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!

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!