From Jesuits to Jews

Tuesday, 12/29/2009

Today's plan was to see a few things that we had not yet gotten around to seeing. We went back to San Telmo to see a few old buildings, such as the narrowest house in the city, build to fill the space between two houses. We saw a turn-of-the-(20th)-century pharmacy, with fresco on the ceiling, tiled floors, dark wood counters and shelves, still used as a pharmacy. We saw the Centro Nacional de Musica, in honor of Gloria's visit to the city, and had a long talk with the librarian about the musicology research being done at their library.

We met the chicos and had lunch so that we could visit the Manzana de la Luz together. This is probably the oldest block in a city that has not saved any of its colonial history. The structures are primarily a Jesuit convent. Interestingly, a Jewish architecture student discovered that there are tunnels under the convent that connect it with other churches as well as certain other buildings and homes (none of which survive).

The guided tour of the convent was full of historical content, including the reconstructed room in which the governing assembly met in the 1820's, the intrigues surrounding this or that governor's attempted murder, the architectural details of the structure. We then visited the part of the tunnels that had been excavated under the convent. They had been used, among other times, during the English siege of the city at the beginning of the 1800's.

Tonight we went to a fine, kosher parrilla restaurant called Tucson. A parrilla is where meat is cooked, usually over a charcoal fire. It was the best kosher dining experience I have ever had (outside of my home). One of the dishes we ordered – and shared – was a 1.2 kg rib steak. The rib of this hunk of meat was over a foot long. By my calculation, the cost of that particular steak dish is approximately what the raw meat, by itself, would cost in the kosher section of our grocery store. It was a real pleasure to see Leandro polish off the meat on the bone.

As you enter the restaurant, the hostess seems to evaluate the guests, because on one side of the restaurant sat the secular-looking patrons, and on the other side of the restaurant sat the customers who looked more religious.

Wow! We got back to the apartment at 10:45 this evening.