My Time in Buenos Aries

Its my last day here in Buenos Aries, and I feel the need to transcribe the last few days before I move on; they have been jam packed with activities and events.

First of all, Buenos Aries is a real ´big´ city- with somewhere around 13 million ´potreños´, the city has wide avenues for streets. The widest of these is the street my hostel is on. It has ten lanes of traffic, on each side! 7 lanes each are the middle lanes, then each has a 3 lane side street separated by a friendly strip of grass and trees. This still operates like a normal street though, you can still make left hand turns, and there are stop lights at every intersection. Walking across this avenue sometimes takes 3 light changes!

Coming into the city was easy on a flight, the domestic airport I flew into was nice and clean- but after trying our first 5 hostels looking for a place to call home for our stay, we were getting a bit frustrated with everything being booked up. It is hot here....really hot, and humid! And carrying around your huge backpack, trying to follow a map around a foreign city, looking for hostels, is not so much fun- and also probably a bit unsafe. But, alas- we found one! Albeit without air conditioning...and on top of the busiest road in town...its OK- a place to stay.

Immediately I began exploring the neighborhoods. We are near the central part of town, and there is terrific old french style architecture everywhere. Also lining the streets, are coffee shops and restaurants. Clearly, the culinary attraction of this town is one of its highlights. It is known for its steak and wine...and I have eaten steak, and drank wine every night I have been here- its great! Last night, we went to a steak spot in the new neighborhood of puerto moderno, an old port that has been remodeled into shopping and condo´s. It was all you can eat steak, prepared however you want it (but they prefer to serve rare) salad bar, dessert, and a bottle of wine for each person! All for about 17 dollars. It was great time. There are many of these all you can eat steak places...and they are usually all pretty good. They definitely take pride in their food- which I am loving!

I have also visited the edgy, but colorful, barrio of La Boca...or the mouth. It is also by the ocean, and has a port where all goods and people once traveled through to enter the city. Nowadays the ´hood is famous for housing its famous soccer team, Boca Jr., and its stadium- which is said to hold 200,000 people. Also, near the water, most homes are painted vivid, lively colors, which has created a fun sight for tourist, and good pictures. As much as the people here love their steaks and wine, they also love their soccer. Being here to experience the culture, a game here was a must! Luckily, there was match coming up, and with two teams from Buenos Aries, the Hurricanes, vs. the legendary Boca Jr. club. Getting in was not easy, and it took us two trips to the stadium, conversations with many of the locals, and finally paying off two disabled people- who apparently have some sort of government card that allows them entrance into all of the events at the stadium- to finally get in. We never actually got tickets, which were apparently sold out, but we were in, and that was all that mattered. Each team had a crazy cheering section behind their goals. They cheered throughout the entire match, often trying to silence the other team by getting louder. It was great fun, the home team won, and we saw some great goals. Nothing bad was going to happen, as the police were out in force! On one side of the stadium an entire empty section, lined by guards separated the fans from the two opposing teams, and on the other, a tall fence with barbed wire at the top! And in fact, the craziest the fans got, was when a player received a red card and was thrown out of the game! Good times.

Other highlights have been, strolling through San Telmo on Sunday, where there was the coolest antiques fair I have ever been to. They had huge marble roman sculptures that were really cool. Tango dancers performing in the street, artist painting artwork on the street, and musicians, almost every 50 feet playing a different tune. It was impossible to be bored there.

Also, an elite graveyard is definitely on the list of things to see here. I know it sounds a bit weird- but these grave sites are works of art. Huge marble and granite structures with religious statues at the top adorn these mostly great military personnel, or high achieving doctors. Even Evita is buried here! All of BA´s most beloved citizens rest in luxury here. A very interesting sight.

This may go with out saying, but BA is a huge party town, and everything starts late here, and ends even later. The nightly party schedule goes something like this. You go out to dinner, (obviously a steak house) at around 9 and stay until about midnight. Then go to a friends house for a few drinks before leaving for a nightclub at about 2 am. They don't usually open before 1, at the earliest...then you stay out, dancing to your favorite music all night long. These places don´t close until 10 am...so, you pretty much just hang in there as long as you can, then sleep it off the next day! Nothing really gets started and opened until noon the next day!

Overall this is just a cool big city. It has it all, a fast, convenient and cheap subway system, a hundred cool neighborhoods to check out, great parks, sexy tango, good music, old school cafes (the oldest is 150+ years), and great restaurants. All for a fraction of the price. I like Buenos Aries, and I´m so glad I finally made it here.

Tomorrow I head north, to Uruguay, and Punta Del Este, which is supposed to be one of the nicest beaches in South America...I´m excited.