Feria de Mataderos! ...and Tigre!

Two weekends ago, the last weekend of september, I went to a fair on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. I went with my friend Ryan, who I met at the Universidad de Belgrano, where I study here. It's called the Feria de Mataderos. It was super cool! First of all, it's far from the heart of the city where I spend most of my time. So, on our way there we were able to see a lot of parts that aren't very touristy. And really, the fair itself wasn't very either.. The "cowboy" of Argentina is called the "gaucho". This fair had all kinds of stuff that related to the gauchos, knives, boots, trinkets, food. OH the food was a highlight! I had this thing called "pan del lomo" which is a cut of beef on bread basically. It wasn't a very tender piece of meat (typical of Argentina), but it was pretty good. And we ate this popcorn covered strawberry thing... which was also yummy, and unique!

By far the coolest part of this fair though is that there is continuous live music and dancing. There's a giant stage in the middle with bands/singers that switch on and off every several songs. Then in front of that stage is an open area with anywhere from 10-30 couples dancing gaucho-type dances! Some are dressed up and others have just joined in from the street because they knew the dance. It was mesmerizing. One thing that really surprised me about it was the number of young people that participated!! It's awesome that this cultural tradition is passed down in that way!

WATCH VIDEO HERE

Then, we jumped on a bus to take us back home, it had been a great day of city-exploring. BUT, turns out we were on the wrong bus and it was taking us to Tigre, a city just north of Buenos Aires that's a significant distance away. It was funny though because we had been talking about it throughout the day because Ryan had never been. We decided we might as well take advantage of being there and did a little Tigre exploring too:) p.s. See that weird white covered thing? THAT IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE FOODS OF ALL BUENOS AIRES. It's a ham and cheese covered waffle covered in a 4-cheese spread. It is SO GOOD.

Without intending to, we made a huge circle of exploration around BA. It was a great day:)