The Tale of the Tails
Saturday, January 19th, 2008As our last post from Buenos Aires, I think it is important to document one of the most prevalant things about our stay: tails. While in Buenos Aires, we saw:
Hundreds of dog tails
Dozens of human tails
and
One little pig tail
The dog tails are self-explanatory, as Nate already enlightened you about the many dogs of Argentina (both street strays and pampered pets). But, the human tails and pig tail need a little explaining.
The fashion and modern art astethic in Buenos Aires is very much an homage to the 80´s. Girls wear flourescent clothing paired with shoes of various colors (no basic black in this country!) and the boys well….they have tails! Remember the 1980´s when it was fashionable to leave a piece of hair growing in the back of your hair that is longer than the rest? Well, that is what is popular here, from young children to adult males, to punk rock waitresses. I really couldn´t believe my eyes. This is one trend that I really hope stays in the Southern hemisphere.
The last tale of the tails is of one little curly Q tail that belonged to our dinner one night. We went to a barbeque at the apartment owner´s place so we could see a new area of town, meet some locals, and learn about Buenos Aires. When we arrived, we discovered that our dinner was an entire roasted pig that had been slow-cooking on the BBQ for half a day, curly Q tail and all. The pig was brought back as a present from one of the workers, along with an armadillo. Luckily, they saved the armadillo for another meal. No one is really sure how these meat products were transported during the 15 hour bus ride, but as guest, I just tried to keep my gaze away from the pig tail and enjoy the moment.
There have been many great moments during our long stay in Argentina and we look forward to sharing more pictures and stories when we get back.
But, alas, it´s time to move on. Time to put away the flip-flops and shorts and venture back into jeans and coats as we head east to Paris. Our 24-hour travel journey begins in just a couple hours.
Ciao!
Yesterday, our friend Kajsa arrived in Buenos Aires so the whole crew is finally together. The weather has been pleasant over the past few days, but today it got sticky wet again. A ... 
nkurtz