The great Outdoors

Arelauquen Golf and Country Club.

If you are looking for a mix of relaxation, romance and action for your coming vacation, Arelauquen Golf and Country Club is the place to go, specially if you have kids.

Arelauquen is conveniently located 15 minutes away from Bariloche's airport. The property is surrounded by the Andes mountains and the Nahuel Huapi National Park; it's close to Cerro Catedral, Bariloche's major skiing center and in front of Lago Gutierrez. No matter where you stand, there are magnificent views and the most breathtaking sunsets over Lake Gutierrez.

Arelauquen has an office that takes care of all your requests. You can either choose to rent a villa or stay at the lodge. Someone will always be waiting for you on the date of your arrival regardless of the time (I've tested this many times!). You can arrange to hire housekeeping service so you can go out and enjoy your activities, perhaps a romantic dinner with your soulmate? and have everything taken care of when you get back to the house.

There are so many activities in Arelauquen, we recommend you to plan ahead! If you like horses, you can go horseback riding up in the mountains, get ready for the views! they are something hard to describe or even picture. You can take riding lessons, polo lessons or watch polo matches. You can take gym classes or lift weights, choose the kind of massage or treatment you would like to receive at the spa, relax in any of their gorgeous common spaces, swim, rest and/or have a drink in their indoor-outdoor heated swimming pool, practice kayaking, windsurfing or fly fishing, go sailing, go mountain hiking, play tennis or golf and you can also arrange to send your children to the Kid's Club where a similar array of activities are organized for them by very experienced staff, including camping!

Arelauquen's Club House has a living room section, a quiet library "for adults only" (very important!), a TV Room, besides the spa, fitness area, pool and coffee-bar. There is a recreation area for children and teenagers that has ping pong tables, pool tables, "metegol" games (soccer), wii and wii games, and toys and games for little children and toddlers.

Keep in mind that you will need a car to move around Arelauquen and to explore Bariloche and its surrounding areas, such as Villa la Angostura. The villas offered for rent look good in the photos but are always better than that in reality.

Taking all this information into account, you can enjoy a two week vacation and go back home knowing that you'd love to come back for more Patagonia magic.

We've experienced Arelauquen and we highly recommend it.
Co-post: Vale and Mich

Photos 2 and 4: Vale's kids with their grandfather.

wishlist

In my mail today, the Carolina Müller look book. Nice collection of simple and timeless pieces, lots of red and a little animal print too, if you're not too tired of animal print yet.
Here are some of my favorite looks. I specially adore the booties cause they go so well with everything and the last little dress which is the one I'm running out to buy! enjoy xx

Special thanks to Mass for always sending me good stuff.

Figuring out Palermo and what's new

Palermo is the biggest neighborhood in the city of Buenos Aires (although some still argue it is Belgrano). Palermo is divided into so many areas that it is really confusing figuring out which is which.
There are many ways to see Palermo in the map of the city of Buenos Aires but let's just figure out the Northern area: Palermo Viejo. 

Palermo Viejo extends from Scalabrini Ortiz to Dorrego between Av. Santa Fe and Av. Cordoba. It used to be a typical, middle class neighborhood but it reinvented itself between 2002 and 2010 and has not stop growing since. The houses in the area got revamped, the neighborhood started to get a better look and a lot of restaurants and boutique hotels started springing up.

Palermo Hollywood is Palermo Viejo's neighbor to it's right, it stretches from J.B. Justo to Dorrego but it is North of Palermo Viejo, starting on Av. Cordoba. It has been baptized "Hollywood" because the offices of TV and movie producers and various TV channels are located there.

Palermo Soho is located to the left of J.B. Justo and starts on Av. Cordoba. It is the Buenos Aires version of NYC's Soho, full of clothing boutiques and big brands. It has home deco stores and is loaded with very nice restaurants and bars. It opens at noon but it starts getting noisier towards night time. There are a lot of boutique hotels in this area as well. 

Here is some funny information: the Real Estate boom in the area has been so big that the next door neighbors of Palermo, neighborhoods Chacarita and Villa Crespo have decided to call themselves Palermo Dead and Palermo Queens respectively. More TV producers have set up their offices in Chacarita, around the cemetery therefore restaurants and coffee shops started to get established bringing life to an area that used to be "dead"! Villa Crespo is a big stretch away from Palermo, whoever thought of the name was right! Palermo Queens! getting there is like traveling from NYC into Queens. This area is known for it's outlet stores, mainly.

Hope this helps you figure out the Northern part of Palermo, and here are just two new restaurants that we love in the area:


Unik - Soler St. 5132















Owned by an Argentinean architect who has lived in Paris and Shangai, Unik offers an interesting experience of sophisticated and original dishes produced by Fernando Hara, disciple of Francis Malmann. The atmosphere is hip, colorful and kind of 70's




Sipan - Uriarte 1648



































Peruvian - Japanese cuisine. If you were a fan of the other Sipan located in the city's center, this one is even nicer! We love the Pulpo al Olivo and the ceviche of course.

to do

I saw this painting the other day when a friend and I went to Puro Diseño and it made me think about those times when we have to make a choice that involves a bit of risk. Haven't we all done this? in love, work, etc. Isn't it great? Even those times when it does not work out, it's always best to try. The biggest risk is taking no risk.
Someone long ago said that glory comes from daring to begin. It's a good feeling to just dive into something new. That's how we learn and evolve. No?
Stay curious! xx

Babel's Book Tower

As mentioned in a previous post, Buenos Aires has been named "Book
Capital of the World" for 2011. To honour such a tittle, the government
of the city of Buenos Aires is sponsoring an art installation you shouldn't
miss: "Babel's Book Tower" by Marta Minujin.

Marta is a famous, worldwide pop artist that has brought to life many "crazy"
ideas. She, for example, created a Book Pantheon, in the begining of Argentine Democracy. The installation was located in the middle of the city, it's dimensions were incredible. It was constructed by all the books that were prohibited during the Argentine military dictatorship which had somehow been secretly kept by book agents and sellers.

Minujin's Babel's Book Tower illustrates the incapacity people sometimes have when it comes to understanding each other. The installation is located in Plaza San Martin. It is a 7 story high metal structure that has 30.000 books on it's
inside. The books are protected by plastic to avoid weather damage and come
from 54 different countries.

The Tower can be visited until May 28th. You can also visit the inside of the tower. Once inside, you'll hear the word "book" in every language. At the end of your visit you'll get a copy of Jorge Luis Borge's story "Babel's Library".

Art installations are like life itself, ephemeral, that's why it's
good to see them when they are taking place, to be a part of them.

Have a fun weekend! xx

beauty II

Photo: Nina, my niece.


Beauty: A Culturally Misconceived Idea?
Who Wants to be a superstar?

What's with this idea of "cultivating" your image? Is, by any
chance, your body, a plant? Seriously, we all know how
important image is. The thing is, how important?injectting an 8 year old with botox important? I'm not going to start a rant against
botox, I've covered my thoughts on this before.

What I also said before and which I insist upon is that there is a strong link
between the affairs of the mind and those that regard our bodies. The reason is
simple.

It is the mind that makes the body do the strangest things, specially if
we let ourselves get over -influenced by influencers, if our ideals are
too high, or if our partner has too many expectations.

When it comes to beauty then, the question is: How far are we willing to go in
order to be liked and accepted by others? how about loving ourselves first?

Who said that you need to get others to like you for anything other than who you ARE? lets go back to that controversial mom for a second: wouldn't her
daughter be much better off IF instead of botox her mother told her how
beautiful and special she is? would it not do her good to feel loved for what
she is and not for what she looks like? to replace an injection of botox for one
of confidence and love? she'd do great in those beauty contests but more importantly, as an adult she would be able to lead a life where she feels good about herself and life where she can BE.

There is a new, O.B. Tampons TV add in Buenos Aires these days
where a girls tells a friend she can't go somewhere because she has
her period and she's afraid that her pads will not work well or look bad.
Her friend asks: "why don't you use a tampon?" She replies that a
friend has told her it's not good to wear tampons all the time, so the
other friend asks who she got that information from. Off they go trying
to figure out the source of the information. She was told by another
friend that was told by the lady that did her bikini line who was told
by a friend that was a guy, ha, ha, ha! The add ends saying:
"DESMISTIFICATE" (demystify).

Was it Elle Woods in "Legally Blond" that came up with the idea that
you have to work very hard for others to like you? Was it Emily in "The Devil
Wears Prada?" Isn't it the other way around? Don't we have to feel good with
ourselves first? How many diets do we have to start? How many hours do we have
to spend at the gym for others? how about doing things for ourselves? When
do we start a biomolecular treatment as an attempt to deny our age? and
most importantly, when do we realize that we are all beautiful?

My Psychoanalysis teachers taught me that if we only focus on our image
(remember the Witch in Snow White?) we put ourselves in a very poor place.
Why? because the image of our own selves appears very early in our own
development and in order to keep evolving, we need to keep adding content
to our mind structure, we need to absorb things that matter from our environment,
to play and love, to nurture our souls, to surround ourselves with nice people, that is how our mind starts improving;
that's what makes us love ourselves, our lives, and that's what makes us beautiful.

Our best and perhaps hardest "exercise" is to feel good with and
about ourselves. It is to let ourselves shine with our own light, this
is what makes you, you. It is from the inside that one becomes
beautiful. It is by filling our lives with great memories, our minds with
meaningful content and our hearts with love.

Natural Selection

Photos: Florian Von der Fecht


About fourteen European countries could fit in Argentina and there would still be space left.

With over 210,000 acres of pristine land, Bahía Bustamante - a private farm in Southern Patagonia, is a good example of the vastness of land that Argentina is blessed with.

Upon arrival, one is enchanted by stunning views of magnificent landscapes and wildlife. The deep-blue ocean in front of you, the austerity of the accommodations which enhance the beauty of the vast, natural surroundings; the cold, crisp air that energizes. It's a gift of the Gods. Perhaps the answer to a crazy life in a modern world. The answer to a prayer for a bit of calm and connection with nature. An undisturbed view of the horizon: "look at me, I'm here" it says. Yes, Mr. Horizon, it's you that hides behind those tall buildings in noisy cities. It's you that I miss.

Bahia Bustamante is far, yes. It's also beautiful because of that. A desirable destination for those who have covered much of the world and are in search of a wonderful place to chill in peace and enjoy nature. A destination with no crowds cause nobody even knows this place exists. And, for those few lucky ones that do, know this: only 18 people are allowed there at once. Soriano, owner of the property, would like to keep it this way. He's very much into protecting the environment, and more so when it comes to his own heavenly land.

Bahia is quiet and breathtaking. It offers no more and no less than the great and simple pleasures of life: a sky full of stars, home-cooked meals, wine, comfortable lodging, beautiful sceneries, sunny mornings, penguins playing around you, attractive guanacos (kind of like a llamas) carelessly walking around; AND, when you get tired of sleeping, eating and reading, there are plenty of exciting things to do: horseback riding, kayaking, walking on the beach, or exploring the property's 65-million-year-old petrified forest.


Special thanks to: Bahia Bustamante

I'm thinking

Three cool looks by Benito Fernandez.
Inspiration: La Habana, Cuba, setting he chose for the W2011 campaign.
(by the way, isn't it great that soon Cubans will get to travel?)

See more of this collection here.

Palermo "Sensible"

photo: Coffee shop's logo where Freud's face is also a naked woman.


This post follows a previous one as no coincidence: If tango is a
space to let out your passion, consulting with a psychologist or
psychoanalyst is a way to tame your instincts and passions.

Psychoanalysis is a practice that defines an interesting amount of
Argentines: "if you live in Buenos Aires and don't have a
shrink,you must be mad" is a common saying here.

The career of Psychology is ranked 3rd in choice, so imagine.
The figures of the 2009 Census show that there is a Psychologist
every 120 inhabitants in the city of Buenos Aires itself. The stats
from last year's Census are not ready yet but we are to assume that
this number has increased.

Psychology is taught in its many versions here: French Lacanian School,
Freudian School, English School, Italian, Systemic, Cognitive,
Behavioral, etc. The beginnings of Psychoanalysis were pretty dark.
Starting in the 1940's, by 1949, the Argentine Association of
Psychoanalysis was accepted by the International Association of
Psychoanalysis. It was first taught in small study groups to
doctors, mainly to psychiatrists. Psychoanalysis was prohibited
during militar dictatorships (1976 - 1983) because it was considered
controversial, it made you think too much, in a period in which you
were supposed to follow orders blindly. Psychoanalytic books were in
the list of the books that were forbidden by the military - having one
of those books, openly being a pshychoanalist could get you killed.

Back in democracy, a law was passed regulating the practice of
Psychology in 1985. That is how the career of Psychology came into
being and has ever since maintained it's independence from the career
of Medicine. Universities throughout the country started teaching it,
expanding the amount of graduates.

There are so many students and so many patients in Buenos Aires
itself that it is very common to hear psychological slang in the
streets or in coffee shops. If you were in London and had an
interest in the field, you would of course, visit the Freud Museum.
Well, if you are in Buenos Aires, you would want to visit Villa Freud.
This is were the majority of the pshychoanalist in Buenos Aires have set
up their practices. It is located around Plaza Guemes between Honduras,
Av. Scalabrini Ortiz, Av. Sta Fe and Coronel Diaz. As a result of all the
psychoanalytic movement in the area, bars and cafés started to adopt
the mood, including shrink terms in their menues, etc. Two of these became
famous also because they echoed the name of the Founder "Sigi" and "Freud".

Wood Allen who has been taking some time off from NYC, should visit us some
day, he'd have a blast shooting one of his films here, no?

Music and Nature

Photographed: Maria Andreeva (Russia)


Children and Adolescents Choirs and Orchestras Festival 2011
(Second Edition).

If you love music and nature, an unforgettable experience awaits in the Province of Misiones, Argentina. The reasons are many: this is an ideal time to visit the Iguazú falls: the weather will be glorious, the place, unbelievable; the purpose: magical.

From May 23 to 28, the Ministry of Culture, Education, Science and Technology of the Province of Misiones, will be offering a one of a kind cultural event: the Second Edition of Children and Adolescents Choirs and Orquestras Festival. Organized by Andrea Merenzon.

A total of 700 children and adolescents will be meeting to talk in one single language: the language of music, their passion, their love. They will be coming from 18 countries as different as Germany, Peru, China, Australia, South Africa, Brazil and Russia amongst others. Daily rehearsals will take place under the direction of world- famous directors. The children will perform classical and traditional music from their countries of origin.

Individual and group performances will take place in various prestigious hotels in the area (in both sides of the falls, Argentinian and Brazilian).

In the individual performances, you will have the pleasure of enjoying not only the music but the virtuosity of the young musicians. In the group performances you will be able to evaluate the amount of work, effort and coordination put together by all of the participants. No tickets are required, you are free to attend any performance you please.

Music will bring everyone together at the closing of the Festival which will take place at the gardens of the Sheraton Hotel where the beauty of symphonic music will meet the beauty of the stage: Iguazu Falls.

Post by: Vale

A learning experiment

The other day I was watching a program about the social mind. It was pretty interesting. Something that I liked was this experiment researchers made with kids trying to learn Chinese. So what they did is this:

- for a period of time, they had one group of kids study via a video of the Chineese teacher (so, only video)
- for the same period of time, another group of kids studied with the same teacher via audio (just headphones, no images this time)
- for the same period of time, the last group studied with the same teacher as the other two groups - except this last group had the classes live or the teacher went to their house and taught them Chinese there (in person)

The result was that the third group, the group that had the person teaching them live was the group that learnt the fastest. They could not only speak more fluently and write better, but they were also more confident when doing so. Not too surprising I guess, but interesting. Don't you think? It shows how important human contact still is, also when learning a language.

tango reborn

Photo: Aldo Sessa

Tango has been defined by Enrique Santos Discepolo - one of it's greatest poets - as "a sad thought that is danced".

No one can really tell for sure how tango started out. It is said that the word tango was originated in Argentina and Uruguay by the African slaves that arrived in the beginning of the 1800's. It is very likely that it is was the result of mixing a Portuguese word meaning "tambo" (drumming) with an Argentinian word.

The slaves lived by the river (Rio de la Plata), in the outskirts of Buenos Aires, in very rudimentary and basic housing called "conventillos". These consisted of a house with various rooms in which many families lived. One family per room. In Spanish, the word "conventillo" also means "crowded" or "mess". There is a very popular expression: "Esto es un conventillo" meaning "this is a mess".

At first, tango was a dance meant only for the slaves. They met and danced to forget the hardships they went through and to have a good time. Tango was created in the beginning as a dance. There was no music. That came later, musicians improvised trying to adapt their music to the choreographies they saw in a 2 x 4 music compass.

Tango started to sprout in dance houses, in "conventillos" in the southern area of Bs. As., in dating houses, and dance academies with the use of a particular language and very tight codes. In the 1880's it was brought to theaters. Actors began including the dance in their performances.

Slowly, tango started shifting from the outskirts of the city and moving into it. Men began dancing in the streets and hiring women to dance with them in dance academies.

Tango was considered an unacceptable dance by the Argentinian middle and higher classes. In the issue of the magazine "Club de tango" dating from 1922 there is an article called "What do you think about tango", where there is a testimony: "My boyfriend is a good man and never lies. He has said to me that I shouldn't dance tango because in doing it one risks it's own purity and dignity. When he says "I love you", I believe him, now I must believe him as well, that is why I don't like that dance."

It's interesting to see and understand why through time, tango went from being a low street dance repelled by the majority of middle and high class "porteños" (people from Buenos Aires) to a very prestigious and internationally recognized dance.

Tango was introduced in Paris in the early years of the 20th century, when dancers and orchestras from Buenos Aires, travelled to Europe. Tango became very popular in France, where it began to shine around the time of the First World War. The dance later became popular in Berlin and London. It was a hit. In France a new era was born for tango: intellectuals, orchestras and musicians very much embraced tango and contributed to the improvement of the music and the lyrics. It was after this European love for tango that Argentina opened it's arms to it. The thought that prevailed at the time was: "Tango is embraced with passion in Europe, we're missing something."

But, why does tango continue to attract so many people? I don't know if you have ever tried it. It takes some practice and coordination and requires a partner. But once you have it all down and are in the dance floor with your partner, there is a mystic to it you simply can not stop wanting more of. You feel sensual and feminine. It helps if you understand the lyrics of the songs. They are so incredibly sad.

They are mostly about frustrated love relationships, but also about horse racing, drinking, prostitution, cheating, growing up in Buenos Aires, the nostalgia one feels when one is away from Bs. As., etc.

Many talk about loss. They are very melancholic. I have translated one of my
favorites for you and included a link were you can hear it.


The burr

by Jesus Fernandez Blanco (1926)
Translation: Valeria Mendez Cañas

"I burr has stuck on me. Inside of my heart, I have sorrow,
Why did you leave home so ungratefully? Why did you make my
peaceful life, painful?
I will never be able to take off my chest that painful burr.
My soul is agonizing, I'm faithless,
I have lost my home and my love
because of all the sorrow you've caused me.

I don't know why you went away from me
If I adored you with such intense passion
I don't know why you were keeping something from me
without letting your lack of interest show....

Your love made me a very happy man,
I never thought your passion would turn
into a dagger that would cause my
heart such a wound.
I want you to know that I am moving sadly and alone
along the paths of life. The memories I keep have grown on
me like burrs in a pasture land...
I hope we stumble into each other some day
so that I can see if you have finally found everything
you have unconsciously dreamed of.
And maybe then the two of us can start again!

Here is the music and lyrics


In the early nineties a lot of young people started to learn tango, along with many
foreigners and people in-the-know. Before, it was considered a marginal or an old people's dance. It was danced in middle to low class neighborhood clubs called "milongas" (a milonga is a variety of tango).

Imagine the environment: an indoor court, cheap lighting, cheap drinks, tango music. Back in the old days, in the 1950's tango orchestras played live, that is how: Gardel, Goyeneche, Sosa, Pugliese, Piazolla and Salgan, to name a very recognized few, became famous.

Some things have changed, but the spirit is the same.

If you would like to learn more about tango, see a tango show or dance at a milonga, feel free to ask us for information.

Co-post: Vale and Mich

Buenos Aires Book Fair

Photo by: Jorge Molina (en la piel de la selva)

When Windows was first introduced in the early nineties it caused fascination. It made using computers easier introducing a simpler way of managing different programs. If we used Word, for example, double clicking allowed us to perform different commands, open more than one document at a time and work on other programs as well, be that Excell, Power Point, or any other of the programs that we are all familiar with today. Then, when it was time to shut our computer down, closing all the opened "Windows" requiered us to simply click on the "x". With the development of the internet we were able to apply a similar concept as Windows while surfing: click on the link, then in another and so on.

Although both Windows and the internet created grounds that allowed us to work comfortably from one single place and communicate faster and more effectively, they also made us go, in my opinion, bi-dimensional. The fact that we no longer have to go through the trouble of, for example, visiting a library or book shop to look for content has made us disregard the notion of all all the work that it takes to create, put together and display information in a given field - sometimes forgetting even what it's like to feel a real book, the paper, the art in the cover. Remember CD's? I know, that was a long time ago.

If you are curious and are in Buenos Aires, you have a chance to immerse yourslef in a world of books.

The Book Fair takes place every fall. Book publishers gather to present their book collections and launch new books and publications. This year, the Fair has even more relevance since Buenos Aires has been chosen by by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization as the World's Book Capital of 2011.

The Book Fair is also a good start to undesrtand why Buenos Aires is famed for it's cultural production.

It offers conferences and discussion panels in various subjects: Economics, Politics, Law, Psychology, Ecology, Management, to name a few.

This year it is has invited Mario Varga Llosa, Rosa Montero, Jorge Edwards and Wilbur Smith amongst many and various prestigious writers and thinkers.

It hosts music, choir and ballet shows as well as workshops on Textile Art from the Andes (Arte textil andino), Literature, Story Telling, Opera and Poetry readings. A cultural feast you shouldn't miss.

Where: La Rural Exhibition Center, Ave. Santa Fe and Sarmiento, Palermo, Bs As.
When: Til May 9, 2011.

Post by: Valeria Mendez Cañas.