Bliss

Before I delve into Day 7, I want to tell you about something cool that happened as a result of the last blog post. Before I posted or translated the poem that I included in it, I decided it was probably a good idea to hunt down the author, Inés Barrio, and get her permission to do so. Ms. Barrio responded almost immediately and very graciously granted her permission. She complemented me on my translation, which was a great honor for me, and then mailed me a copy of each of her three works of poetry. Neat! ¡Gracias, Inés!

Now for Day 7: 

I think this turned out to be my favorite day during the entire trip once I actually got to my destination. Something about it was just right. On the way there, I observed a homeless child sleeping on the metro. He was about 10 years-old and lay sprawled across three seats in the car. He was dirty and had a red sweatshirt covering his face. He slept soundly and sloppily the way only a child can and no one bothered him despite the amount of space he was taking up during the busy morning commute.

I spent most of the day alone, wandering around the Puerto Madero waterfront and visiting less-than-popular points of historical interest, which included two old ships. The weather was great. Although it was very bright and sunny and the sky was that same piercing blue that it had been the majority of my trip, the waterfront was a natural wind tunnel and I was able to keep cool in the breeze.

The entrance to a restaurant. This taxidermy cow did not exactly make me want to eat there.

I had read about the vessel I wanted to visit in my Lonely Planet guide, a frigate called ARA Presidente Sarmiento, so I walked along the river until I found what appeared to be an old ship parked there with a plank extended to the bank. It was not the boat I was looking for, but a smaller corvette called the ARA Uruguay. 

I walked onto the empty deck and tried to pay the $2 entry fee, but only had bills so large that the man behind the admission table could not break them. I told him I would be back. I walked a little way down the waterfront and stopped into a convenience store for water, change and to take a pee.

I had walked far enough that the ship I had originally intended to visit was now in view just past the Puente de la Mujer pedestrian bridge. I decided to start there.

Apparently, this bridge rotates.

ARA Presidente Sarmiento, launched in 1897

The ship had four levels and numerous rooms and compartments, nearly all of which were visitable. The only thing I know about the names of ship areas or equipment comes from Star Trek: The Next Generation, so bear with me here.

The deck?

Steering wheel thingy

Shooter thingy

"HOOKS (For hanging hammocks)"

The Argentine flag's central sun and its Mona Lisa smile

Got any hotdogs?

"NO RUNNING

NO YELLING

PARENTS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR CHILDREN"

Eatery

This was in the engine room and I believe these are the thingies into which one would feed fuel to make the ship go. It was nice to finally put a face to the scene of all the action in B.Traven's book The Death Ship.

A gifted piece of the Great Wall of China

Barber shop

El Capitán's quarters

A piece of the Tree of Guernica, a symbol of Basque freedom.

Comfy

I really started to miss Charlie while on this ship, knowing that this is exactly the kind of tourism he would like. I took pictures of all of the things he would love. For example:

Nautical knots

Pulleys

A dog that came to live aboard the ship as a puppy in 1935. His name was Lampazo, the Spanish word for the mop used to swab the deck.

Explody thingy

One of Charlie's most coveted objects: a sextant

Having wound through the entirety of the large, maze-like ship, I emerged back on deck and headed for shore leave. On my way out, I saw a couple attempting to reenact that magical moment between Rose and Jack on the Titanic. It was funny to watch because apparently it is very difficult to balance on that part of the ship.

Unstable Romance

By now I was hungry for a snack so I sat, facing the water, at the crappy, expensive café nearest the frigate and ordered my first Argentine empanada. It contained something like Dinty Moore beef stew. It was just okay and served its purpose of stopping my stomach from growling.

As I ate, a large group of teenagers, presumably a school group, proceeded down the waterfront before me. They swarmed a nearby statue of a man sitting on a bench and took numerous photos. A friendly stray dog nearby became excited when he saw the kids and adopted them. He carried in his mouth a hoagie roll that was almost too large to keep hold of and trotted alongside the kids contentedly, as if they were his people. After a couple noisy minutes they all cleared out and so did I.

I crossed the nearby Puente de la Mujer heading westward toward the Costanera Sur Ecological Reserve. 

Pointy

A dude rowing. I wanted to sit in the extra chair in his canoe but didn't know how to achieve this.

On my way to the Reserve, I passed by several important looking skyscrapers, one of which had its courtyard decorated with shards of blue glass. I stopped and marveled at a woman employed there who meticulously picked leaves and garbage out of the glass.

Ridiculous

I arrived at a long paved walkway on the eastern edge of the reserve. The reserve itself was flat, grassy and beautiful. It was dotted with palm trees and the afternoon breeze carried new birdsong out of it and into my ears. 

Gentle street dogs lazed about on the concrete, people leisurely ate along a line of street food stands, and pigeons waddled about picking up crumbs. I walked slowly, inhaling the humid wind, feeling blissful. I watched a small, brown bird steal a large piece of bread from a gang of pigeons. The bread was so heavy it could hardly fly away with it. As I walked, I contemplated entering into the Reserve itself but the entrance was pretty far away and I didn't really have a lot of time left before I had to meet Lisa.

I eyed each of the food stalls as I walked, trying to discern which ones might be good (and contrarily, which ones might kill me). Ultimately, I decided to take the advice of ¡Ask a Mexican! columnist, Gustavo Arellano, and chose the place with the long line. It was called "Parrilla Mi Sueño" or "Grill of My Dreams".

I chose a beef tenderloin sandwich, which was just a large hunk of unsalted meat on a demi-baguette. I paid and, while waiting for my meat to come off the grill, scoped out a table. I noticed an empty one being guarded by a slinky cat with a stately face. I went to the condiments table and dressed my sandwich in chimichurri, a salad of lettuce, tomato and pepper, and salsa golf. I took a seat next to the stone wall on top of which the aforementioned cat stalked a pigeon.

Lunch with kitty

After a while the kitty wandered away and a pigeon took the liberty of jumping up onto my table. I swatted it away. The sandwich was okay. It was kind of bland, but the meat had a good texture.

After lunch, I headed back to the west side of the river and walked onto the small ARA Uruguay. A couple of hours had passed by now and the man behind the admission table looked surprised to see me. "You came back!" he exclaimed. I paid the admission fee and toured the two-level vessel in about twenty minutes. It contained a few interesting artifacts and all the wood on it was coated in a lovely dark stain.

Petrified pineapple

Double-cover windows

Sun-shielded deck

I left the boat with the intention of walking to the metro to meet Lisa. I hadn't even left the waterfront walkway when I heard my name hollered through the wind. Lisa had finished her class early and had somehow found me. We stopped into a Freddo ice cream shop and bought ourselves a treat. I had a scoop each of pineapple-mint and strawberry, and Lisa had passion fruit and dulce de leche. The heat made for a melty affair, but it was refreshing nonetheless. 

We returned home on the metro and I rested while Lisa went for a run. Then Lisa went to her weekly women's group and I stayed in to wait for the laundry lady to drop off our bag of clean clothes.