden leaping up to make references to the private parts of the players or referee's mothers. That says nothing for the kid behind me and to my right - unfortunately not in the pic - but for a skinny kid he had some serious lungs, combine that with a seemingly limitless knowledge of fight songs and you're in for some serious auditory damage. He and every man woman and child was extremely opinionated. Check out this crazy old guy nearly falling over the railing...he was psycho. 
Here is another fan pic...
My neighbors starting to get vocal...
Bobby, Fernando and the fellow next to Fern who was actually normal. Enthusiastic about the game,but quite able to contain himself...
Here's the final photo I got with a functioning screen...
you see, some a**hole thought it appropriate to throw coins at the opposing team as they exited the stadium. One of those coins hit the corner of my camera's screen and permanently disabled it. Thanks a lot you stupid brute. Sigh...Anyhow, on the way out we walked past that villa miseria. In this picture you see all the more well-to-do types herded into the parking lot waiting to leave and just beyond that wall, the shanty town.
Pretty eye-opening to look right into it at night and seeing one of their little streets all lit up with stolen electricity. In places like that Bobby and Fern and I would IMMEDIATELY get jumped. People there know eachother and can pick out strangers in a hearbeat. After the game we headed home and stayed put. It was quite a day. Oh, and the reason the people were corraled in there was because the fans of the other team are made to leave first, then the regular fans, then the crazy fans you saw in the photo with the flags. Its to put as much distance between the two groups of maniacs as possible to avoid fights!!
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