Archives for February 2016

If you are taking Spanish Classes in Buenos Aires you should know that there are a lot of different options for things to do outside the city . Most of these activities are not too far from the city and are accessible by bus. Over this past weekend we took a hot air balloon ride in Luján. Luján is located 68 kilometers northwest from the city of Buenos Aires and is also home to a beautiful neo-gothic Basílica Nuestra Señora de Luján (www.basilicadelujan.org.ar) and the Zoológico de Luján (www.zoolujan.com), both of which I recommend visiting.

Our day of the hot balloon trip started off at 5 am in the morning at the 57 omnibus stop at Plaza Italia in Palermo. After an hour and a half of bus ride, we got off at the station at the Basilica and we were greeted by our tour guide and another couple. We were then driven to a large grassy airfield which felt like the middle of nowhere. Upon arriving the workers were in the process of attaching the balloon to a basket. The basket looked smaller than I expected and I thought to myself, “how in the world would we fit in there?” After the canvas of the balloon was attached it was filled with air from a fan and heat from a gas powered heating contraption, and it rose right up in front of us and took its shape.

Once ready the four of us along with the pilot squeezed into the basket. The pilot ignited the flame and we started to rise. By increasing or decreasing the air temperature in the balloon, we were able to gain or lose altitude respectively. I have to admit that I was a little scared at first as here we were the five of us crammed into a tiny basket full of two tanks of gas, an open flame, and at the mercy of the wind.

Then, we got the reward for getting up in the middle of the night to make this trip: the sun rose in the distance and illuminated the beautiful landscape beneath us. The wind picked up and we floated for about 30 minutes over a field of grazing horses and a lake. We then crossed a tree line separating the field and an open area of beautiful newly constructed town homes. We literally floated above one of the homes close enough you could probably jump onto the roof. The wind quickly changed so we were forced to cut our trip short. After folding up the balloon and loading the basket into the back of a truck we were driven back to our starting point and enjoyed a breakfast of coffee and sweet pastries.

The view from the hot air balloon ride was absolutely breathtaking. It is definitely a day-trip activity I recommend doing while you are staying in Buenos Aires. Be sure to book your trip in advance because the climate in Buenos Aires changes frequently and may require rescheduling. You can find more information at Flotar en Globo (www.flotarenglobo.com).

For more information about Lujan and Spanish in Buenos Aires enter our website https://vamospanish.com or visit us at Viamonte 1516 Buenos Aires Argentina Toll-Free +1 888-808-1242 Arg +54-11-5984-2201 [email protected]

Argentina is known as the land of steak and wine, but many foreigners and tourists who travel to this amazing country find themselves in a predicament if they are vegetarians. Based on Italian, Spanish, and indigenous cuisine, the main staple of any diet in Argentina is beef. Buenos Aires is slowly becoming for vegetarian-friendly in recent years, and there are a few restaurants that cater specifically to vegetarians. It’s even possible you’ll run into the rare native vegetarian, though unlikely. Here are some tips to maneuvering your way through Argentine gastronomy and surviving as a veggie!

#1- Carne, meat, means beef in Argentina. When you ask what options you have without meat, sin carne, you will likely get options that include chicken, fish and ham. Often, food without beef is considered to be vegetarian, even if it contains chicken, ham or fish.

#2- Make sure to double check that your order will come without ham, beef, chicken, or if you don’t eat it, fish. Say, “This doesn’t contain any type of beef, ham, chicken or fish, right?” “No contiene ningún tipo de carne, jamón, pollo o pescado, verdad?” This is also useful when asking what foods have no meats in them, because there are so many different cuts and kinds of meat that it’s hard to keep track of them! If the food description includes a word you don’t know, be sure to ask if it is a kind of meat!

Also Read: DISCOVER THE VEGETARIAN FRIENDLY ARGENTINA

#3- When in doubt, always double check. This is a country where everything, from salads, to burgers to sandwiches often include ham and cheese. It is a default ingredient that many waiters won’t even mention. Caprese empanadas, salads or sandwiches, which would normally include tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil, may just as well include ham without any noticeable mention of it. The same goes for anything else you’d assume may be meatless.

#4- Reliable vegetarian empanada options include: verdura, vegetable, which normally is made of alcega, swiss chard, and white sauce; choclo or humita, which is made of corn with white sauce; and queso y cebolla, cheese and onion. Other options include caprese, tomato, basil and cheese, Roquefort, blue cheese, celery and walnut, and champignon queso y jerez, mushroom, cheese and red wine. However, any of the last three might include the default ham, so be sure to double check that they don’t.

#5 – Other tasty vegetarian options can often be found on the “Light” menu that many restaurants offer. A popular light option is milanesa de soja, a soy version of the classic thinly sliced breaded and fried cutlets of beef, pork or chicken.

Also Read: Eating Healthy In Buenos Aires

You can also almost always rely on pasta: fideos (spaghetti), sorrentinos or ravioles (both are ravioli), or caneloni with verdura (normally it’s acelga, swiss chard) or ricotta cheese. Reliable sauces are fileto, basic plain tomato sauce with no meat, crema, basic white sauce, or rosa, is a mix of the two. However, sometimes ravioli made of ricotta and ham are simply referred to as ricotta, so double check, and be sure to also double check about the fileto sauce—sometimes a restaurant will substitute bolognese, a meat and tomato sauce, for fileto, assuming it won’t matter.

And of course, salads are great, but again, they often include ham and cheese, chicken or tuna. Ask if you can switch out the meat or fish for boiled eggs (huevos duros), beets (remolacha), arrugala (rúcula) or another iron or protein rich food like beans (porotos).

#6- For a cheap, great vegetarian option in Buenos Aires, hit one of the numerous vegetarian take-out places where you can load up on purely vegetarian food and pay by the kilo. Try Spring, on Borges and Charcas in Palermo, Sabo at Juramento and Cramer in Belgrano, or Lotus on Cordoba and Parana in the Center. There are lots of these kinds of restaurants throughout the city. For a luxury treat, visit Bio, the organic, sustainable, local-food restaurant on Humbolt and Costa Rica in Palermo Hollywood. Their unbelievable salads, curries, veggie burgers, and unique desserts are worth the splurge at least once during your stay here.

Estelle

Moving to Buenos Aires is no simple task. Take it from me, a foreigner who decided to move from a small town in Tennessee, USA to a big city. After living in Buenos Aires for a while and moving a few times, I have a few tips on finding the right apartment for you.

Traveling alone and want to meet new people? One economical option is to share an apartment with other foreigners and travelers. A good resource to use is a website called compartodepto.com. This site allows you to create a short profile about yourself and search for roommates with similar interests. Craigslist Buenos Aires is a good place to look too. Even though the listing is a bit crowded with agents’ postings these days, great offers from owners do pop up here and there.

If you are searching for an apartment in Buenos Aires for yourself, there are plenty of options available. There are two types of apartments: long-term and temporary. Long-term, usually not furnished, often requires you to sign a lease for up to 2 years and requires a guarantor. Temporary and furnished can be renewed on a monthly basis or even weeks depending on the property.

There are a lot of great websites out there to help you find a place. For short-term furnished ones, Airbnb has tons of choices or simply google search and you’ll find many rental websites out there. For much longer term ones, check out the local sites like mercadolibre.com and soloduenos.com. Note: If you go through a real estate agency you often have to pay commission to a realtor. You can bypass these agent fees by renting directly from the owner of the apartment, but I’d only recommend this if you have a good handle on your Spanish and a decent understanding of how things are done in Buenos Aires; especially if you are looking to do a long-term rental and a contract is involved. Some other costs to factor in are a one-time administration fee and a security deposit.

Most preferred barrios (neighborhoods) to live in among visitors in Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is a huge city and it has 48 official barrios. If you count the unofficial ones, like Barrio Norte or Las Cañitas, which are usually “sub-divisions” to help distinguish specific areas within a big neighborhood, then we are talking about more than 100 and counting. We have dived more into this topic of the unofficial neighborhoods in Buenos Aires here if you are curious to learn more about the stories behind them. In the meantime, here are the Top 5 choices which foreigners/visitors like to stay at:

Microcentro

(an unofficial barrio that comprises of official San Nicolás and partial Monserrat neighborhoods)
The “downtown” of the city is where you will find the financial center of the country and where all the tall office buildings are concentrated. However, it is also an area with many beautiful architecture and rich history. In fact, the most important historical sites and monuments are found in this area, such as Casa Rosada (Pink House) – the government building where the President of Argentina works, Plaza de Mayo, the Catedral Metropolitana, the Obelisco (Obelisk), along with many historical museums. Microcentro is also home to Av. 9 de Julio, which at 16 lanes, or 22 depends on which section and how you count them, is the widest avenue in the world. This avenue is lined with theaters host to operas, tango shows, and the sorts. One of the most famous theaters in the world is found here, Teatro Colon. At this world-class venue, you can watch famous operas, symphonies and ballets alongside royalty. The neighborhood also includes the famous pedestrian-only Florida street where you can find a good variety of shops and street vendors. Galerías Pacífico is found on Avenida Córdoba at Florida which is an upscale shopping mall.

Palermo

Palermo is the largest barrio (neighborhood) in Buenos Aires and is also where Vamos Spanish Academy is located. It is one of the more expensive places to live but it is also the most popular choice to stay among tourists and expats alike due to its very vibrant surroundings and colorful nightlife. It contains a zoológico (zoo), planetario (planetarium), hipódromo (horse-track), parques (parks), and many more. There are also a great variety of restaurants, cafes, bars, and tons of stores for shopping. Since the barrio is so big, it is divided into many sub-sections, such as Palermo Viejo and Palermo SoHo, which can be a bit confusing at first but we have the breakdown and explanations of all the ‘official’ and ‘non-official’ sub Palermo neighborhoods in Buenos Aires here for your reference.

Recoleta

Recoleta is one of the most beautiful and also expensive areas in the city. Here you will find buildings influenced by Parisian architecture along with green parks. Pretty much all of the high-end hotels are also situated in this area. It is easily accessible by the subte (subway) “D line” which passes through the neighborhood. Recoleta includes Av. Santa Fe, a main commercial street that has everything you can think of: brand name apparel stores, electronics, bookstores, banks, cafes, and restaurants. The neighborhood includes a couple of shopping malls (Recoleta Mall and Patio Bullrich), movie theater, and Recoleta Cemetery which is one of the main tourist attractions. Also, there are the Centro Cultural de Recoleta and museums including the must-visit Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes which houses famous works by Rembrandt and Manet. Plaza Francia is home to an artisanal fair every weekend where you can find leather goods to hand-made crafts. It is also the area, together with the many plazas and parks around it, where locals love to relax on its vast green space sunbathing or hanging out and sipping mate with friends on the weekends.

Puerto Madero

This area of once abandoned warehouses and waterway has been converted into modern apartment flats surrounded by residential high-rise buildings. Luxurious hotels, theaters, museums, and cultural centers are found here. Puerto Madero is popular among young professionals and home to fancy restaurants. Expect to pay top-dollar here for anything from restaurants to housing. One downside is the fact that the neighborhood is not well-connected to the city’s network of transportation. No colectivo (bus) nor subte run directly through the neighborhood. The few colectivos that say they go there will only go as far as its ‘border’, which is before the docks. You will find yourself walking a lot or taking a cab. The Buenos Aires Ecological Reserve is found on the outer side and borders the Rio de la Plata. The Reserva Ecológica is over 3.5 km long, so if you want to get your workout on it is a good place to do so.

Belgrano

Belgrano is divided into Belgrano R, Belgrano C, Central Belgrano, and Lower Belgrano. The neighborhood is easily accessible by subte “D” which follows the street of Avenida Cabildo and plenty of colectivos. Two commuter trains also run through there. Avenida Cabildo, a continuation of Av. Santa Fe, is often busy with bustling traffic and is home to movie theaters, grocery stores, and corner cafés. You can also find Universidad de Belgrano, a private liberal-arts university. Belgrano R is mainly a residential and quiet area lined with large trees and stately homes. Belgrano C is home to the famous Barrio China, a small copy of “China Town” lined with chinese restaurants and supermarkets. A great area to find that exotic spices or sauces which you can’t find in any local or big box supermarkets. Since Belgrano is a bit “off” of where all the actions are, you may actually able to find great value rental there and it’s right next to the trendy Palermo.

Vamos Spanish Academy Students stories

We always share stories and experiences of living in Buenos Aires with Vamos students and friends. They could be amazing, unbelievable, funny or anything in between. One type of stories that always came up was embarrassing situations occurred due to misunderstanding of languages. It was because of that, the idea of making videos capturing such situations was born, aiming to highlight the benefits of knowing different languages, which in this case, Spanish. After many planning and revising of scripts, the little idea had finally evolved into this video series ‘Wish You Knew How To Speak Spanish

Yesterday at our weekly Intercambio Club, we did a little premier of the videos to great response! We of course want to share these with many more people, so here they are for your viewing pleasure. If you have any funny stories like these, please do share/comment. We love to hear them and we may even make them into one of our videos in the future!

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