A great first day in Argentina

After much needed naps, the entire team took the train into Buenos Aires, a thirty minute ride. We walked to La Recolleta, a very nice area of the city, to see the graves of Eva Peron and some other famous Argentines. On the way, we stopped at a huge artisan market and shopped. I bought a mate cup made from calabaza (a hollowed out gourd) and several bombillos, which are the straws you drink the mate through. I took a photo with Victor, the artist who made the mate cup. By the time we got a bite to eat, and checked out a cool church, the cemetary was closed! So we never got close to the famous mausoleums. We had agreat time anyway. Then we walked quite a ways to El Centro, a busy, noisy, overly commercial area without cars and a zillion shops. I was unimpressed until we happened upon tango dancers entertaining in the street. Of course we took photos. Then we went to La Estancia, for our first Argentine BBQ. We ordered a meal for three, and the five of us could not finish it all. There were short ribs, pork, kidneys, sweetbreads, tripe, veal matambre, chorizo, some other great sausage, blood sausage and, get this---udder. The udder was disgusting. I almost got sick from it. The blood sausage, tripe, sweetbreads and kidney weren´t too great, but definitely edible and worth sampling. I guess we didn´t finish everything because we didn´t want to! We couldn´t have asked for more on our first day in Argentina--friendly Rotarians, miles of walking through the city, shopping, tango and interesting food.