An Urban Version of Open Space

I was spoiled growing up in Colorado. Surrounded by beautiful mountains covered in vegetation and filled with plenty of little creatures exploring their natural environment. City folk can't even begin to imagine what it's like to live within walking distance of a variety of trails, open to the public where you may not see another individual for miles. This weeks lesson for the small town girl in a big city: Take advantage of every nice day by going to a park with the thousands of other people taking advantage of the very nice day! And from there, sit back, relax, and learn to appreciate 'people watching' as opposed to secluded streams and isolated forests.

Here's a sample of our weekend trips to the park for studying, bikes, soccer, maté, and sunshine! These are all taken in Puerto Madero, a 20 minute walk from our place, the newer, richer, 'cleaner' part of the city frequented by locals from other neighborhoods on Saturdays and Sundays.

And because it always seems to come full circle, in the sense that my mind continuously reverts to food, I can tell you about a special treat called the Bondiola. But first, after traversing the thick crowds of shoppers in the San Telmo market, a street market held every Saturday on the historic street of Defensa, we were able to track down the infamous Hot Sauce Boys. Two recent American graduates who similarly found the lack of spice to be a frequent irritant while studying abroad in BA. Their year old YaYa Bean brand has taken a somewhat monopolistic hold on the market for hot sauce and for a very good reason: it's hot, but with a fantastic flavor, giving Cholula a run for its money. Needless to say, our search for spice has come to an end. We

purchased the largest bottle available.

Stumbling across our BikingBA friends on the 'boardwalk' that parallels the Ecological Reserve and is also home to a variety of parrilladas, or Argentine BBQs, we sat down to enjoy this thing they call a bondiola. The perfect compliment to our recent purchase, we loaded our thin pork steak sandwiches with lettuce, carrot salad, onions, chimichurri, and special Parrilla Mi Sueño sauce and gobbled down what has now become one of our favorite meals. The stand lives up to it's name because yes, their sandwiches have become a part of my dreams. Luckily for me I will visit on every South tour I give for work because BikingBA has created a nice relationship with Reuben, the owner. He happens to give free food to cute girls too! How could I be so lucky. xo