Typical/Interesting Argentine things

So, still walking quite a bit.  I decided to take some photos to document the strange/typical things one might see on a walk in Buenos Aires.

As I've mentioned before, delivery is huge here.  This is a picture of a guy delivering groceries.  Coto is a pretty big chain of grocery stores in BA.

For about 7 pesos, or 2 dollars you can have your groceries packed into these little cooler kind of lined crates and have them brought to your house.  I guess the reason is not everyone has cars and if they've done a big grocery shop they might not want to carry them home...

I think they are pretty successful with it.

I was thinking of things to take pictures of that are common and I realized I had to take a picture of the street vendors selling flowers.   

I also realized that I havent ever seen a physical flower store.  I mean a store that you can enter into and buy flowers.  Perhaps they exist, but I have a feeling most people just buy their flowers from the street.

It's always a pleasure to walk by because it smells so good. As one might imagine, Buenos Aires is not the cleanest city, therefore bringing not the cleanest smells.

Which actually brings me to my next point.  A photo I've decided to omit-for everyones sake.  It's poop.  Nobody seems to care where their dogs poop or about cleaning it up.  Word to the wise-be very careful when walking through the city...

The next is hotdogs.  Maybe I naively thought hotdogs were "All-American" therefore eaten mostly in the US...very wrong.

They LOVE hotdogs! I dont know what the reasoning behind it is, but here they are called panchos.  I would be willing to bet a typical Argentine consumes 1-3 panchos a week.

I cant say I blame them though.  They are rather delicious.  I don't know if the picture shows it, but they really load it on.  The best part is they put these kind of potato crisps on the top which makes it kind of crunchy. 

This particular photo is taken at a kiosk.  There is probably at least one kiosk every block, and 99% of the kiosks sell hot dogs.  Additionally, there are hot dog stands.  The smart ones strategically place themselves outside bars at 3:00 am...

Okay bad picture, but I think maybe you get the idea...

Sweets!!! They are huge here.  About every two blocks there is a sweet shop/bread shop.  They make their treats daily and they are so pretty. Lots of cakes and pies. 

A typical Argentine breakfast is a croissant.  So, naturally these places have tons of croissants as well. 

Dog Walkers!

I dont know if it's because I've never lived in a city, but I've never seen dog walkers like this.  This guy in particular is walking close to what? 10 dogs.

He saw I wanted to take his picture (typical gringa taking pictures of street life) and turned around and gave me a thumbs up.  Unfortunatley he turned back around before I could get the shot. 

Anyway, it's pretty hilarious to see one person walking so many dogs at once.

This one happens to be a two for one.  I'll start with the fruits. 

This guy has impromptu set up a stand with strawberries and asparagus.  I guess they have just started coming out now that it's spring and the weathers nice.  Just about anywhere in town you can find a stand with strawberries for 6.99 a kilo.  Which is pretty much like $1.50 US for 2.2 pounds of strawberries.  Needless to say we've been eating a lot. 

As of this week I've seen a couple add peaches too! yum. 

The second part of the picture is the newsstand.  Nearly every block is a newsstand with magazines, newspapers, comics, etc.  Super common-nice place to get anything from Newsweek to Knitting Weekly...

This particular picture might not be doing it justice, as there are only about 4 busses in the picture.  But, the theme is public transportation. 

Obviously in a city so grande it's going to be necessary to have a pretty well thought out public transportation system. 

They kind of have that.  The subway (the subte) is fairly reliable (only breaks down about once a week) but isnt very far reaching.  Thus, lots of people take the bus.  They are always crowded and are always running.  This causes quite a bit of road congestion.  I'm SO glad I dont have to worry about driving here.  It would possibly be a nightmare.