Buenos Aires, Part One

The obelisk at the center of Avenida

9 de Julio, the widest street in the world, at 144

meters across.

La Casa Rosada, the presidential palace.

It´s pink color originates in the mixing

of bull´s blood into the mortar to keep the

building cooler.

Colorful Caminito, at the heart of La Boca neighborhood.

An old club-turned-museum on the banks of the

Río de Plata.

Punta Chica, an old village near the BA. Notice

the South American humor here.

Well my friends, I am finally back in the US. I currently am writing this post from the lovely Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, and will be back in Milwaukee in a few hours.

Regardless, I still want to post about my trip to Argentina, and furthermore I have nothing better to do for the next four hours.

Last Thursday night around 7pm, I got a call from my cousin saying we were going to Buenos Aires the next day at 7am. It was quite a surprise; we had been trying to book passage to Argentina all week and it was not working out. However, for about $120 round-trip, we did make it to Buenos Aires. We got in Friday morning to Argentina after an amazing beautiful flight over the picturesque Andes Mountains from Chile. Unfortunately, as I claimed my luggage, I noticed that the bag had been opened and that someone at one of the two airports had robbed me of my iPhone and camera chargers. It was disturbing but I also attempted not to worry because they were not very valuable items.

We were picked up by a tour guide and bus, and began the 45 minute drive into Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires is actually a city of 3 million people in the Capital Federal, an entity similar to the District of Columbia. However, the province of Buenos Aires is home to 12 million more people, bringing the metropolitan population in excess of 15 million people. In a country of 40 million, it's shocking that more than 1/3 of a population can live in one city so large. People in Buenos Aires are referred to as Porteños, while people living in the province of Buenos Aires are called Bonaires.

My first reaction to Buenos Aires was of how old it looked. The city´s structures are all very old, and by far the vast majority of buildings are older than 70 years. There are very few new buildings besides shopping malls and the occasional tower. My second reaction to the city was how hot it was. Though Santiago usually makes it to about 88-92 degrees during the day, it´s a dry heat so by nightfall the temperature actually drops down to 65 degrees or less. In Buenos Aires, it´s humid and just as hot, so not only do the structures take a toll from this tropical climate, but also my body took quite a beating.

The first day we took a city tour, seeing eight of the neighborhoods in Buenos Aires, including: Palermo, Recoleta, La Boca, San Nicolas, and the Plaza de Mayo. The Plaza de Mayo is home to the Casa Rosada, or the Pink House, most famously seen in Evita or other photos and film reels of Eva Perón. It´s now the home of the executive branch of Argentina. La Boca is one of the older districts; it´s most famous feature is Caminito, a famous pedestrian street where the houses and apartments are all painted distinct colors. Recoleta and Palermo are both shopping and dining centers within the city. Recoleta is famous for it´s cemetery and for it´s arts and crafts fair. Palermo is an upscale part of town formerly comprised mostly of Italian immigrants. In Argentina, besides people of Spanish descent, the largest ethnic group is Italian, with as much as 25% of the Argentine population being of Italian descent. Italian culture, and especially cuisine, are an integral part of Argentine culture.

In the evening after our tour, we went to a local bar but didn´t last long due to how tired we were. On Saturday, we hopped on another tour which took us to a part of the province of Buenos Aires known as Ciudad Tigre. This area named for the puma-like wildcats that live in the area is located on the Río Plata delta. The Río Plata is an immense river which is the termination of the Pirana river from Brazil. It´s also incredibly wide, being a three hour boat ride from Buenos Aires to Montevideo, Uruguay. Upon arrival, we got on a big tour boat and took a tour through the delta. About 5000 people live in the delta permanently, with many thousands more owning seasonal homes. There are no roads connecting the hundreds of islands, so to get to and from you either use your own boat or hail down one of the cooperative "bus" boats.

After leaving the river tour, we went to a small village called San Isidro where they had an artesian fair and also sold antiques. It was rather boring and can´t reasonably recommend it to anyone visiting Buenos Aires. After San Isidro we went back towards downtown Buenos Aires where we were dropped off at the main shopping center downtown, Galleria del Pacifico. Normally I would not mentioned any shopping centers, but this one was built into an old galleria and was actually very beautiful inside, with stained glass domes and wall murals painted by famous Argentine artists. There is something to be said for shopping in Buenos Aires, though. It´s easily the latin fashion capital. Argentines are very concerned with style and also generally take care of their bodies and worry about their appearance. There´s great shopping to be had in Buenos Aires, with very unique designers and stores carrying things that you would not find in the US, especially at such low prices.

In the evening we went to a bar and then to a dance club. The nightlife in Buenos Aires is also known as the best in Latin America, and the bars and clubs in the city reflect that. We had a great time dancing and "carreteando," and generally found the Argentines to be friendly and attractive (they also really like gringos!)

Well those were the first two days. I´ll cover the rest of the trip later this weekend, and finish my Argentina posts with a posting about Argentine cuisine. Thanks for reading and hopefully I will get to see the majority of you in the next couple of weeks. Thanks and talk to you soon!

New Year's Eve and Stuff from All Over

At the gas station, 7 am. Light in the distance, it was awful.

Though I admit the mountains and dawn are beautiful.

Small view of the pool area at the house party.

Hans and I. 5:30 am.

Gettin' down at the Estadio.

My friend Isa and I at the Estadio. Notice my bling.

First I want to wish everyone a happy new year! I hope you all had fun and I wish you all the best of health and happiness in the year to come.

New year's eve in Chile is definitely a different animal than New Year's in the US. Everyone here spends the evening until about 1am with their families. I went over to my cousin's again and we had a big "asado" or barbecue at their home. As the clock approached closer to zero hour, I noticed quite a few interesting rituals that go on. First of all, they have you put twelve grapes in your mouth all at once, one grape for each month of the coming year. They also light candles and have a spice associated with each candle. Each spice and candle combination is for good fortune in a given area, from love to business, and health to long life. Finally, after the clock struck midnight, everyone gives everyone a big hug; however, the first hug you receive has to be from a woman. Though all this sounds quite superstitious and antiquated, I do admit that I rather enjoyed it. It was nice to be with people I love and enjoy rather than in some random bar with tons of random people who's only objective is to be drunker than the guy standing next to him.

That being said, after we went outside to see a huge fireworks show from the mountain behind us, you begin to see cars full of young people screeching down the road. We immediately began to make calls to our friends to get our plans together, however we found it difficult as cellular lines began to jam up with calls. After a few warm-up drinks, Hans and I went to the Estadio Español to meet up with some friends. The Estadio is basically a very large and nice community center; there we found two parties going on- one for younger people filled with blasting reggaeton, and one for older people playing gringo oldies. We opted for the latter, though we did visit the former a few times. We drank and danced for a while there. Aroud 4:30 am, we became bored and decided to leave the Estadio to go to a house party.

We arrived at the house party around 5 am. It was definitely one of the biggest and best house parties I've ever seen. We got in after paying about $2, and we found a back yard filled with 300 people while inside another 100 were dancing to a pretty good DJ. People were dotted in groups all over the yard, by the pool, and behind in this mini forest. Three of us arrived there and we met up with a couple others. After dancing, talking, and celebrating there for a while, we noticed that the party was starting to break up. We looked at our watches and realized that it was past 6 am. 

We left the party and went in search of a bar to top off our night. We found one but then it promptly closed around 7 am, so we decided to go get food. We stopped at a gas station where I finally realized that it was light out and the birds were singing. Damned birds, always ruining my good time... Anyway, we at the convenience store and then came back to my apartment where I made mini pizzas and we basically passed out. At around 9 am I finally kicked everyone out and went to bed. 

Later that day I woke up and decided to have a party at my apartment. It originally was supposed to be small, but soon we found we needed to go up to the roof. We talked about our nights, snacked, and danced until about 5:30 am. I went to bed utterly exhausted. Mind you this was last Thursday night, but the weekend was just beginning. Friday night was my cousin Alejandra's birthday, so there I spent another night out until almost 6 am. Needless to say come Sunday night I could barely move.

In other news, I finished the large project that I had been working on for the Universidad del Desarrollo. I handed it in on Monday and sat there as the Dean read it on the spot, not saying anything until he was done, by which point I was on the verge of a minor heart attack. Apparently he liked it very much and told me that they'll now be giving me much more work. Just my luck.

Finally, this will probably be my last post for a while, unless I go to Argentina. I'll be traveling back to the US next Thursday and arrive next Friday. I'll be home for a little over two weeks. I look forward to seeing you all and hope that I do get a chance to see a little bit of everyone. The one thing I do know is that the very first thing I will be eating up on my arrival will be a massive, bacon-filled Kopp's hamburger. With caramel milkshake. And onion rings. 

So enjoy not having to read my blog for a couple of weeks, because when I come back to Chile I'll be doing a lot of traveling, so be prepared. As always, thanks for reading and talk to you soon.