At the Quinta

We woke up early on Sunday, and we walked over to Fabian’s apartment. It’s about a half-hour walk from our apartment. Halfway there, we have to cross La Avenida Nueve de Julio. They say that this is the widest street in the world. There are three islands in the middle for pedestrians crossing. Altogether, there are about twenty lanes of traffic. It’s pretty busy. Anyway, we arrived at Fabian’s place, the the four of us, Monica and Mike, along with Silvana and Fabian, caught a bus to La Estacion Once, where we got a train out to Moreno, where their quinta is. A quinta is kind of a country house, a weekend getaway. Silvana and Fabian were both a bit embarrassed about the state of the train. “Estamos en el tercero mundo,” Fabian said. Silvana had warned us beforehand. She didn´t want us to be scared. And the train in fact was old and clunky, noisy, dirty, but not so bad. We rode for about an hour, during which time, one after another, continuously, guys stood up and addressed the passengers, pitching their wares. Some of them just walked through, showing what they had to sell, but others made impassioned speeches about how sharp and indestructible their knives were, or whatever they had. You can buy anything you want on the trains.

Before the train, we went to a grocery store to buy meat. Fabian was in charge. He was planning a meat feast, kind of an Argentina tradition. They call it an asado. “Vamos a comprar carne de vacas argentina, las mejores vacas del mundo,” he told us. The quinta was beautiful. A small house out in the country. It was really difficult to remember that we had arrived there on public transit, from the middle of the city. Trees, birds, beautiful weather. We spent all afternoon in the backyard. The neighborhood dogs came to join us, five of them. Lots of birds. Hawks, hummingbirds, woodpeckers, lots of bright yellow birds that we didn’t know.

Dante, Fabian’s fifteen-year old son, was also with us. Soon after we arrived, Fabian started a fire in the fireplace, and the day shifted a little. Monica grated some carrots, Silvana cleaned some spinach. We sat around the table on tree trunks and talked about everything. The bread and wine came out. Fabian put the meat on the grill, and soon the feast was on. The meat kept coming. Four different kinds. Eating and talking with friends is a great way to spend the day. After the comida, we relaxed. Moni and Silvana washed the dishes. Fabian picked up sticks around the yard. When Mon and Silvana came out from the kitchen, I asked, “Puedo ayudarles en la cocina?” Pretty funny guy.

They wanted to accompany us on the bus back to where the train would take us home, but we convinced them that we could do it on our own. They were a bit worried about us, but we were fine.Silvana accompanied us to the bus stop, then we took the bus to the train station. We asked a guy where we could get the train back to La Estacion Once, and he showed us another bus, behind us, that he said was going right there. We asked the driver, he said, yes we are going to the station. We asked him how much money it cost, and he told us just to take a seat, it’s free. So we did, and it was. Another mystery here in Buenos Aires.