Buenos Aires

After a trip to the local Parque Nacional, I boarded my bus early and left Ushuaia. The first 24 hours weren’t bad, but at about hour 28, three babies sat down within two seats of me. I was surrounded by laughing, crying, jumping, and poking. 10 hours later, alter they got off, I had a set of seats to myself and settled in for the last 12 or so hours until arriving in Buenos Aires.

It is difficult to describe the time spent in Buenos Aires, because while doing so much, you accomplish nothing. I have to admit, it was a bit of a culture shock at first. Coming from Patagonia, I recently know early nights and mornings, very few people, and lots of nature. BA is very beautiful, but in an obviously different way than for example, Torres del Paine



The main thing that Buenos Aires has been for me is meeting tons of people. It is a major starting or ending point, so everyone has interesting stories of travel or are excited and anxious for the travels to come. It has been standard for me to converse until the early morning. So far, I've been to a couple bars, one discoteca, and hosted an asado (BBQ) at the hostel.

Adventures during the day have mainly been constrained to failed attempts at getting a visa for Paraguay. The Consulado has had 4 different addresses in the last 5 years, though this has made for some excellent selfguided tours of the city. Walking around it feels like San Francisco, but different and warmer.

There are plazas everywhere celebrating various people; Christopher Columbus has one, as does Louis Braille, and many people whose names and likenesses I don't recognize. One of the nicest places I have been is the Cementerio de la Recoleta, a huge cemetary with exquisite tombs beneath incredible angels. The tombs are all above ground, making the whole place some sort of morbid maze.

I got my Visa today for Paraguay, and will get on an overnight bus this evening. I plan to cross near Iguazu, the waterfalls which Niagara almost rivals.

Somethings Interesting

--From Ushuaia to Buenos Aires, I had 3 sunrises, 2 sunsets, 7 meals, 2 books, 5 movies, and 51 hours, 33 minutes.

--I have been told my Spanish is very good. The secret, I think, is to have the same conversations over and over (i.e. "Soy de California", "un estudiante", etc), get good at them, and then talk really fast.

--I think it has to do with the "Argentinian time" (e.g. late), but the time spent in lines is absurd. Sometimes, 20 minutes for an ATM, over an hour for a human at the bank, the consulado was the worst. Makes for good reading though.