Cocktail total: 3 glasses of Argentine red table wine, 1 Malbec, 2 glasses of Champange at the Tango show
Sunburn Status: I don't think its bad enough to peel, but its painful to the touch. I will wear spf 70 at all times from now on.
Sleep: 6 hours
This morning we woke early and Nathan, Jesse, Maria and I boarded a minibus along with about 6 other tourists for a three hour "City" tour of Buenos Aires. The weather was beautiful again and we figured that driving around the city for a bit was a good way to see some sights and then decide where we wanted to spend the afternoon. As it turned out, our tour guide was a british chap in his forties who has lived in Buenos Aires for several years and was more interested in bragging to us about himself and also in telling us how dangerous every neighborhood was to be alone in at night than telling us any actual history or information about the places we were visiting. Our guide also spent most of his time telling us how he usually does the trip (we went in reverse order because we had some people from a far away hotel joining our tour) instead of just giving us the tour. Nathan and I learned more from reading our Frommers Guide to Buenos Aires than we did from this tour guide. Also - we never felt at all threatened while walking around by ourselves and we went to some of the places we were warned about. I don't know what our guide was talking about.
Anyway - aside from the bad attitude our guide had, we did get to visit many sights and colorful neighborhoods in Buenos Aires - including the neighborhoods of La Boca, San Telmo, Recoleta, and the City Center where we saw Casa Rosada, The Cabildo, and other impressive looking government buildings. In the square in front of the Casa Rosada there were large groups of people staging a workers protest and there were barricades in place to prevent crowds from accessing Casa Rosada itself. Another interesting fact we learned is that the President is a woman, and when she goes to work at Casa Rosada she is flown in by helicopter. After the city center we visited the cemetery at Recoleta - filled with hundreds and hundreds of ornate family burial tombs that are still used today. Many cats also call the cemetery home - whom you will see in some of the photos.
We ended the tour in the Recoleta Neighborhood and had lunch near the cemetery in an outdoor cafe beneath an enormous tree that must have been there for several hundred years. An accordion player dressed as part clown and part mime played in the square beneath the tree while we ate and hoards of pigeons waited for our crumbs to drop. After lunch, Nathan and I went off on our own. We took a cab ride to the neighborhood of Palermo Viejo and went shopping. We wandered the brightly colored boutiques looking at leather goods, art, and clothing for hours. The neighborhood is very trendy and many of the shops have eye catching window displays. Despite the allure of the displays, it was difficult to find any clothing or shoes in my size. It appears that south american women do not wear size 9 shoes, (or their equivalent) because they do not exist in any stores. Go figure. They must all have tiny feet.
Driving in South America is an exercise in faith - faith that your cab driver won't crash as they zig zag in and out of traffic. They even beckon you to get into the cab while it is still in the middle of the street. There is no speed limit -- and it seems that cars, not people have the right of way on the streets. We were advised to only get into the black and yellow cabs that are labeled "radio taxi" because unfortunately, if you enter any other cab, the chances that you will be robbed are high. We took several cabs around the city, and never had any problems. Cabs are also fairly inexpensive here - despite the high price they pay for gas.
After an afternoon of shopping and sigh seeing and the hot sunshine, we were exhausted. We made our way back to the hotel just in time to shower and change and get picked up for dinner reservations that Jesse and Maria made for us earlier that morning. We all went to dinner together at El Viejo Almacen (one of the oldest tango establishments in Buenos Aires) and afterward, stayed for the Tango Show at 10pm. The food was ok - but the tango show and champagne was great. Makes me want to learn how to dance - Nathan, however, is much less interested in this idea.
We returned to our hotel around midnight and watched the craziness in Egypt on our television for awhile before bed. All in all - a good day. I think Buenos Aires could grow on me. We are here such a short time that its difficult for me to form a real opinion about the place. Nathan is not at all impressed with Buenos Aires. He says that he feels uncomfortable here. Yes - its gritty and edgy and a little rough around the edges. But I think that the city of Buenos Aires is kind of like a tarnished piece of silver made from its Rio Plate. On the surface, there is no glamour and the city appears old and uncared for - and maybe a little forgotten. But beneath the tarnish - there shines a spirit of the people here that is vibrant, alive, and hungry. Walking along the old streets layered in color, you can still feel the splendor of the city as it once was nearly two hundred years ago - even if you can't always see it.
On a sad note, you are probably wondering where all our pictures are. Our digital camera ran out of battery life today, and it was then that we discovered that we left its charger at home. Additionally, we are having problems downloading photos from our iPhones to the computer - we think its a software issue. So far. we can only post photos from our first day in Argentina. We will look for another camera charger in Montevideo, Uruguay and try to figure out the software issue as soon as possible. We hope to get photos posted very soon.
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