BUENOS AIRES BLOG 2

Yesterday, we took a city bus tour of Buenos Aires. Yes, one of those double decker buses that we see all the time in NYC. It's the touristy thing to do, so we did it. I have to say that there is a lot of history in this city. Above is a pic of the Presidential Office, where Eva Peron and her husband have had many famous pictures taken. In fact, the 1996 Madonna film "Evita" was filmed here. It was some pretty interesting stuff, and this city is rich in culture. 

The bus tour took us on about 20 stops, where you can actually get off, and meet another bus an hour later since a new bus came every hour. The only problem about riding on the top of this double decker bus was that we were freezing our asses off because, as I found out when I arrived here on Saturday morning, it's the fall season down here in South America. Oh, well! So much for the shorts and swimming trunks that I packed for this whole week! I mean, it was frigid! I think my other half even caught a cold from yesterday's excursion. 

We made one stop in a town called Caminito by the river, which was a very artsy town, where artists were peddling their paintings on the street. There was some amazing art here, and obviously, we had to buy some to bring home. It was a nice little town set up to trap tourists with their gift shops lined up down its streets. The one thing that we've learned so far is that there seems to be no room for negotiation at these places like there were in Shanghai and Cancun. In fact, every time we tried, they would say "no" and walk away. I guess they didn't need our business that bad. 

We continued on our journey and waited for the bus tour to pick us up in the freezing cold for 45 minutes, which made me really happy that I paid 90 pesos per person for this trip. The couple that we're here with joked, "We're Americans, let us on first." That didn't get a good reception, but I laughed! Anyway, our trip ended early because we couldn't take the cold anymore, so we jumped off 5 stops early and took a cab back to our apartment.

As we prepared for dinner, our friends suggested going for sushi. My first thought was sushi in Argentina? Hmmmmm....I'm not sure about this, but he read that actor Benecio Del Toro frequents this restaurant, so how bad can it be? The name of the restaurant was Osaka, and there was not one Japanese or Asian for that matter behind the sushi bar. So, were were putting our Argentine sushi experience at the hands of the locals. Uh-oh! Needless to say, the appetizers were great, but the sushi was terrible! I had a sushi roll that had Parmesan cheese on top, so we asked about it and the waiter suggested that it was a fusion restaurant, so we joked a fusion with Japanese and Italian? What the hell? Thumbs down on this place!

We headed back to the apartment after we tried to hit a Hooka lounge which was closed. Our friend, who lives here in Buenos Aires, met us back here with his girlfriend, whom we met the night before. He introduced us to the country's tea they call mate. You put it in a small bowl with sugar and drink it from a straw. My first question was, "Does it get you high?" and they laughed at me and said "No". So, I asked what the point was. Either way, we had a lot of fun drinking this stuff, though I didn't drink that much, but my other half did. 

Today, we're off to the Recoleta Cemetery to see Eva Peron's grave site, do some wine tasting, and hit some museums. Oh, and I am so upset! We found out last night that the Rock 'N' Roll All-Stars were here in Buenos Aires. The RNR All-Stars consisted of members from Kiss, Guns N Roses, Def Leppard, Billy Idol, The Cult, and Alice In Chains. That would've been cool to see in another country. Oh well, off to our next excursions!