Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires...its big and buisy. It crazy how quick our time here in BA has gone. And yet I think we are ready for the next step. After we rolled in we got a good night sleep and were ready for the adventures of the big city. Our first task was to find the Brazilian embassy to get our tourist visas for Brazil (as it takes a few days to process). Well, I think that the embassy has moved, about 3 times...but we finally found the right one and got everything in order. Buenos Aires is an adventure to be in for sure. Our travel guide says it has about 13million but I have read more on the internet. Yesterday I even counted a street with 19 lanes of traffic, Yikes!! I feel like chicken on that old nintendo game where you have to get to the other side without being hit. The city has a unique feel with alot of colonial buildings mixed in with modern highrises. The city has a strong European feel with lots of expensive shopping, little cafe´s, and Mcdonalds(which I might add is nearly double the price as back home). Anyways we also tried our fate down Florida Ave. Florida Ave is a crazy walking street lined with all kinds of shops, and loads of people. Like were talking full body contact with strangers all the time.

Feeling a little claustrophobic we decided to head to the park the next day. It was a nice hour and a half long walk along the ocean which really made us feel like we had escaped the city. Feeling a bit rejouvinated we grabbed a couple Churrasco´s at a street vendor and enjoyed the art of Argintinean steak(a churrasco is a steak sandwich with all the fixins). We wandered along the warf and even toured a late 1800´s ship. This ship had been turned into a Museum but in its day had taken countless voyages around the world.

We then set off back into the city to book a tango show for the night. Tango shows are an integral part of BA. They are often quite fancy with expensive meals and a first rate show. We settled on just heading to a show. Our transportation picked us up around 9pm and we headed to something that looked like a Las Vegas Casino. It was all glitz and glamour inside with 3 stories of seating with a circular stage in the center. When we arrived those who had got the meal were just finishing up and our mouths were watering as the waiters walked by with half eaten plates of steak and the works. The show itself was great, a beautiful mix of music, dancing, lights, smoke, singing, and theatre. It was definately a worthwhile experience and we were glad to be able to take in this cultural aspect of Argentina.

This morning we have been buisy packing up to head to Uruguay. We are quite excited to leave our big bags here at the hostel for a couple days and travel light down the beautiful sandy beaches of Uruguay(although it is not actually true beach weather we will do what we can in pants and sweaters). We will take the train to a suburb of BA about an hour away(after we pick up our passports and bus tickets for Iguazu falls) and then take the ferry across to a small town where we catch a bus for 1 hour to our stop for the night(Colonia).