A tan in Buenos Aires

I heard an awesome, Flamenco-ish bird song yesterday. Here’s a rough transcription:

Onto the post…

When I decided to come to Argentina, I got some comments from my friends:

• “Oh, maybe you’ll finally get a tan.”
• “Have you gotten your shots yet?”
• “I guess you’ll be eating a lot of burritos down there.”

My beloved Santa Feans: Argentina is not the same as Mexico. If Buenos Aires were flipped across the equator into the northern hemisphere, it would be about level with Albuquerque. In the middle of the Atlantic, of course. Also, Buenos Aires is a rainy, overcast place. And finally, it’s at sea level. So don’t come from Santa Fe NM, at 7000 feet in the desert, to Buenos Aires expecting a tan. I will be coming home as pasty as ever.
For the same reason, you don’t need shots for malaria or yellow fever or anything like that. I have seen some signs about dengue, which are a little confusing:

“Without water there are no eggs.
Without eggs there are no mosquitoes.
Without mosquitoes there is no dengue.”

..um, are they telling us to give up the use of water?
As for the food, they don’t, unfortunately, eat burritos here. Porteño cuisine, from what I’ve seen, mostly consists of huge slabs of beef, roasted chicken, empanadas, pizza, and pasta. For dessert they have anything you can put dulce de leche on (caramel sauce from Mt. Olympus). And they drink lots of yerba mate, a habit I’ve picked up — it’s so cheap! I’ve drunk a cup or two every day for two months and have spent a total of $3. I got a single cup of the stuff for almost that much at the Aztec. But aside from the mate and the dulce de leche, I’m going with Mexican food, hands down.
You might be shocked to hear, if you’ve ever eaten a burrito with me, that I’ve taken a break from spicy food down here. You just can’t get it — the grocery stores don’t have hot peppers, cayenne, salsa, hot sauce (they didn’t even know what that was)… I don’t even know where to get black pepper. I did stumble on some chipotle tabasco in the import section of a more upscale supermarket… and a 5 oz. bottle cost $10!
I bought it anyway. Totally worth it. Seriously, have you tried that chipotle stuff?