Adventures in Argentina: San Isidro

Went to a gorgeous little town thirty minutes outside of Buenos Aires by train with Cameron and Kalon. Although, we had a bit of trouble with transportation on the way to the train station. My madre told me to take bus number 60 and it would take us directly to a bus stop outside of Retiro so we didn't have to go to the chaotic central bus and train station of Buenos Aires. When we got off the bus at the "train station" as the conductor instructed us to, we were in a very rough looking neighborhood and unsure if this was the place my madre was talking about. We walked into the train station and they told us we had to go to Retiro, on the other side of the city and had to take a subway to get there. The main reason we had avoided Retiro was because of the subway which we did not want to take. The subway was so crowded. The whole sense of a "personal bubble" was thrown out the window as we were jam-packed in the subway with lots of sweaty and aggressive people. I guess it is all part of traveling in a big city, huh? Once we finally got to Retiro, we had to wait in line to buy our train tickets. I saw a woman talking to the police and she looked like a serious drug user. She was twitching and unable to make a coherent sentence. She was very skinny, dirty, and about 8 months pregnant. It was incredibly sad as she had another kid (that looked to be about 5 or 6 years old) begging for her. This woman picked up a half eaten apple underneath a bench and started eating it as she walked over to various travelers and tried to talk with them. This was a very upsetting situation as there are so many homeless people in Buenos Aires. Many of them have children to help financially. The government will often pay these people if they have kids but they also use the kids to beg (as many travelers will feel bad for a starving kid) or to steal. It is a terrible problem that many kids are born into and grow up completely unaware of any other form of life and the cycle continues. Okay, back to the trip to San Isidro...
It was thirty cents each way by train. We finally arrived at 3 pm. We went to get our haircut at this neat little "Peluqueria" that my madre's best friend from her childhood owns. His name is Diego and was so nice and the hair cuts were so cheap! We were a bit nervous with getting an Argentine cut, but we walked out looking pretty good! San Isidro is a quaint town by the river with a market in the park on the weekends. The vendors sell jewelry, clothing, food, and souvenirs. Some of the food included candied apples covered in popcorn (yes, popcorn), empanadas, churros, postres, caramelized peanuts, and orange juice. San Isidro was a great break from the busy city life. The cobblestone streets, fountains, parks, and slow-paced atmosphere provided us with a perfect getaway. We went to the cathedral of San Isidro and also went out to eat. Cameron and Kalon had a delicious pizza with ham, cheese, arugula, olives, and tomatoes. I had to order something else as I had been having stomach problems. I ordered a Caesar salad... which was a bit different from the usual in the states. It was a pile of lettuce with chunks of cut up cheese from mar del plata, and shredded chicken from a can. Salad dressing doesn't exist here so it was accompanied with oil and vinegar. It was a pretty good salad but not like that in the states. I guess it is a good thing that salad dressing doesn't exist here, like many other condiments and junk food, as the obesity level is so much LOWER here. I rarely see one obese person a day. The population's health is overall pretty good, but they all smoke cigarettes. You can buy a pack of cigarettes for $1... ONE DOLLAR?!? GEESH! It is probably good that cigarette prices are so high in the US as I am sure every other person would be walking around the street puffing on a cancer stick.
Well after lunch we headed back to the train and went home. We had wanted to visit the museum and see some other things but we went on a "feria" day.. when nobody works, and all the stores were closed. It is fall now so the weather has been great. Sunny and in the 70s during the day so we were able to enjoy walking around and exploring...

Train Station in San Isidro