Exoticism of Buenos Aires

My favorite theme that De Botton discusses in his book is the theme of what and why things are deemed "Exotic." He describes how the term "exotic" has been traditionally attached to things that appear more colorful. They've also been attributed to aspects of a certain culture in which the practice is completely normal, but because it strays so far from the norm of what the traveler is used to, it is different, and therefore exotic. We can see this idea of exoticism in the way that I notice many of us travelers view aspects of Argentine culture as exotic: un beso on the cheek, tango, dark features, the shh sounds in the way that Argentines pronounce their l's and y's, the wine, etc. I notice here that there are many things that often make me step back and think "oh, that's different and damn near exotic." One of which is the practice of drinking mate. I call it a practice because there's almost an art to drinking mate here in Argentina. Maté is a hot stimulant drink made from herbs and dried leaves and searved with hot water. You drink it with a metal straw-like fixture that is called a bombilla that you place inside the gourd after the water is poured inside. Mate being revered as exotic to me doesn't just stem from the fact that it's different or colorful, more so it's the fact that people here are so open and friendly about drinking and sharing their mate with you. I decided that I would learn guitar while in Argentina considering I only have classes twice a week and need to occupy my time doing meaningful things. I decided to go the botanical gardens one day and what do you know? There were two guitarristas there playing music. I initially decided to go speak with them about the idea of them teaching me how to play during their free time and conversations led into some deep spiritual Argentine folk music which led to a family joining us, requesting songs and dancing. The mother of the family asked the guitarristas if there was anyway she could re-pay them for their tunes, and they both said simultaneously "Mate!!" The woman prepared the mate diligently with the grounded leaves and hot water kept in the thermos and passed the mate to the guitaristas. I would have thought nothing of it until the guitaristas passed the mate to my friends and I. I looked at him and asked if he was sure and looked at the woman for affirmation that it was ok for me to my lips on her shiny bombilla. She laughed and asked if I had drank mate before and told me that it was the "la bebida de amistad." Or, the drink of friendship. Even re-hashing the story I still can't believe that the woman was so eager in sharing her mate with a couple of strange, sweaty American kids, but the culture in Buenos Aires as the days go on are demonstrating to me that their culture is a very sharing one, which still is very exotic to me. I still can't seem to work the pics but here's a pic of Mate