A quick stay in Buenos Aires

After a longish flight that turned out to be even longer than we excpected (apparently a little rain shuts down the airport in Bogota!) Carlton and I finally made it into Buenos Aires. You could feel the high energy of the city almost immediately, and although this is a city full of ecletic people, cars clearly rule the streets. I honestly think it would be easier to die assuming you have the right of way in BA than for any other reason while traveling the country. The city is beautiful however, and you can feel how it´s trying to be New York, Rome, DC and any othe latin american city all at once. The people are extremely friendly and are ready to practice their english if they get a chance. Overall, very good people!

The hostel we picked turned out to be great, and we´ve met some cool people who have given us very good advice. One of them is also interested in going to Patagonia and we´ve teamed up to get down there. We´ll be leaving tomorrow to take a train and then a bus to Bariloche, and so should be there by this weekend. Carl and I are hoping to gather up a group of people so that the tour bus will take us down, and this swiss-like town in the lake district seems like the best place for that.

I am very glad I did not decide to be a vegetarian before I came down, because argentinian meat is delicious! Last night Carl and I found a small Parrilla (steakhouse) in the middlie of a non-touristy street in Palermo. There a grumpy waiter and chef (who was cooking the food on a very old little grill right in front of us) prepared and gave us some of the steak I have ever eaten! We had a bottle of wine from Mendoza region and sat back and stuffed ourselves silly. It was an unforgettable experience.

Other than that I´ve mostly been wandering the city while Carl has dealt with credit card troubles (South America doesn´t seem to like him yet). I´ve gotten to see some of the realy neighborhoods and have had a chance to work on my spanish. I can see why this is such a hot-spot for latin america. Tonight we´re going to a small dinner place where we can hear some local argentinian music, and then we´ll hit the clubs Argentinian-style (apparently things don´t even open until midnight, and you´re kind of lame if you show up before 2am!).

The weather here has been incredibly nice, and I´m going to miss it when we head down to Patagonia. Hope to be in touch soon!