Buenos Aires.

This weekend was Buenos Aires weekend, because this was one of our AHA sponsored trips we had all our days scheduled for us which meant LOTS of tours and things to see.

The trip began Saturday morning at 5 AM when I had to snag a bus. I tell you this because at 5 AM while I was preparing to go out for the day everyone else was drunk and trying to find their houses for the night. It was interesting. We then took a 4 hour bus ride to BA. Our first stop was the neighborhood of La Boca. It was insanely colorful and cheery, but also really touristy... After some time there we checked into our hotel and got lunch. The mall also had a Starbucks, I wanted to get some but at this point I began feeling like death.

This pain continued as we went to the MALBA (Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires). I wish I could have enjoyed this more but I was in a lot of pain and wasn’t really feeling up to looking at art. I did however manage to find an awesome exhibit next to a bench that I sat and looked at for a good chunk of time. After museuming it was off to The Recoleta Cemetery. I love cemeteries. This one was especially neat because so many historial Argentines are buried there - including Eva Peron. Unfortunately I was still feeling ill for this portion so I couldn’t enjoy it as much as I would’ve liked. When we finished touring the cemetary we had some free time to go shopping at the local “feria,” basically just artisan booths.

At this point in the day I was exhausted, to say the least. We had a chance to go back to the hotel for an hour and I sneaked in a quick nap before we went out to dinner - at an all you can eat buffet. Delicious. I still wasn’t feeling any better after dinner but wasn’t about to miss out on my second Argentine concert. We went to a local bar to see “Orquesta Tipica Imperial.” My Che professor’s sister is a member of this band and they were pretty much amazing. On our way home we got to drive down “9 de Julio” - the widest avenue in the world. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9_de_Julio_Avenue As if this day wasn’t full of enough memorable moments, I then went to sleep watching Saturday Night Live in spanish with special guest, the Fleet Foxes!

Sunday. Phew. I woke up feeling better and was able to enjoy the delicious breakfast, I feel as though I can call it delicious simply because I got to eat 2 bowls of cereal. Yumm. We then wasted no time beginning out day with a walking tour visiting the cathedral, Plaza de Mayo and Cabildo. I know that probably doesn’t mean anything to you US-ers but rest assured it was super interesting. One note-able building we saw was the government building in Plaza de Mayo. This is the famous balcony where Eva Peron gave her speeches to thousands of Argentineans. The walking tour took about 2 hours, then we got to visit a local flea market. I cannot express how much this place reminded me of Walt and Sarah. You guys would’ve loved it! Old trinkets, pictures and newspaper articles from all over South America. Unfortunately everything was freakishly overpriced but still really cool.

This brings me to the last stop of our trip, finally. Of course we stopped to do what we do best, shop. This time in the Plaza Serrano in the Palermo district. Palermo is one of the wealthier neighborhoods in Buenos Aires so it was kind of like being in California. Ah. Nothing like a nice reminder of home.

Blah. Thus completes another traveling adventure. Sorry this post was long and boring. Hopefully some of you survived and made it through to the end. I’ll be posting pictures soon.