Bueno's Aires, day 7

the day begins as it has for the last 5, get up, have a ciggarette, go

for coffee, now of I seem to be getting my fix for coffee back, that

and all the green tea i bough has been drank, no worries though, i

prefer the coffee. And with it being just a hop skip and a jump to

the cofe its easy peasy.

Now that the coffee has been drank and the body cleaned, and yes that

shower felt wonderful, i like the hot water in plentiful supply. the

search is beginning without having to spend a small fortune to get to

cuzco to see Macchu Picchu and to Quito in time to catch my flight

home. this is where the magic of travel agents comes into play.

The travel agents worked there majic all right, but weren't able to

come up with anything better than i could find, in all to do machu

picchu and get to quito would run about 1.5k...thats alot, so i will

suffer, (not really) through a couple more days in buenos aires and

enjoy what the city has left to offer me.

Being that i still haven't eaten its time for lunch, so einav and I

headed to the cafe a block from the hostels that the israeli's have

labled the olds...it seems the name in spanish has a meaning of the

young (i think), and so the waiters that work there are all old, thus

the knickame.

After working through the travel plans that didn't quite pan out i

decided to wait a day and figure things out tomorrow. In the mean

time Einav has invited me to join him for dinner. He is making

homemade hummus, now this should be good.

after taking a nap after lunch it was time to get ready for dinner, of

course the portions here are huge, so i was still trying to work my

way through the lunch that was sitting heavy on my stomach. Oncce it

finally came time to eat, i was good, not necessarily hungry again,

but ready to eat, that seems to be the common theme since i arrived

here, the meal portions are so huge that you just waddle from one meal

to the other, this is not the kind of place to go if your on a diet!

after dinner it was getting late, and i had a self perscribed busy day

ahead of me, trying to work through travel arrangements to get to

quito, as well as attempting to work something into the trip that

hasn't been seen yet, not limited to the countries that i wasn't gonna

be able to see, so far i'm gonna have to try again for Guyana,

Paraguay, Bolivia, and Chile, so 8 of the 13 is what i was able to

make it through, not quite 75%, but well worth the effort, especially

after its all said and done, potentially 9 days in Buenos aires.

junk bonanza's all day long

Woke up with motivation today, got a whole day to make up for being lazy...

the irish lad was already up, his football team was playing, and he wasn't about to miss it, i saw the start, but not wanting to fall into the same lux as yesterday i went and got some coffee, its been getting easy to do this, i changed things up today, dos cafe con leche, to go...still not sure how to say "to go"...

Once te coffee's were put to rest it was time to try to catch the buenos aires bus, this is a big touristy thing, its a hop on hop off style of tour, it has 12 stops, and to ride from start to finish it takes 2.5 hours. With the congress very close to the hostel i decided to catch the bus there, i waited on one side of the street and watched the bus drive by, stop, at a red light, and continue on to the other side, where it stopped, with me running across the de mayo park to watch it drive away as it was only stopped again at a red light....for crying out loud, its a hop on hop off bus, why are people not getting off. and here i thought i was a lazy person.

screw it, in the process of waiting i happened to be shat on by a pigeon, as this happened, a nice couple in no other terms accosted me. they were tourists as well, but were much more concerned than I that i had bird crap all down the back of me...now this doesn't bother me, mostly because, its not touching me, its not in my hair or on my skin, and its not in a place where it could get all over me....in there concern they managed to attempt to rip my jacket off to wipe it off, the gentleman was pouring water on me and trying to towel me off on my shorts, and in the process grabbing my pockets, all the while i'm thinking jesus they are attempting to rob me and doing a damn good job at being persistent about it. as i worked my way out of their dabbing and pulling i checked my pockets, camera is still there, money is still there, ok, these might actually be honest people whom are just trying to help, as i am now away from their doting i tell them thank you while backing away and begin to walk the other way...nice people, maybe just a little to helpful to this gringo.

so now that i've missed the bus twice, well not really missed, just wasn't able to catch it, i decided to hell with it, i know what i'd like to see and florida street is one of them....florida street is a pedistrian walkway that ends at a park, i walked it from beginning to end, of course seeing the damn buenos aires bus two more times, once a the pink palace (no not the velvet touch), and another at the end of florida street, of course i tried to catch it at the pink palace, but the red light just wouldn't hold, again no one got off the damn thing.

once through florida street without buying anything i began to make my way to recoletta (sp), this is the famous cemetary with a park on the other side with an open market with stalls selling all kinds of junk, and some food.

making my way into the cemetary was actually a challenge, of course not as hard as actually getting out of it, now that i think about it, thats probably the way it was designed, that you weren't really meant to leave. Inside the masoleums were massive, ornate, and put st. louis 1 and 2 to shame. Not that having a pirate and maria laveoux isn't something to be bragging about, but these were just huge, and of course the main highlight of the cemetary is Evita, yep, the movie with madonna was based on a real person, and she does have a masoleum, actually its a family crypt, and standing outside it is this little old lady, i don't think she is family, just her biggest fan ever, and this women was creating a queue for people to see the tomb, and directing them in their picture taking, even taking the picture for those that were there alone. it was quite the site, as no one really wanted to argue with this little old lady...the keeper of evita i guess.

after the cemetary, which took a while to get through, and almost as long to get out of, i'm not kidding , this place was insanely huge, and the structures inside are so massive you loose any sense of direction moving down the narrow walkways from one to the next, and the tombs getting bigger each step of the way.

Now that I've made my way outside it was time to see what the park had to offer, i wandered the stalls up and down to see if i could find anything that i really needed, which of course the answer was a big fat resounding NO. So i decided to look for something for other people which i wasn't able to find, so i decided that it was getting late, i should begin making my way back, as the weather called for rain, i was wearing a rain jacket (good thing considering the bombing pigeons), fate was tempted but did not answer and it stayed dry all the way back.

now that i was back and for certain i had visted the outdoor "fair" that had been recommended i was content that i had made up for the lazy day previously and could go to bed satisfied. that was not to be, i ran into jose when i got back and he asked me if i went to lacoleta (sp), my answer was "huh?", damn, i missed it, in fact i didn't have the slightest idea of where it was. as he wasn't doing anything i invited him along, i also pitched him on the fact that he's a smart kid and should look at using his talent for languages and knowledge of the city for good...it seems he does have aspirations, that kid is gonna go far...hopefully he uses his talents for good...

once down in lacolita we walked around the old cobblestone streets, the buildings had the appearence of being much older than the ones on avenue de mayo, or it could be that they aren't kept up as much, we passed one, it was the same building where half looked brand new and the other half looked like it was ready to fall over.

we walked around a bit, saw the drums and tango dancing, man those chica's can move there hips, walked through most of the stalls that were selling, yep you guessed it, junk, and were packing up. It ws getting dark, so the long walk home was begun. i told jose i'd buy him dinner for walking with me down there and he took me to this great place just a few blocks from the hostel. He had this i think it was a breaded veal chop with ham marinara and cheese with fries, and i had a t-bone steak, huge steak, and fries. the cost of my steak was 28 peso's, 6US dollars, and the steak was cooked to perfection, a nice medium, man i could get all my steaks to come out like the ones i've had here thats all i would eat, they practically melt in your mouth.

on the walk back home, reminding you that we were only about two blocks away, we saw a man getting out of a taxi in front of his hotel get robbed by a moto grab job. as we turned the corner we heard the commotion, watched and saw a man jump out of the taxi as a motorbike pulled up, i'll be godamned, stupid, of course the man should have gotten out of the other side of the taxi closer to the door of the hotel, but we all live and learn.

now that i'm back its time to relax, get some sleep, figure out when i'm getting out, if i am, although something tells me it will be one more day in ba, as i need to have laundry done again...yep, thats the excuse that is winning the race at this point.

A lazy saturday...i really pissed the day away, started by getting up late, then getting sucked into two socceer games, and of course being sport i don't know anything about i went all dullock and asked about a dozens stupid questions. I had a lot of plans today, i was relly anticipating going to the oblesik and watching a free concert in the park, that didn't happen, what did happen is a 1/4 chicken, fries and a liter of quilmo, damn quilmo...

I will admit though there are lot of beautiful women in BA and i managed to see a whole bunch of them while eating and sipping beer. Only drawback is i have to work twice as hard tomorrow to make up for lost time.

i did manage to go out to dinner and have an anchovy pizza, very tasty, i ordered the grande, knowing full well there was no chance in hell i would be able to eat a, large anchovy pizza by myself, i did it to be nice, Jose and the irishman (not sure of his name) had made several comments that they were flat broke, well jose i understand, but i felt sorry for the blokes and took pity on them and got the large, needless to say those two managed to suck down all 6 pizza's faster than i could get a cigarette lit.

Now you might be saying, ohhh your too generous philip, you shouldn't have done that....screw it, it was 24 peso's (6 dollars) for a large pizza, with shitloads of cheese and some great meaty, salty anchovies, it was worth it, hot n ready's eat your heart out, you've got nothing on these.

So after the pizza, another litre of beer, and watching the last 1/2 of ong bak, the thai movie about the fighting, thats right a movie in thai with spanish subtitles, neither languages i can use to get my way out of a wet paper bag...i was completely lost. the action was good though, so it made it entertaining.

Now its off to bed to figure out what to do with my day tomorrow, i have a lot of time to make up for and a lot of things to do that i still want to see, its been 5 days in BA, i can't believe i've spent so much time here, and to top it off, i'm not even motivated to find a way out. we'll see what sunday brings, i'm all paid up to leave monday morning, but i don't think its going to be a problem to stay.

BA to Colonia to BA

the alarm went off a 6 this morning, way too damn early, good thing i had the backup set for 6:15...

Got grogggily out of bed and checked the buquebus website on the ferry schedules for today, darn, they were all booked for teh 830 rapido ferry, just my luck, i get to sleep for another hour.

got up again, got ready and headed to the corner for coffee, its now 9am so i've got a few hours before i need to get to the ferry terminal to catch the 1230 ferry to Colonia uraguay. after getting my cafe con leche (expresso with cream) i started to make my way down avenue de mayo, fully expecting to just hail a cab to take me there, but to also enjoy the sights of the city on a bright and sunny friday morning. after passing the large blvd there was a side street that was all pedistrian and had locals set up with knick knacks and junk on blankets for sale. I took advantage of the time i had to peruse the junk and of course didn't buy anything and continued on walking, to what i think was the financial district, surrounded by large buildings and bank after bank i saw that the buildings ended at one point, meaning there was either a ghetto or water on the otherside.

I was lucky, there was water, when i took the last corner there standing in front of me was the buquebus terminal, not this place makes most airline terminals look like shit. it was large, clean, open air, and the waiting areas were very clean with confortable seats. If this was a clue as to what was to come with the ferry, i was in for a very pleasant suprise.

While waiting for tickets i met a nice american couple from florida, they were on holiday and were enjoying buenos aires as much as I was.

After puchasing tickets, getting checked in, i still had a couple hours, the walk to the terminal didn't take nearly as long as i thought it would so i had some time to kill, while i was getting ready to step out, i decided that breakfast was in order, so a large cofee and a couple of empanada's was just what i needed. While waiting i ran into a couple from chicago. Matt and (sorry can't remember her name), a software salesman and nurse in the chicago area. we began talking and headed into the cafeteria together, enjoying good conversation on some of the places we had been, some of the things we had seen, and of course our feelings and thoughts on buenos aires.

I was very pleased that they were allowing me to tag along with them, it was nice to have some people to talk to, especially after travelling solo.

Once on the ferry we saw that there was also a cafeteria, and a duty free shop, no shit...a duty free shop on a 1 hour ferry, what will they think of next.

Once in colonia it was a nice sunny friday. the city itself is a tourist attraction, there is not much else to do there. streets lined with old buildings and cafe's stretching to the street. Uraguay is a pennisula, so there is water surrounding everything, and in colonia it was no different.

Once we got into the city Matt was determined to rent a golf cart, repeating over and over its only 35 five dollars....Matt's girlfriend, the sensible one of the group at this point reminded him that much beer would be involved today so the while it was a good idea now, later it might not be the best of idea's.

we stopped at a small cafe, ordered a couple of uraguain (sp) cervasa's (two 1 litre bottles i think) some empanada's and enjoyed the sun and the view of the sea behind us. there was a couple of dogs here and there, and te german shepard that was following us decided to ditch us for someone who was actually going to give him food, no kidding, once we hit the main street form the port this dog followed us for almost 10 blocks.

while we were enjoying the beers, a datchusand was hanging around the tables, a nice little brown dog, we shared a little with him, nice calm little dog.

the beers were gone, and we were ready to explore, i unfortunately did not allow myself a lot of time, opting for the 430 return, while matt and company were heading back at 830.

after exploring a few more blocks i headed back to the ferry terminal, not realizing thats its beena while since i last drank and was feeling a little drunk, not a bad place to be, but one that i would continue on for the remainder of the evening.

Back in BA i told myself that i'm going to catch a cab from the terminal to the hostel...that did not happen, after reading that it was wise to walk a cople blocks from the "tourist" areas to catch a cab so as not to get taken advantage of i started walking, and before i knew it i was back at avenue de mayoo and said to hell with it, if i'm this far i might as well walk all the way home...it was an enjoyable walk, the air was not too cold and it the drunk i was having made it move a little bit faster.

making it safely back home with the carton of cigarettes i picked up in the duty free, camel light naturals, i sat down, got things put back away and decided that dinner was the appropriate next step. knowing that there was a resturaunt on the corner i headed the 2 minutes it takes to get on the elevator and walk in there front door, there i ordered another steak, and it was tasty and a bottle of wine....

With the steak gone and the wine bottle empty it was time to head back.

i had one hell of a drunk on so that meant it was time for bed...tomorrow ehvid is going to take me somewhere, i don't remember where but i think to one of the outdoor markets. I also need to ask him about river platte football tickets, matt had mentioned that they were trying to go to that game, and with sunday possibly being my last day in bueno's aires i think that would be a nice way to spend it.

chow....

BA Dias 3

Buenos Aires day 3

so i've taken a shine to Buenos aires, Arvid and his hostel is a great place to base out of, simply the best location i could think of for exploring the city. The downside to all of this is that i could really get used to big city living, not that i want to...i keep getting drawn back to jackson for a reason, but, i liked new york, and BA is just as hospitable, not as fake as LA, if only my spanish were better, things might be a heck of a lot different.

Today was a relaxing day, lounging around, a couple walks to just simply get lost, my map reading skills are improving, not that they were bad before, but i'm getting all those skills i learned in scouting back, and thats a good thing, hopefully the cry of the eagle scout "where the hell am I" will no longer be my mantra when looking at a map. this city is easy to get lost in, just take a couple turns and you'll find yourself someplace new, duck into a couple shops take a look around and bada bing your wherever the day takes you. I did find myself today walking in circles, which i'm not exactly fond of, i likke to see new things and passing the sme place over and over again just isn't my kind of way to explore. So after that walk i came back to the hostel, finished off the rest of my steak with the bread i had bought, and took a nap to re-energize and go out and do it again.

The second time around always seems to have better success. i found my self almost to the pier which isn't that far of a walk, considering i'm tempted to take the ferry to Uraguay tomorrow and that is a good place to know how to find as that is where the ferry's leave from...go figure.

i had a bit of an experience attempting to order coffee, but the girl behind the counter was quite helpful, i should become the national charades champion after all the travelling i've done so far. here when you order a coffee, expresso style they give you a small glass of soda water to accompany it. Apparently this is to allow the coffee to not be so strong in your "blood". Not sure i get this, as i drink way too much coffee as it stands and maybe drinking a little more soda water would be a good thing. Although i think i make up for it based on the amount of soda water i drink when i go to the bars.

its coming down to decision time, i have 9 days left in this excursion, do i drop a shit load of money into flights to see all the countries i haven't been to to get the 13 i wanted, or do i say fuck it and hang out in bueno's aires for a couple mroe days, go up to the falls at the paraguay, argentine, brazil border and see one of the great wonders of the world and then fly to cuzco to see machu pichu and then spend the last two days in quito before coming home.

decisions, decions...who knows whats gonna happen till tomorrow, which i'm usre is gonna be the ferry over to uraguay for a short afternoon then back again...of course this is what i wanted to do today, but with the beef overload from dinner last night i'm gonna take it easy today which is what i ended up doing.

Exploring Buenos Aires

I bet there could have been a rock band in the room with me and i would have never heard them...I slept like a breast fed baby.

My stomach was growling after the first two cups of tea so it was time to go explore, more importantly, i had to find two things, breakfast and a bar of soap.

so dressed i got, and out the door i went. I decided that cause i had gone right the night before on my short walk, today i would go left, i rounded the corner and walked some of the side streets, passing by shops selling shoes, power tools, plumbing supplies, pharmacies, little bodega's selling snacks and soda's, but what i was really looking for was a market.

while i continued on i passed by a shop selling fruit outside, looking in I saw they sold more than just fruit and veggies and ventured in to see what i could come up with, i found at the meat counter some already pre-packaged cubes of meat and cheese and some small loaves of bread, bingo, i found my breakfast, with a bottle of water to compliment it i was half way done with my search this morning. Continuing on through the store i found the soap and shampoo isle, i decided on just a bar of soap, as shampoo probably wouldn't be able to make it on a plane had i decided to get on another one before the flight home.

with my tasty meats and cheeses, bottle of water, and bar of soap i headed off back to the hostel to get that much needed shower. Of course now coming out of the shop i realized on important missed step, in my search for the shop i hadn't really paid much attention to the route i took to get there. oh well, i had my breakfast, what better way to see the city than to wander with some food and enjoy it while i walked.

later in the afternoon it was time to take in some of the sights and check out this resturaunt that the hostel owner had recommended, La cholita. i headed out and saw the capital building, some of the great architecture the city had to offer, the pink palace, or the govenors palace, the oblesik, the two main drags and then headed over to la cholita for dinner.

la Cholita is a steak place, one thing argentinians are known for is there meat, they like there beef and they like a lot of it. for dinner i had an apetizer, a beer, the bife de como (not really sure what cut it was), all i know is that it was huge, and good, and it came with frittes (fries). after only getting through half my steak i decided it was getting dark and time to head back, or should i say waddle back, All in all the meal cost me 60ARS or about 15 dollars

but on the way i needed to pick up a couple provisions, tea and bread, as i know had leftovers to have for breakfast i wanted some tea to drink in the mornings, as well as break to make a sandwich with. SSo a stop at the Disco (thats the name of the grocery store) for the break tea and a 1.5 litre of water for 12 peso's (3 USD) i was ready to climb the five flights of stairs and die into a couch.

All in all it was a good day. Maybe tomorrow i'll take the ferry over to Uraguay.

Bunos Aires, Argentina

Hola buenos aires

immigrationin buenos aires had a bit of a sticker shock to it, it appears as though our politial relations are such that the argentians feel it necessary to charge americans an additional 140, where as everyone else gets a free pass. lets not discount the australians and canadians that have to pay a fee as well.

once the fee was paid it was lickety split to the immigration queue, which i was now the last one in line for...and the stamps went quickly, no problems now that i had given them my moola. and the visa is good for 5 or 10 years so i'm even happier about that now.

Once out of the immigration queue it was time to find someplace to stay and of course a way to get there, not sure if i got hosed on the taxi, but it was simple and no dealing with the driver so i paid hte airport taxi 128ARS (argentinian peso's about 4:1) or roughly 32 US. Before i arrived i decided to research hostels in the area of downtown, and found one called casa de papa, it said it was right downtown, private rooms, and a shared bath, so i gave the driver the address, he plugged it into the GPS, and off we were 30 minutes later he dropped me off on the wrong side of the street and i was in downtown buenos aires, looking at the capital building thinking damn, am i in new york...it really has that feel to it.

i crossed the street and found the address, went inside to find that i had to either take an elevator made before steam engines or climb 5 flights of stairs, stairs it is, and i still haven't taken the elevator.

once to the fourth floor i had my choice of two doors, neither of which were marked, i choose the door on the right, fail...the gentleman kindly looked at the sheet of paper i handed him with the address and pointed across the hall. Once inside I felt like i was in a museum, 15 foot ceilings, french doors to every room and to the balconies that overlook the main street with views of the capital and hardwod floor throughout. a pretty swanky place if you ask me. all for 30 a night.

once i got settled in it was food or a nap, as i had been going since cayenne the day before i decided on sleep, made the bed, opened the french doors to the balcony and reveled in the fresh air and awesome view, and of course stayed two steps back from the railing as my vertigo was beginning to hit when i looked over for more than a minute. I laid down and thought, damn, this place is nice i could get to liking buenos aires.

I must have been lying down for about an hour when i heard this awful racket, it was big bass drums, and a drumline that couldn't keep in sync for nothing. It was either that or road construction. I got up to find out what the racket was and when i looked out the window i saw a protest of about 200 people marching towards the capital, Big banners, all somewhat wearing the same color shirts and walking down the main street, about four lanes worth, all the traffic had been cordoned off so no to disturb them, and away they marched with their awful music.

After the excitement of the protest and the two to follow concluded, it was back to my nap. I slept for a couple hours, and got up with the determination to enjoy the rest of the sunny day and also to go find food. I took off for a walk around my general vicinity and once it started to get dark, i headed back to the hostel for a good nights sleep.

All in all a very nice first day, i'm looking forward to seeing more of buenos aires tomorrow.