Mate Tasting & Meditating

Mate Tasting and Meditating

18^th August 2012

Crawling out of bed at midday makes you feel so lazy, especially when you’re in a country/city you’ve never visited before. Having said that, we certainly made up for the lost time!

Once Hernan dragged himself off the floor at 14.30, we had something to eat before lounging around for a bit. María Cristina, Hernan’s Mom, has a homeopathy clinic in Merlo, La Casa de Uriel and invited both of to us to attend a meditation class at 16.00.

I’m not going to lie, I know nothing about meditation and homeopathy treatments or spiritual healing. In fact, as soon as someone mentions any of the words, I switch off automatically and nod accordingly. For once though, as Hernan’s family have been so welcoming, I nervously agreed to give it a go and pay attention. That way, I can give an opinion with a bit of merit rather than discarding the idea immediately.

Walking into La Casa de Uriel you are met by a strong yet pleasant aroma of incense sticks slowly smouldering away. In the typical Argentinian tradition, it was time for some mate. After living in Uruguay, a mate-mad country, I still haven’t tried it. That was all about to change.

Hernan gave me a brief explanation as to how to make mate. Mate, basically is a type of dried herb/plant (leaves and stalks) and broken up to be consumed. It’s tea without the bag.

Dumping a couple of spoonful of mate into a specially made cup, add a little sugar (if not, it can taste bitter and quite honestly foul). I’m told the biggest mistake mate-virgins make, is pouring boiling water into the mate cup. It’s a big no-no, as it boils the leaves, disintegrating them and gives the mate/tea a rotten taste. The water does however need to be very hot, so take the kettle off the heat, just as the water is reaching boiling point.

Surprisingly enough, the mate Hernan made was lovely. It didn’t taste at all like tea, or the English tea I’m used to. There’s not a particular taste I can pin it to. It’s an unusual almost acquired taste but overall not bad. If you’re a big tea fan, it’s something to try! I won’t be rushing out to buy mate, but if there’s some going around, I’ll certain have a couple of swigs!

Another thing that caught my eye was how freely everyone passes around a cup of mate. Everyone drinks out of the same metal "straw", doesn’t matter who you are. It’s normal for Argentinians to just share it around amongst friends, it’s a bit like sharing a bottle of wine or beer to them. The Argentinian culture really does seem so carefree, open and friendly.

Meditation, what do you expect? To become one with yourself while sitting cross-legged on cushions on the floor and making strange humming sounds in a group? Not quite!

Here goes the meditation virgin! Sitting down on cushions on the floor, yes, but first we did a breathing exercise as nowadays we do not use our lungs to their full potential or capacity. This exercise went on for about 10 minutes. First we were fill only the bottom of our lungs with air, expanding our bellies, this is where our lungs have the biggest capacity for air. Next we worked on the middle section, where you are to hold your rib cage and feel it rise and fall. Next was the smallest part of our lungs, the top half. Finally, we combined all three together for a couple of minutes of long, deep breaths that made you feel as if your lungs were about to burst. Maybe I was being over enthusiastic?

Soon we got into the meditation itself. You don’t actually have to sit up, crossed legs. Many people laid down on the floor. It’s about relaxing the mind and body – allowing yourself to float. The meditation guru in the meantime was making smoothing musical sounds using several copper and brass bowls from Tibet and a “drum plate”. It was quite pleasantly surreal.

Halfway through the meditation section my legs started to feel heavy. Slowly different coloured lights started dancing in front of my closed eyes – blues, yellows, oranges, white and green. Apparently this is my brain excluding and throwing away my unclassified thoughts. This enables my brain to unconsciously and consciously reorganise my thoughts, clear and clarify my brain.

I must admit it was a surreal experience, leaving you feeling unblocked and refreshed. That’s coming from the biggest cynic going!

So within a couple of hours I’ve tasted mate for the first time and experienced Tibetan meditation. That’s not all… Hernan let me know that we’re meeting Martín later on (from the band Postal), who is going to take us to Buenos Aires city centre as his girlfriend is a dancer at one of the many theatres lining the streets. We’re meeting up a bit earlier so they can give me a tour of Buenos Aires by night.

Unfortunately, as it was raining quite heavily, we were unable to stop and walk around. You can’t complain though, it’s better to see Buenos Aires through a car window and sheets of rain rather than not seeing anything at all!

Buenos Aires is an absolutely amazing city with so much history. To be honest, I didn’t know quite what to expect but I didn’t think it’d be anything quite like what I saw. The monuments were massive and luxurious – they’d certainly give London’s a run for their money!

While driving around both Hernan and Martín were pointing out buildings left, right and centre and giving me a brief history of the place. Shamefully enough, I’d be hard pushed to give people such an historical account of London! We drove past the Casa Rosada which got its name from the building cement being mixed with cows/bulls blood. Apparently the blood gave the building material an extra protection from the river water and salt (Rio de la Plata). Other places we saw were; the Bank of Argentina, Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires Stock Exchange, Teatro Colón (Colón Theatre), Congreso Nacional, Catedral Metropolitana, el Obelisco and so on.

Casa Rosada

Obelisk

Picking up Martín’s girlfriend we headed out of the city centre, towards Merlo, in search of something to eat. Having dinner at midnight takes me back to my weekends out in Spain. By the time we left at 1.30, the place was jam packed with youngsters looking for food and enjoying Happy Hour drinks.

For my last night in Buenos Aires, it’s certainly been an action packed whirl of new experiences! I can’t wait to come back sometime in the future and spend some more time in the capital, sin rain, and have a real look around with my camera.