Burnos Aires

Is a contradiction, majestic colonial buildings, dog poo laden streets, charming street markets that criss cross dilapidated poorer sections, a certain strange pride mixed with a snob  attitude that lives alongside a general deep dissatisfaction with the way life is.
The city itself is interesting but in a big city way. The street market in San Thelmo is great fun. Ate the best steak I've eaten at a quaint assadora caled Des Nivel.
The food is meat and nothing else so not very exciting. No salads, no soups, no spice, no salt so after the initial excitement of seeing a beatiful t-bone or rib eye , the dryness of all of it catches up. Also the steak here is well done, no medium or rare options. This meant we cooked a lot.
Once again met a friend of a parteno (as people from BA like to be known) friend of mine Ana. Gaby was super ! She spent the weekend and another day hanging out with us , taking us to the local spots. She even introduced us to a friend if hers who has abeautiful little restaurant. Anu cooked a beautiful kori gassi at the restaurant the next day. Oh yeah she is carrying the masala.
We stayed at a hostel called Kilca that another friend Julietta had suggested. Not the greatest hostel in terms of amenities but the people more than made up. We felt we were at home and made some great friends.

Took in a football game , a classico between arch rivals Racing and Independiente. The atmosphere is unexplainable. It starts 4 hours before the game as the fans drive to the stadium, singing screaming but mainly cursing a very specific anatomical
Part of thier opponents mother. This curse is joined in by all ages and sexes. Yannick had a permanent smile and after a while joined in the tirade. I was hard pressed to find a reason to stop him. The stadium shook, smoke bombs were set alight To the point where visibility was about 4 feet. Fans danced on the moat wall and the drums joined in.
The game itself was ordinary but Racing , our team won, beating Independiante after 5 years! The visiting fans left and we were only allowed out half an hour later, smart given the general mind set around.

Ate our first chori pan or chorizo in a bun . Fell in love with it.

We walked around BA a lot, did all the touristy stuff like the Casa Rosada where  Eva Peron addressed he people, went to Palermo etc and then went. 2 hours out of town to find Lugan zoo.

I have ethical issues with all Zoos but this was one where most of the animals were born on the zoo which somehow made it a bit easier to deal with. The zoo authorities claim that their caring methods , feeding them since birth and growing up around dogs and other domesticated animals make them less aggeesive than they could otherwise be. Not sure I like the idea of  big cats behaving like domesticated animals but we got to play with lion cubs, Yannick even carried a 1 month old from it's enclosure to it's mother.  While I still believe animals should only be in the wild, I must admit that carrying  a lion cub was quite something ! At least the animals were definitely not sedated.