KNOCK OUT!

     Growing up surrounded with a predominantly male extended family, I have always prided myself in being very knowledgeable about sports. There are some sports I know more about such as basketball and soccer and there are some sports that I do not know much about. One of these sports is boxing. My experience with boxing consists of watching movies such as “Rocky” and “Million Dollar Baby” and playing the SEGA Genesis version of “Knock Out.” Consequently when Luqman told me that he really wanted to find a place that would be broadcasting the Oscar de la Hoya and Floyd Mayweather, Jr. boxing match, let’s just say that I wasn’t jumping for joy. However, being the wonderful friend that I am, I made it my mission to find a place in Buenos Aires that we could watch the boxing match.

            Like a typical Techie, I quickly googled “sports bar boxing buenos aires.” I came up with nothing. Then I googled “sports bar Buenos aires” and I came up with 13290123098123098 hits. Okay maybe not that exact number, but it was a lot. However most of these hits turned out to be places to watch the national sport- soccer, so they weren’t really helpful as well. Finally, I googled “boxing Buenos Aires,” and came up with some useful hits. I found a website that talked about a stadium in Recoleta, which is an area towards the middle of the city, that used to be the national boxing stadium. However due to a decline in the popularity of the sport as well as economic hardships, this stadium now serves as a concert and events hall.

However, since the stadium was in Recoleta, I figured that there had to be some bar or restaurant that still showcased boxing.

            It was good luck that I found that website because our plan was to go to Recoleta anyways. Both Luqman and I wanted to check out the street markets and Recoleta happens to host the biggest one in the city. Every weekend, Buenos Aires is inundated with lots of street/flea markets. These markets are called “ferias” and are a great place to find souvenirs and see crafts made by the locals. Recoleta is a part of Buenos Aires that is very nice and holds probably the most expensive and lucrative real estate. In a sense, it’s almost the Buckhead of Buenos Aires.

We took a cab to the market and proceeded to walk around to the various stations and tents. We spent a couple of hours walking along the streets and looking at the various crafts and goods. In particular, there were lots of leather goods, which Argentina is famous for. The leather belts, purses, wallets, keychains, etc. were of great quality and impressive craftsmanship. After buying some gifts for some of our friends and family, we decided to walk around Recoleta some more to view the architecture and other buildings. We walked into some historic churches and cathedrals that eventually led us to one of Recoleta and Buenos Aires’s most famous sites- The Recoleta Cemetery.

            This is not just an ordinary cemetery. The Recoleta Cemetery is an extravagant final resting spot for some of Argentina’s most notable citizens. The ornate décor of the tombstones and crypts is incredible! I know most of you have heard of the show “Pimp My Ride” and “Cribs.” However for those of you who live in a cave or who are too busy playing WarCraft and/or SIMS, these two shows consist of displaying the outlandish lavish accessories and props celebrities will do to their homes and their automobiles. In essence, the tombs in the Recoleta Cemetery were SUPED UP! The equivalent to rims, surround sound, flat screens, spinners that can be done on cars and homes were prevalent on all the sites. Marble statues, gold nameplates, and elaborate altars inundate this cemetery. Luqman and I were both wowed and awed by the cemetery. We could not get over the insane amount of detail and décor that some of Argentine’s finest, including the famous former First Lady, Eva Perón, lay rest in.

After spending an hour or so in the cemetery, we embarked on a mission finding a place that was broadcasting the much anticipated boxing match of Oscar de la Hoya and Floyd Mayweather, Jr. We deduced that Hard Rock Café was the most likely place that would be showing the fight. Thus, we walked over to the restaurant and asked the host. We found out that they would not be showing the fight, but the host referred us to a local bar called Locos that would. We took a cab over to the bar/restaurant and reserved a table for later that night. We had about 5.5 hours to kill, so we headed over to the next door plaza to see what we could there. We found out that there was a movie theatre in the plaza called Village Recoleta as well as a food court. Consequently, we stood in line for the movie theatre and chose to watch “Spiderman 3.” When you watch a movie in Argentina, you have to reserve seats. It is not like in the United States where you buy a general admission ticket for a movie. Here in Buenos Aires, you pick your seats when you are buying your ticket for the movie. This is in order to be more efficient with time and spacing.

            We headed to the food court to grab a bite to eat after we bought our movie tickets and reserved our seats. There were several kiosks and restaurant stands available in the food court, but something familiar caught our eye. We both looked to our left and realized that we were standing in front of those famous golden arches. That’s right folks, we went to eat at McDonalds. There were some familiar items on the menu such as the Big Mac and Mc Nuggets. However a majority of the items were a hybrid of American and Argentine foods. Luqman and I both ordered a chicken sandwich combo meal. We were pleasantly surprised to find that the meal came with cheese fries. After enjoying our tasty McDonalds treat, we went to grab dessert at Freddo, an Argentine ice cream/gelato franchise.

            Next, we headed to watch “Spider Man 3.” The movie itself was pretty good. There were some great action sequences and the computer graphics were fantastic, however there were some parts that were pretty cheesy and corny. The interesting parts of our movie experience were that #1) people were making out everywhere so we had to deal with the noise and yeah… you get the picture and #2) nobody was laughing during the movie except for us. Now, I don’t think that Luqman and I are particularly loud when we laugh, but during “Spider Man 3,” our laughter resonated LOUDLY through the theatre. You could clearly hear an echo. After the movie, I asked Luq why nobody laughed and we deduced that it had to be one of two reasons #1) Because the movie was in English, the subtitles really didn’t do justice to the subtle nuances and implications that you get from the spoken dialogue OR #2) The Argentines are lame and have no sense of humor. We came to the conclusion that it was probably more so because of the first reason.

            After the movie we headed to a bookstore/café to kill some time before the flight. We perused through the various book collections and sat down at a table to enjoy some capucitos, the local coffee drink, and conversation. We spent about an hour or so discussing the cultural differences we were experiencing/noticing and then headed to Locos to watch the fight.

            When we arrived at the sports bar/restaurant I was very surprised at the turnout. I did not expect hardly anyone to be there, but the place was PACKED! There was a huge stand-by line that stretched down the street for people who did not have any reservations. Thankfully, we were able to sit right away because we had a reservation. The fight started with ravenous feedback from the crowd. Most of the people were de la Hoya supporters. This was not surprising in the fact since de la Hoya is Mexican, the Argentines were probably supporting their fellow Latino. However, there were some scattered Mayweather fans, much to Luqman’s delight. The crowd was very passionate and lively throughout all 12 rounds of the fight. We cheered and applauded along with the rest of the Argentines. After enjoying a late dinner, some chopps (Argentine word for mug of beer), and a great fight, we grabbed a taxi and headed back to our apartment.

            Both of us fell asleep very satiated and pleased that we had spent our first official day in Buenos Aires in a very eventful and productive manner.