3rd leg of the trip: Buenos Aires

Alright, I've finally managed to set aside a little time to write about my travels to the Argentine capital Buenos Aires. Although I've been here for a week now, I'm not going to go into too much detail, partly because I'm not sure if you'd be interested in such a lengthy blog but mostly because I need to get ready soon to possibly do a day trip across the Rio to Uruguay (keeping my fingers crossed that it goes through).

Well what can I say about Buenos Aires - it only took me about 2 hours in the city to realize it is one that I can fall for head over heels. I mean, just listen to the description: an old yet incredibly modern city with beautiful architecture bursting with home-grown world famous trends (tango, to name the largest), great red wine, Italian food everywhere (pasta to pizza to gelado) paired with incredible cuts of steak that although are crazy cheap would give something out of Morton's a huge run (and yes, I have been participating), and to top it all off, the boys all look Italian yet speak Spanish... perfect combo, right? This makes learning a crazy, "ch" sounding version of Spanish well worth getting used to.

But enough with drooling over the city and more about what I've been doing. We've been spending most of our time in our hostel's neighborhood, San Telmo. San Telmo is one of if not the oldest barrio of B.A. What used to once be the location of the city's upperclass (my hostel is in an old mansion), San Telmo is at the moment the cobblestoned boho section of the city, boasting to be home to classic cafes and tango music. We've spent plenty of time here, taking history tours of the neighborhood, wandering around for coffee, hitting up the Sunday market that overtakes the length of one of its most prominent streets, catching a tango show, going out to some pubs, and of course, eating some parrillla aka steak and other grilled goods. Our hostel isn't too bad itself either. Like I said, it's built right into an old, remodeled mansion which means that there are tons of private beds rather than dorm rooms, great for us. There's also a big terrace on the rooftop with a coal grill which we and some of our hostel friends have definitely taken advantage of. Garden House Art Factory hostel... I recommend it to any future travelers, young and old.

As nice as San Telmo is, we've stretched our legs and made it out to the other major neighborhoods of B.A. mostly everyday. We went to musuems and parks in Recoleta, one of the city's more high end neighborhoods, caught some of the nightlife in Palermo the most popular neighborhood especially for people our age, saw an amazing drum show called La Bomba de Tiempo, went to a pub to catch the Ecuador-Argentina soccer game, saw the brightly painted houses of the not so bright neighborhood La Boca, strolled along the boardwalkish Puerto Madera, and toured the Microcenter barrio which holds the center of the city and famous governmental sites such as the Plaza de Mayo and the building which everyone knows for Madonna standing atop the balcony and belting out "Don't cry for me Argentina...". Needless to say, Buenos Aires has had more than enough to offer to keep me busy.

As I said, I'm trying my best to make this short and sweet... I'm sure plenty of you will be asking mountains of questions about my trip regardless of what I write anyway. The pictures are limited for now... Rachel has been taking all the BA shots, and I'm still waiting on them. Now I've got to be off to check up on my roommates and hope that they've recovered from a little virus that seems to be going around the hostel and are up for our 11:30 ferry across the Rio de la Plata over to Uruguay. Hopefully in my next entry I'll be able to tell you about another stamp in my passport... until then, chau.