Back in the big city of BA

Buenos Naches (spelling?!) That's Spanglish for you.

So we last left off talking about the Brazilian side of Iguazu falls. Also before I continue I wanted to point out that the computer screen we are using is like super tiny and it is hard to type and read so our spelling is not that great and also sometimes our historical accusations are not correct so don't hold us accountable.. just read for pure enjoyment.

In the afternoon we had some time to kill before flying back to BA so we decided to go for a walk to the three rivers (basically where the river from three boarding countries come together) the three countries being Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina. We were all hungry but Tyson has said there was a restaurant that over looks the river so we thought that would be ok. First we got turned around and went the wrong way up a hill, and then finally got oriented and made our way in the right direction which happened to be down a hill and then back up a hill, not great when hangry (angry out of hunger). We walked up the hill to find the restaurant and lone behold when we got there it was closed. I guess they only do dinner service not lunch. So we all had a good laugh.. I might have shot daggers in Tyson's direction.. but we managed to take a bus back to the city centre and find a place to have pizza to share. The first pizza of the trip.. that's pretty good for me as its almost been two weeks in!

After lunch, we waited in the hotel lobby for like 2 hours before getting Argentinian Tom Cruise back to take us to the airport. I miss that taxi driver he was just so kind.. and the Taxi drivers in BA are a little bit crazy. The flight to BA was packed with tourists.. I am not sure if there was even one local on the plane. We met a Canadian couple who were from Edmonton doing a 9 week (I think) trip of South America but were envious that we were doing it as a family since they had two kids but couldn't all do it together. I wish Bodhi could have came as I miss him a lot and so does Tyson. When we landed in BA there was a shortage of taxis and we waited there for what seemed like eternity. The prices had gone up which maid Marilyn unhappy, but we were tired and hot that at this point we just wanted to get to our hotel and shower and sleep. We managed to get a taxi eventually and made our long way (45 minutes) from the airport into the city.

The next day we slept in, and waited for Ian to arrive. Tyson and I dropped our laundry off to get washed (best 5 dollars i ever spent) as now it seems like i have new clothes again.. you get pretty tired of wearing the same thing all the time. But now we will smell good for a couple of days. Marilyn and Peter still do there laundry old school style in the bathtub with soap and hang dry.... I am far to lazy for that sort of thing. Especially when someone else can do it with fabric softener, and press, and fold its a beautiful thing.

While Peter and Marilyn anxiously waited for Ian, Tyson and I went to find some breakfast, last time we were in BA we had stumbled upon this nice little Dulce de leche & Mozzarella bar which had great foccacia sandwich and coffee so we went on an adventure to find it again. We ended up missing it by about a block (known since we goggled it later).  We walked around for about an hour before we were both hangry and ended up in coffee bar.  It served the purpose, but not much else.  Sara thought it looked like rain outside, but you can never be sure.  After breakfast we started walking home in a zigzag fashion, hoping to find the Dulce de leche & Mozzarella bar when the skies opened up.  We hid under an doorway hoping it would slow down after the initial dump, but it just kept raining harder.  This was a true tropical dump, with the rainfall coming down so hard it was wetter than having a bucket of water dumped onto you every second.  We we decided that it wasn't going to let up anytime soon, we hailed a passing cab and jumped in.  We didn't know the exact address of the hotel, but made it ok.  It took 30 seconds to cross the road due to track after getting out of the cab, and by that time we were soaked through our underwear.

After waiting an agonizing length of time, Ian final arrived safe and sound at the hotel.  Marilyn was finally able to relax a little now that Ian was with us.  Since they hadn't eaten in anticipation of Ian's arrival, which was a couple of hours later then our own arrival, people were a little hungry.  Since the downpour had lightened, we googled the Dulche de leche & Mozzarella bar location, (5 blocks away) and enjoyed a very nice lunch.  After lunch we all relaxed away (via siesta) the afternoon.  It was a truely refresh and reset kind of day.

Sieske and Leo had invited us all over for dinner that evening at their place.  Sieske had cooked up a large number of empanadas, some delicious chicken, as well as a salad.  We had the ever difficult task of bringing the wine (very easy) and finding their apartment via subway (relatively easy).  We all enjoyed a lovely evening together of good food and conversation.

Sieske had offered to take us around the city again the next day, which we immediately and eagerly agreed to.  So after what seemed like a very short sleep, we got up at 8 am and made our way for a very Argentinian breakfast which is cafe con leche (coffe with hot milk) , croissants, and toast with dulce de leche to spread on top of it. Breakfast is my favorite part of the day :).

We met Sieske (spelling?) at the Obeilsco which is a tall Egyptian looking structure from which all roads in Argentina (except route 40) are zeroed from . From there we enjoyed a full day of touring the city. The highlites were , Palacio de Justicia (which is the courtroom), then we went over to the Congreso Nacional which was a big statue and where we say another doggy park where we saw a very large dog that looked like a Leonberger breed but he was humongous and so cute. From there we wandered around to the Cafe Tortoni which is the oldest bar in Argentina (has been operating for over 150 years). It was pretty neat, but we didn't order anything as the line up was way to long. From there we went to the Plaza de mayo hoping to catch the bus to La Boca which is this really strange/cool part of the city that is where the biggest Argentina premier league team football club is based they are called "La Boca Jr.s". We couldn't seem to catch the bus as it was not coming forever, so we decided to head to San Telmo where Sieke and Leo live to try to catch a different bus, and on route we stopped by the Saturday market where Leo was working as he is an Artisan where he makes jewelry out of different South American rock/gems, mostly necklaces and pendants. They were very pretty.

We stopped for lunch and had pizza (easy thing to share), we then caught the bus to La Boca. There is two block of La Boca which is a heavy tourist area where you can't basically take a photo without asking to pay. There were staged tango dancers, footballers, celebrity look alikes.. it was sort of like being in the circus. So La Boca is a residential neighbourhood by the docks where all the immigrants from Italy first settled in Bueno Aries. They would make their homes out of left over ship scraps and paint them with left over paint colours which were random and bright. The neighbourhood itself is still quite a poorer area of the city, however , the two blocks is actually a muesum where nobody lives its just a tourist trap. What I (Sara) was interested in was seeing the football stadium (soccer) called the chocolate box were the club team La Boca Jr.s play. They had a museum there and we got to see the soccer pitch which wasn't as big as we thought it would be, but the stadium is quite old, and the fans are right against the pitch. With thirty foot high fence with barbwire at the top, as the fans get just a little rowdy when a goal is scored, the rush to the fence and climb it (Don't worry we don't have seats in that section for tomorrow nights game and we aren't seeing the big rival of La Boca vs. River Plate. We are seeing Racing vs. Arsenal.) After the museum everyone was pretty tired so we made our way back to our hotel. The subway was packed as usual in the afternoon and I quite honestly think that they could have more trains coming as its probably one the most packed subways I have ever ridden and I have ridden a lot in really big cities.

We had a little siesta , as we had booked a Tango show to go to tonight. So we ate awkwardly early (8pm) as when we got to the restaurant the doors were not even open yet, and the chefs were still prepping the veggies in the back, but they were kind enough to let us in to eat. When we got back to our hotel the attendant told us that in fact no one was coming to pick us up to go to the show and that we were going to have to get a taxi but this was like 15 minutes till the show.. and we knew we wouldn't be able to get two taxis in that span of time. Tyson was not happy. So we had to cancel and will go when we arrive back in BA on December 2nd as our last thing to do in BA before heading home. Tyson is ok now that he found some wine at the 24 hour convenience store.

Well time to go to bed as tomorrow show be a quieter day but a long one with the football game being in the evening. This Argentinian lifestyle is catching up to me quickly as being a night owl is hard work.

Ciao,

Sara & Tyson