Food & Free Time

We woke early and ate breakfast in our last hours in Mar del Plata. We were to go back to Buenos Aires for another two days and play two concerts there. The bus ride was yet another lengthy 6 hours, and luckily, a time to take a nice, long nap and recover from yesterday’s late night dinner outing with friends. We loaded up the bus and drove about three hours before stopping for lunch at the same Minatauro rest stop we went to for lunch last time. Instead of settling for empanadas, I went to the Restaurant food court there to order a large salad—which I badly needed—and spaghetti. Using my last few minutes at Minatauro wisely, I bought myself some goodies—a jar of dulce de leche and some alfajores! It was then back on the bus for another 3 hours to Buenos Aires. The ride was short since I fell asleep on the bus again and we arrived to the same Hotel Presidente in no time.

We had about 3 hours of free time for lunch when we got to the hotel in Buenos Aires. Since this lunch was the last meal we could have on our own in Buenos Aires, my dad and Bill (who are both chaperones) and I went to La Chacra—a meat lovers paradise. We ended up ordering a huge platter filled with fire spit roasted barbecue beef ribs, beef flank, goat, suckling pig, ½ a chicken, chorizo, and pork sausage—which was intended for 3 people. I was actually surprised we finished it all without stuffing ourselves too much. We only had about 1 hour before we headed back to the hotel from lunch. There I rested a bit more before we had to head out for the tango show and dinner at La Ventana.

I was amazed at how fancy the restaurant was. We were seated at nice tables and we ordered very fancy courses. I ordered thinly sliced beef in a special sauce as an appetizer and continued on to grilled lamb with a seasoned potato side. The tasty meal was finished off with a special flan on a drizzled layer of dulce de leche. After the meal, the tango show started, and the dancers, singers and musicians were so good! Their fast-paced dance-like acrobatics left me in awe. What impressed me the most was the man who came out and twirled two balls on a long string in each hand. The show was magnificent in every way and it was definitely the highlight of my day.

~David Cao