Hello there!

I’d like to warmly introduce myself to all of you SAE Members out there. My name is Tracey and I’m the new writing intern here in Buenos Aires. From today, I hope to be making your time in BA as interesting, care-free and unique as possible by keeping you updated weekly through this newsletter.

As I get more settled into the post, I hope to develop the newsletter’s content and style in order to better serve the needs and interests of both travelling and expat SAE members in a fun and amusing way! Suggestions from you about how to improve this service and things you’d like me to find out for you on a weekly basis can be sent to my email address buenosairesclubhouse@saexplorers.org and that way, together, we can really bring all the wonders of BA and Argentina to your fingertips. Once again, great to meet you all and here’s to the start of a fruitful partnership!

Tracey

Made in San Telmo.Come by the clubhouse and pick up a copy of the San Telmo Tourist Guide: a pocket guide to San Telmo that provides quick information on cultural centers and exhibitions, local events, bars and restaurants, and more!  You can also check out their website for information at: www.madeinsantelmo.com.

Poke us, befriend us. We're part of the social networking revolution too. Join our SAE BuenosAires clubhouse myspace and/or facebook fan page. Find us online at www.myspace.com/saebuenosaires and www.facebook.com  (search for Buenos Aires Clubhouse SAE.)

Volunteering feedback needed. Our BA volunteering team is trying to set up links with organizations in Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia. If you have any feedback (good or bad) from your charity/volunteering experiences in any of these places please let us know saebuenosaires@gmail.com

Brazil trip reports. Our BA team is developing our information and travel resources on Brazil, so if you have any tips or can tell us about places that just can´t be missed, please fill in a travel report form. 

Pick one up! Get South is a fantastic free guide we have that features pages and pages of invaluable tips and information on life in Argentina.  It has discounts on hotels, tours and trips all over Argentina. We also have copies of the latest Traveller's Guru! All you need to know about travelling in Argentina and chillin' in the Capital. Both are free so swing by and pick one up!

‘MATEN AL MOSQUITO’Come to our party!!!
On Friday 1st May 2009 @10pm, Caffarena 84 (La Boca), we are hosting a fundraising party to collect donations for the people in Chaco, a northern province in Argentina. At present, Dengue Fever is rife in the region and the people who live there desperately need help fighting the disease.

You can pay on the door or send us an email at buenosairesclubhouse@saexplorers.org to reserve a spot.

Hope to see you there to enjoy the musical delights of: Valeria Cini (an acoustic guitarist. Visit her website at www.myspace.com/valeriacini)
Camila Lopez
Sarah Hebe

Together we can help to ‘Maten al Mosquito!!!!!’

---------

---------

When I’ve been travelling for a while, I sometimes just want to know where I can find good, solid grub! Therefore, this week, I’m suggesting Café de la Ciudad, 900 Avenida Corrientes (on the corner of Carlos Pellegrini opposite the obelisk). It may not be the fanciest restaurant in town, but it serves great chips (hard to find anywhere, in my opinion!), an excellent selection of coffees (including little alcoholic numbers) and is topped with a service and presentation that would be hard to beat.

The individual pizzas, which cost around AR$18 are perfectly cooked. I’ve tried the classic ham and pineapple and was pleasantly surprised to see whole rings of pineapple as part of my meal, with a few sneaky olives for decoration. Good old egg and chips (a British favourite) is also on the menu for roughly the same price and we all know how difficult it is to prepare a good fried egg. Dipping the best chips I’ve tasted in BA into the perfectly cooked yoke was a real treat, I can tell you.

The coffees and the deserts are also well worth mentioning. The Vienes (coffee with vanilla ice-cream) is a drink you won’t want to finish, the Calipso is a coffee with tia maria, cream and cinnamon (great combination!) and the thick hot chocolate is served in two separate small tea-pots. One is full of thick melted chocolate (and we’re not talking Nestle) and the other contains full-fat, hot milk. Being able to serve yourself, to pour the amount of chocolate you want (not to mention the complimentary side serving of sweet biscuits), was a real treat. I felt like a queen. And when I ordered the chocolate brownie with vanilla ice-cream, I was heartily impressed to be served not only TWO brownies (with just the right level of chocolatey devilishness) and very creamy vanilla ice-cream, but fresh strawberries and four sweet wafers as decoration as well…. Everyone likes a freebie, don’t they!

One thing to bear in mind though… be careful of paying too much heed to their translations. The ‘Flan Casero’ is translated to ‘crème brulee’ on the menu and crème brulee it certainly is not. It is a simple house flan and was therefore swiftly returned with a disappointing look. However, if a poor translation is the only thing I’ve got to complain about, you can be rest assured that to dine at Café de la Ciudad puts you on to a winner from the start!

Most importantly though, Café de la Ciudad has become one of my favourite places because it is a place where you can catch up with old friends, enjoy an indepth conversation with your travel buddy in peace, sit on your own and watch the world go by or feed an unbeatable hunger at the end of a night out on the town. Last week, my friend and I managed to while away seven beautiful hours. We drank coffee, snacked and put the world to rights. The next morning I realised that seven hours is actually a full day’s work for most people and I was amazed at how the time had flown. Equally, I was amazed that we were able to stay in the restaurant until 5.30am, especially when the waiter had already told us that the restaurant closed at 5am. We were not once asked to hurry up, to pay our bill and get out. In fact, two other girls were allowed to come in and order at 4.59am (and that’s not an exaggeration! They were still supping coffee when we left!) The atmosphere was very relaxed and the food (as I have now been back a further three times) is always excellent. Who would have thought that a place so good could be found in the middle of BA’s central hub, amongst the tack and the over-priced tourist traps? I was certainly surprised.

You’re in BA and you’re on a time limit. What must you see? This week I recommend Recoleta’s Cemetery. Yes, it’s in all of the guide books and so I’m not telling you anything that you don’t already know, but if you’re in town on a quick schedule, I really do think this is a place you must not miss. I have never seen anything quite so extravagant. I felt like I was wandering around a lost city, what with all the trees and the lampposts inside. Also, some of the tombs resemble the tops of churches or cathedrals. One even reminded me of St Paul’s Cathedral in London! The place is also swarming with cats, which I’m sure the guide books don’t tell you, and it gave me a very eerie feeling. There was one cat that looked almost dead…..but it wasn’t, thank goodness!

I suggest spending an hour or so in the cemetery, followed by a spot of lunch at one of the nearby restaurants, an hour’s laze about on the grass in the sunshine (while you still can before the autumn really arrives) and, if you’re a cinema buff like me, slotting in a quick early evening film in the Recoleta Village cinema complex opposite the cemetery is a nice way to end the day. Then you can head back into the centre for a night out on the town. Now that’s a itinerary!

Submersing yourself within a different culture is all part of the holiday or travel experience. Therefore, this section is all about supplying you with ideas and information about how to do just that.

Have you tried the Argentine mate? If not, why not? And if you’re an expat or a student or a long term traveller staying in BA, buy your own mate. This weekend you could take your mate to a park in Palermo and sup away whilst relaxing on the grass. Or you could do as the Portenos do and drink mate on the go whilst shopping this Saturday afternoon.

On a similar note, we have some very interesting information on the origins of the Argentine mate here in the clubhouse. If you’ve got a spare minute, come on over with your mate and relax on our sofa whilst reading up about one of the most traditional Argentine activities you’re ever going to find.

Living as an expat myself in BA, I know how difficult and frustrating some of the most simplest things can be to work out in a foreign land. I also understand how much happier I feel when the basic elements of my life fall into place; finding somewhere to live, for example. Therefore this section of the newsletter will be devoted to all those people living, working or studying in BA and will aim to make your lives just that little bit easier!

This week I offer helpful advice for trying to find somewhere to live. Two of the most useful and productive websites are www.compartodepto.com and www.craigslist.com Both websites are easy to use and free to join. You receive updates about available rooms every day and I have found it extremely useful.

Failing that, there are shared houses and shared residences, which are kind of like small hostels, but the people who live there are not simply passing through. Maybe they’re studying, working or simply enjoying life in BA for a lengthy period of time. One example can be found at www.casasantelmo.com However, if you want to come in to the clubhouse, we have many more ideas and places for you to try.

We also have a lot of information about the legalities of renting rooms and apartments on a more fixed term basis here in the clubhouse. For example, many landlords will ask for a garantia. What is that, you may ask? Come in and find out!

Remember to look through all of our archived newsletters for this section, as every week something different has been covered and so past newsletters may be of real use to you.

Why is Rod Stewart so popular in BA? Somebody please tell me! It doesn’t matter where I go (restaurants, bars, hostels) Rod Stewart is always on the airwaves? What is this strange obsession?
If you find out the answer, PLEASE email me at buenosairesclubhouse@saexplorers.org I will forever be indebted to you!

--------------------------

--------------------------

Did you know?
Did you know that the BA metro is not only the oldest metro system in South America, but the oldest metro system in the latin world?

Every week in this newsletter I would like to publish one photograph. The only rule is that the photograph must be taken in BA and the aim is to be as creative as you possible can. Why bother? Well, I’d like to spice up the newsletter with a small competition. Who’s photograph can stay in the newsletter for the longest amount of time? If no-one manages to take a photograph better than the photo from the previous week, then we will print the same photograph again. I’ll keep a poll going and at Christmas time, I’ll reveal who our photo winner was. Suggestions for a silly prize would also be welcomed! He he! Send all photo entries as an attachment to my email buenosairesclubhouse@saexplorers.org and include your name, why you’re in BA and of course where and when and why you took the photograph.

  *Interested in putting a classified ad in this e-newsletter?  Our e-newsletter goes out to over 2500 people weekly, in and around Buenos Aires.  Contact us at saebuenosaires@saexplorers.org for more information.  

FOR SALE

The SAE shop has expanded! Guide books from $15 pesos to $80 pesos ( Lonely Planet South America on a Shoestring $60 pesos), Hiking Maps of Patagonia, road maps of Buenos Aires. Come by to see more, or email us: saebuenosaires@saexplorers.org

EXPAT INFO

www.livinginargentina.com is an online publication for expatriates in Argentina. It is written in English, Spanish and French. It covers almost everything that an expat might need to know and offers some interesting articles to read at the same time. Check it out!

LANGUAGE CLASSES

Learn Spanish with Elebaires!!! We offer a variety of intensive Spanish courses for all levels in both private and group classes! All Elebaires teachers are university accredited and will do everything they can to help you meet your linguistic goals. Contact us via email at info@elebaires.com.ar or visit our website: http://www.elebaires.com.ar.

TOURISM

BA: Mallory Outdoors - Located in Palermo, Mallory offers a plethora of camping and ski equipment as well as custom knives and outdoor clothing.  Stop in and browse the selection and receive a 10% discount on any purchase with your SAE member card.  English and Spanish spoken.
Open Monday-Friday 10:30-21 and Saturdays from 9-15
Anchorena 1348 (between Charcas and Santa Fe)
www.malloryoutdoors.com
4829-2807