Have Meat, Will Travel

Our last few days in Buenos Aires have been relaxed and enjoyable. We have lots of time to see the city, so we aren't pushing it.

We had dinner on Sunday night with Brandan, a nice guy from L.A. we met at the hostel. Brandan is spending 2 months studying Spanish in B.A. before he heads out to tour South America. He's currently trying to find a room in an apartment in B.A. to save some money. We had a great dinner at El Desnivel, a highly recommended restaurent in San Telmo. I ordered a tenderloin steak and was not disappointed. These Argentinians know how to do meat! It was easily one of the biggest and most perfectly prepared steaks I have ever had the pleasure of eating.

Monday was spent in the city centre visiting the Florida Avenue shopping district. Our downtown tour started with a quick bus trip to Galleria Pacifico, the country's swankiest mall. The Galleria is set in a historic downtown building that has been completely revitalized; it even features fescoes on the ceiling. Needless to say it puts almost anything we have seen in North America to shame.

We had a quick lunch and enjoyed looking at all the Argintenian stores (we could care less about the expensive American and European chains) before heading up to catch the World Photojournalism Award exhibit. The dispay has been touring the world's capitals and presents the best photos taken by news journalists over the past year. The pictures are all gripping in their own way, and many are downright shocking. Its hard to believe what still goes on in our world. There were several pictures that I was particulary moved by. If the exhibit ever makes it to your part of the world, go see it.

Susan has now taken over some blog writing. I need to apologize for any (and probably many) inaccurracies in the blogs on our adventures in Peru. My knowledge of Peru's history and the Quechua people is extremely limited, but I do know more now than I did before I visited!

So back to Buenes Aires...

The hostel has been having some problems with internet connections and so we had been spending every opportunity trying to look up a few bits of information every chance we got.

On Monday morning we called the Chinese embassy to inquire about getting a visa for China (instead of applying for a visa from Hong Kong). They said certainly we could come to their office and fill out the forms, but that it wouldn't be processed until Monday because the embassy is only open in the mornings from Monday to Thursday - problem is we leave on Monday. After another phone call we found out that for an additional fee they could turn it around overnight so we quickly made plans to head to the Chinese Embassy on Tuesday morning.

A great work collegue, Lou Espino, was touring through Peru and B.A. and we kept trying to meet. She had been sending me emails and I hadn't been able to read them. On Monday night I got a call from Lou. She was a few blocks away in the El Desnivel restaurant wondering if I got her email and if we were joining her for dinner. Aidan and I raced over and met her and about 20 others from the tour group. Mike had to make a quick stop at the Internet cafe to make some hostel bookings for Hong Kong (so we could get our visas). Another great dinner and it was really fun to hear all about their adventures. Seems they all suffered from some form of altitude sickess in Cusco and we were all fine. Whew for us.

We attempted to get up bright and early on Tuesday (well 7:30 is now very early) since we needed to get to the embassy. We walked downtown, took the subway to the end of the D line (Congresso de Tucumon or something like that) and then a taxi ride to the embassy. It was a little stressful trying to fill in the forms (Spanish and Chinese) with the help of a swamped young girl who spoke very little English but ried really hard. After an hour everything was submitted and we were told to come back tomorrow at 10:00 - fingers are crossed.

The afternoon was spent in Palermo, which is an area full of parks and much to Aidan's delight, the zoo. Guess where we went. Personally, I don't really like zoos very much, but it was hot and the zoo was full of trees and shady spots to sit and we had a very enjoyable afternoon looking at animals and spending time at the playground. Came back, picked up laundry, Mike got a haircut, and we picked up some food for dinner.

Tomorrow we need to do a bit of research into getting to Uruguay. B.A. is really nice, but it is a big big city. I am starting to prefer smaller places, preferably with beaches and pools. I also am not a fan of the letting your dog poop wherever it pleases rule. Yuck there is a lot of dog shit on the sidewalks. Anyway, we met a delightful couple from Minnesota at the hostel, who are now living in Costa Rica. They not only gave me some insights into the municipal system in Costa Rica and the lack of infrastructure, but they also were big fans of Uruguay and said that it only takes an hour to cross over by boat to a nice little town called Colonia or from Tigre to Carmelo - melo places and only a couple of hours from Montevideo. We are thinking of heading here from Thursday to Saturday or Sunday. Aidan is looking forward to some swim time and if it's this hot we might as well try to head for the beach.

That's all for now - will see what tomorrow brings.

More pictures of B.A. here.