In the prehistoric days, in a pre-blogging, pre-digital photography and pre-status-update-tweeting world (aka 2003), Lisa Goldapple bought a one-way ticket to Argentina to travel the world. She said goodbye to her London life as a scriptwriter and a decade of producing MTV music shows, reality shows and National Geographic podcasts about the gestation period of elephants and dolphins. In 2010 she realised her romantic vision of moving to Buenos Aires and is now working on only wearing dramatic, minimalistic black clothes and horn-rimmed specs, quaffing Malbec and drinking coffee on her own in candlelit cafes whilst reading novels like Catch-22. When she’s not directing and scripting international TV shows, voicing Playboy, running parties and mini-festivals in Bs As and writing her own comedy, she blogs and vlogs for The Real Argentina. Lisa likes to compare herself to the Puriri Moth – a creature which survives in a cocoon for decades until it finally burrows out to explore the world (except it only lives for 24 hours - and spends that day mating - after which it dies). Follow her very random mind at lisagoldapple.wordpress.com and twitter.com/lisagoldapple
It’s green, has loads of great restaurants, and you can shop, dine and be merry alfresco pretty much 24/7. With its tree-lined streets you can see why Palermo is labelled the Paris of South America and Buenos Aires’ answer to New York’s Soho
In Buenos Aires, the only thing that is slow is the melancholic tango. As a tourist here you can feel like you’re being whisked away in a tornado – sometimes you just need to escape from the hectic city life before someone orders you to “tranquilo!”
Argentine music festivals are all about moshing (they bounce insanely to everything), bad lip-syncing (some very creative mouth movements going on), illogical wristband-voucher-beer-buying methods (seriously, don’t ask) and public displays of affection (aka rampant snogging). Lisa Goldapple reports from Buenos Aires HotFest 2010.
Recently my vegetarian mate Brian came to Argentina – land of the cow – on a ‘meat sabbatical’. OK, that’s not strictly true – he came here to go skiing in Bariloche, but what he discovered in Buenos Aires was so much more enriching, literally: parrillas
International directors have long been seduced by Argentina. Films shot here include ‘Highlander II’, Wong Kar-Wai’s ‘Happy Together’, Francis Ford Copolla’s ‘Tetro’ and even ‘Seven Years in Tibet’. However, if you want a foreign film fix to improve your Spanish and learn about the dynamics of the country’s civil unrest, then rent a classic Argentine film.
If mountains + music = your idea of a good time and you fancy a bit of high-brow Argentina culture at the foothills of the Andes, then head to Bariloche in October for the annual Semana Musical Llao Llao, one of the largest international classical music events in Latin America.
I have a spice vice. I like it hot. We’re talking serious heat – no pussyfooting around with a korma for me. I scissor skinny bird’s eye chillies raw into salad. I’ve been designing a twisting chilli tattoo for seven years. But in Argentina, it takes a bit of detective work to find that elusive spicy…
Porteños need little encouragement to deem a day a holiday, set off fireworks or… drink champagne. Any excuse for a party, right? Well, in Buenos Aires you can quaff Chandon, dramatically exclaim ¡qué frío! (very local) and people-watch – all under the umbrella of ‘high-brow’ – by throwing in an art fix. This year is the 10th Anniversary of Gallery Nights – late night openings which fall on the last Friday of every month until November, organized by art magazine Arte al Dia, adn Cultura (La Nacion newspaper), and the Ministry of Culture of Buenos Aires.