Buenos Aires

Argentina
12/30/2008


If you may have noticed, I posted about 9 more pictures of brasil in the photo album! Argentina pictures will come next! Also, regarding comments made in the christmas blog, Our first priority on the trip if to learn spanish, and then we will volunteer, at a goat farm or something, but we are here mostly to experience the culture of south america, and meet the people here.

The morning after christmas, we decided to sleep in, which was nice, and then we had a nice lunch of spaggeti and meatballs. We hung around in genaro´s house and sunbathed for a little, and then headed to the local pool. We also decided that we would head to buenos aires tonight, we will catch the late bus into town and arrive there in the morning. The pool was alot of fun, there were many people, and the water was pumped up from the aquifer, so it had no chlorine, but it was not excatly clear. In the pool we shared maté with many friends, and watched the surroundings. The pool is in an area surrounded by farmland, about 3 km from the city center. to the right there is the Rio Paraná, thick and brown, moving slowly to the ocean. We walked down to the river, and saw the overflow from the pool making its own little stream going into the Paraná. It is not tropical here as it was when we were in brazil, and that is somthing that keep surprising me. We left the pool and headed back to Genaros house. We had a few glasses of fernet, and then the whole family got together for a cariety of snacks that we ate for dinner, there were empanadas, ever popular here in Argentina, cut up breaded beef steak, cheese and salami, and crackers. arouns 12 45 AM we said our goodbyes, always so sad, and headed to the bus station for our 1 AM departure.

Our bus ride was great, only 6 hours, I managed to sleep a little, and once the sun rose, I was able to see outside, at the urban sprawl the stretches in the direction of rosario for many hours. Once we got into the bus station, we headed to the tourist information center for a map. Tourist information center CLOSED?! on a saturday? all day?! I couldnt believe it. We headed to the internet station got our hotels address down, drew a quick map, and headed to the taxi. We think the taxi driver ripped us off, he charges us 29 pesos to get there, about 9.5$us and it was a very short ride. Eh, only so much you can do. We had a real hard time finding the hotel, but once we did, we were very happy. Right now we are at the Hotel Carly, you can look up their website, it is in San Telmo, the center of the old district in Buenos Aires. It is very beautiful, all cobblestone streets, and old european architecture. Once we settled down in the hotel, which is very old, run down, but has the same feel our house did in Hawaii, we started chatting with the people who were here, and making friends. We met a guy from NZ, a kiwi, two aussies, and a few argentines. One of the kiwis was living in the hotel for 6 months. This place is like a movie! It was quite funny. We went with one kiwi and headed to a cool part of town called Recoleta, and visited a large cemetery that had all tombs that were out of the ground. There was a large colorful market with lots of handicrafts, and many people were playing music, and some were pretty good! We sat in the middle of the market, on a hill, and listened to a guy play giutar and sing, in spanish, he was quite good. Then we left the market, and caught the bus back to the hotel. I think we skipped dinner for lack of food, and hung out with the two aussies, Dan and Heidi, and talked about immigration to australia, and their opinions on world politics. Dan is a rasta guy, with big dredlocks, and he is quite cool, and heidi is a fun traveler with an independent mind. She thinks tango dancing is boring.

The next day we started to wander around San telmo, the district we are staying in. There was a huge fair, "Feria de San pedro Telmo" for about a mile in all directions from our hotel! Wow! we were lucky for such a great location! The fair was fun, I finally bought a T shirt, a green one, that has the fair name on it. Laina got a cool summer dress, and we bought a bag of lentils, and a bag of brown rice, as well as an onion garlic, and some fruit to eat for food. Now that people are not feeding us, we are going back to our more normal diet of rice and beans. after about 20 days of pure meat, white bread, and sweets, it is nice to eat somthing that is easy on your stomach.

We headed back in to the hotel to make lunch, and then we met up with dan and heidi for some more conversation, and then we left to hear the tango that was going on in the square right outside our hotel. Once we left the hotel , the street was packed, and everyone was sitting in the chairs, often marked, Quilmes, the national beer. We were drinking wine, malbec from patagonia. There was a big dance floor, many people were dancing tango, and the music was great. Tango music sounds like 3 or 4 violins, an acordion or two, a piano, and a big standup bass. I love it, it has a real oldfashioned sound, and has great timing. there was a band during the fair, and they were really fun to listen to. Also there was a girl playing digeredoo, and it was soo cool, she was very good. Buenos Aires is a beautiful city, and has a many oldfashioned european touches. It is also windy here, and the breeze is a nice refreshment to the very hot air now that it is summer. We will be staying in the city until jan 9th or so, and then head to Pinamar, a beach town south of here, north of Mar del Plata.