Clarification

After taking the trip back across the Argentinean and Brazil borders I thought I should clarify why our bus trip the first time was so painful. First of all, it's only about 10-15 miles from the airport in Brazil to our hotel in Argentina. Secondly, Matt says it took us closer to three hours to get across. And, finally, when we went back yesterday it took 30 minutes in a taxi! We both agree it was a good experience but not one we want to try again.

Jan. 12 - Evening

On Thursday evening we had a fabulous meal in Puerto Iguazu. We ate at a place called Tio Querido where they grill all of the meats outside. We had awesome tenderloin, salad, bread, dessert and a bottle of wine - all for about $30! It was fabulous. There were several cats hanging out around us...if I were a stray cat I would live next to the outdoor grill too. There were three very nice travelers at the table next to us. Two were from Canada and one was from London. We chatted for a while...in contrast to the couple sitting at that table before them. When we had briefly talked to the couple earlier they had stopped talking English and switched to some other language. OK. We get the message!

Jan. 13

We had a very long day of traveling. We left Iguazu Falls around 2pm and didn't get into Buenos Aires until 9:30pm. We connected in Sao Paulo and it was amazing to fly over the city. It is HUGE. It truly was so big that we couldn't see the end of it. The houses and buildings just went on and on forever. And so many tall buildings! When we got to our hotel in Buenos Aires we cruised around our neighborhood to get a feel for things and picked up some cash at the ATM. Then it was off to bed.

Side note: The Argentinean's are very serious about protecting their agriculture. When the buses cross over from Brazil they have to go through a disinfectant wash (basically a big puddle). On the airplane the flight attendant walked up and down the aisles spraying some sort of disinfectant spray.

Jan. 14

This morning we slept in a little and then around 10:00 had the meager breakfast at the hostel. Orange juice and toast, but for $25 a night you can't expect too much. And the OJ was pretty darn good. We took a walking tour of Puerto Madero, which is the old port that has been revitalized into a trendy area with restaurants and office buildings (and a very large Hilton). They had several informational signs along the way describing key buildings and points of interest which was very helpful. We stopped for a big lunch since it had been about 36 hours since we had a real meal. After lunch we had delicious ice cream at Freddo's, which a friend of Matt's had recommended. They had cerveza (beer) flavored ice cream, which was definitely new to me. We opted for old standards and it was good and I had to laugh as I ordered a sundae for Matt. His favorite is chocolate ice cream with chocolate sauce. Well, I'm not really sure how to say "chocolate syrup" in Spanish so I whipped out a "chocolate juice." It seemed to work and he got what he was looking for.

At about 3:30 we noticed that most of the shops were closing so we decided we better hurry back. We dropped off our laundry at a place around the corner this morning and were worried it might close before we got there. That could be disaster - half of our clothes were there! Luckily they were still open and we picked up our stuff. Clean clothes are quite a treasure on this trip. Washing in the sink is such a pain. You can't beat the deal here in Buenos Aires - it cost $2 to have the laundry washed, dryed and folded! Quite a bargain compared to Brazil, where it cost $6.

We had to do some other errands today too so we spent some time in the pharmacy (like Walgreens) and the grocery store. There were security guards in both pharmacies we went to and they followed us around. Then as we were walking out of the grocery store I noticed lockers and a sign that said that bags were not allowed in the store (oops, I was carrying my backpack) so obviously they have a problem with shoplifting here.

The buildings in Buenos Aires are very beautiful. It is obvious that at one time this was a very wealthy country. Our hostel is in a very old building with 20 foot ceilings and lots of details. However, it has not been kept up and the outsides of many of the buildings are very run down. The ones that have been restored are absolutely gorgeous, with lots of complicated wrought iron and amazing rooflines. There seems to be a lot of French influence in the architecture.

Tomorrow morning we leave for Lima. We'll join our tour group and hope to meet some fun people. We are also looking forward to having experts along to help in planning our activities.

--Jen