BUENOS AIRES BLOG 3

Okay, so we have about a day and a half left here in Buenos Aires, and it's been frigid down here. I thought we were down by the equator. Isn't it supposed to be warm? Anyway, my apologies for not blogging yesterday, but we headed to Uruguay via Ferry that left at 8 am. So I had no opportunity to blog about the day prior, which was actually a fun one because it started with a wine tasting, that set the tone for the rest of the day. Drunk Americans! We still have not visited the Cemetery of Recoleta, where Eva Peron is buried, though we did try. They were closed by the time we got there, so we may try again today or tomorrow before we leave for the country side.

We left for Colonia, Uruguay yesterday morning before the sun rose, but no thanks to our concierge service, which was included in our apartment rental package. The one thing that I'm learning about Argentinians is that work is an option - not a necessity! We booked this trip twice and both times the concierge messed it up, so we took it upon ourselves to find our own way to Colonia, a beautiful colonial looking city that still has cobblestone streets. Some of the main attractions in this city were a lighthouse, which you can climb if you can brave the heights, and an abandoned bullfighting stadium, that had been closed for decades so nobody was allowed in. 

The ferry that we took to Uruguay was called Buquebus Travel, and was a huge Carnival Cruise-like ship that had these airplane seats in in for the passengers to lounge out in. Also aboard this one-hour cruise was a cafeteria with snacks. For 140 pesos, we upgraded to keep away from the steerage passengers and sat upstairs, where there was more room to relax. Upon arriving in Colonia, we chose to rent golf carts to get around the city. I kid you not, within 5 minutes of driving, our friends drove the cart into a ditch.  He fell out of the driver's seat and was all scratched up, and his girlfriend, who helped steer the vehicle out of the ditch while we pushed, drove straight into a park bench right in front of her. Historical Colonia at its best! I must've laughed for a good hour. 

When they finally figured out how to drive these things, we were off to see the sites! As I mentioned earlier, we stopped at an abandoned bull fighting ring that was fenced off, but the girl at Thrifty rentals told us that if you search, you'll find a hole in the fence, which we did, and we entered! Of course, you can't tell an American not to do something because 90% of the time, we'll do it anyway! The bullfighting ring was the highlight of the day for me. The echoes, the crumbling walls, and the eerie feeling of all the matadors who died where we stood was very interesting. Next we headed to the lighthouse, that many ships used to find their way to  Colonia. We were able to climb up to the top for 4.5 pesos (these people make will make a buck on tourists whenever they can - believe me). We braved the heights and headed up. Here is a pic of the lighthouse and the bull fighting stadium:

We're off to spend the day with our friend and his family in the countryside of Argentina! This should be pretty interesting. Hopefully, we run into some Gauchos!