Hari and I hopped a cab and headed to the airport to catch our 14 hour long flight to Buenos Aires. We flew out of Sydney at 1pm on March 16th, and landed in Buenos Aires at 11am on March 16th. We crossed the International Date Line and magically gained an entire day. After some research in our Lonely Planet South America Books (Lonely Planet books are often referred to as the backpacker´s bible, everyone has it) we decided to stay in the San Telmo area of Buenos Aires - it is an older part of the city and therefore much less expensive than the chic Palermo area. We found a guesthouse on an old cobblestone road near a square that was lined with antique shops and restaurants and immediately hit the sack. The long flight was quite comfortable and painless, but we were both exhausted and spent our first 2 days in Buenos Aires sleeping and being totally lazy. Luckily, we were not in much of a time crunch and did not have to rush through Buenos Aires so we didn´t feel too guilty wasting 2 full days.
After adjusting to the time zone, we set out to explore the city. It had a very European feel and I quickly learned why so many people had told me that they could easily spend weeks just bumming around BA. We spent several entire afternoons just walking around and checking out the many plazas and squares. We also quickly became addicted to empanadas, which are available on literally every street corner. They are a delicious snack or meal, and they are extremely cheap, only about 50 cents per empanada. Buenos Aires certainly does not have any shortage of cafes, restaurants, or parrillas (steakhouses) - we had been told by friends who had traveled to BA that one of the highlights is the cheap steaks. Knowing that dinner does not even start until 10pm, we scoped out our neighborhood during the day and picked out a few places that we wanted to check out for dinner much later in the evening. We arrived at our first parrilla just after 10pm and it was still nearly empty, but we were too hungry to wait any longer and ordered a nice bottle of wine and 2 steaks. Everything was delicious, the steaks were excellent quality and cooked to perfection. While a dinner like this in New York City would cost at least $100 for 2 people, our meal cost us only about $40. Yes, this is a huge price difference, but I do have to say that I expected Argentina to be a little less expensive. I know that $40 for a nice steak dinner with wine is a deal, but keep in mind that we were coming from SE Asia where we were getting nice dinners for less than $8 for two people...BA is not the most backpacker-price friendly city in South America, but then again we were in one of the nicest, most developed cities in all of SA so we hoped things would be a bit cheaper in less popular cities.
After being in BA for just a day I got some great news - Britt, one of my closest friends from home, would also be in BA and I would get to spend a few days with her! This was a great surprise, I knew that she and her roommate, Kat, were planning a trip to BA but the last we had spoken we did not think that our dates would overlap. Due to me changing around my schedule, I ended up in South America almost a month ahead of schedule so it worked out that Britt and Kat were there at the same time. They had rented an apartment for a full week in Palermo, a really hip area in the northern part of the city. Thanks to craigslist they were able to find a nice 2-bedroom apartment to rent for a full week that ended up being much cheaper than staying in a hotel. Plus they had a full kitchen so they were able to stock up the fridge and cook some meals at home. They invited us up for drinks and dinner one evening so Hari and I hopped on the metro and made our way up to their area. I was most impressed with the metro in BA, it only costs about 30 cents a ride and is quite clean and consistent. It took us about 30 minutes to get up to Palermo and after a short walk through a pretty little park, we found the apartment. After being let in by the doorman we ran upstairs and Britt opened the front door and jumped into my arms. I had not seen her for about 8 months and was so excited to reunite in BA. She had the nicest engagement card and a bottle of wine waiting for us, and we started catching up right away. We were probably talking to each other a mile a minute, so much had happened and we didn´t even really know where to start. We talked for easily over an hour before realizing it was nearly 11pm and we should get going for dinner. We all headed toward a street near their apartment that had lots of restaurants and picked a parrilla. Throughout the whole dinner we just kept talking and talking and were so excited to be together.
Before we knew it, it was getting quite late so we all decided to meet up again the next day to do some sightseeing together and Hari and I headed back to San Telmo. The next morning we woke up a bit early because we wanted to go to the Japanese and Botanical Gardens before meeting up with Britt and Kat. Another metro ride later, we were at the parks and walked around for a few hours. The weather was beautiful, sunny and not too hot, and the gardens were huge and very well kept. They reminded me a little bit of strolling through Central Park with no particular mission except for enjoying the day. We took tons of photos and headed over to Palermo to meet up with the girls again. We wandered down the main street and eventually made our way to the Plaza San Martin where the United Buddy Bears Exhibition was set up for a few months - these life-size bears are painted by artists from all over the world to celebrate diversity and teach about other cultures. Each UN-recognized country gets a bear and an artist is selected to paint the bear any way he/she chooses - some of the bears were really beautiful and creative (especially Iraq, Cambodia, Egypt, and Moldova), while some were quite cliche and weird (for example, the US bear was the Statue of Liberty, and the Netherlands bear was just weird and random). The bears were set up in a huge circle in the plaza and tons of people walked around checking them out and taking photos with them. We all had a great time checking them out and taking silly photos with them. The afternoon started to come to an end so Britt and Kat headed back towards Palermo while Hari and I went back to San Telmo for pizza (Argentina actually has really good pizza).
The next day was Britt´s last day so I went up to her apartment to say goodbye to her and Kat. It was great to see them and an unexpected reunion. Our goodbye would only be temporary, though...Kat´s family is from Colombia which is my last stop in July before returning back to the US. Kat has family living in Bogota and goes back often so she and Britt are in the midst of planning to meet me and Hari there in early July for a few weeks, I´m so excited that I will be seeing them again for Part II of our South America journey together! I said my temporary goodbye to the girls and rushed back down to San Telmo, as Hari and I were going to a River Plate futbol game later in the afternoon. Through my travels I have become more and more of a futbol fan since it is the most popular sport everywhere in the world except the US and is always on in bars and restaurants. Hari and I had heard and read that Argentine futbol fans are by far the craziest so we had to see for ourselves. The 2 main teams in BA are River Plate and Boca Juniors. Boca Juniors are probably more well-known, but they were not in town while we were there so we had to see River Plate play instead. We took the metro to the train station and after literally running along side a moving train (Slumdog Millionaire style, Hari said I reminded him of Latika but unlike her I made it on the train after being pulled on by some locals!) we made it to the stadium. We had to walk for a good 15 minutes along the highway to get to the stadium, the whole time we were surrounded by fans covered in red, white, and black, who were singing and waving their jerseys, scarves, and flags in the air. We scalped some cheap tickets and got into the stadium in time to see the club teams celebrating as if their team had just won The World Cup - there were full marching bands, people painted head-to-toe, non-stop singing and dancing, and confetti everywhere. It was really the most enthusiastic show at a sporting event that I have ever seen, they did not stop singing or dancing for the entire game! The opposing team scored a goal within the first 2 minutes but this did not put a damper on the River fans and they tied up the score mid-game. The fans continued cheering and in the 93rd minute of the game River scored a penalty goal to win the game. The celebrations were unreal, they continuted for a solid hour after the game was over - security is so tight as these games because of riots that after the game is over, the opposing side is let out first and all the home-team fans have to wait inside so the opponents can safely get out of the stadium. The opposing team section is even fully fenced in and lined with barbed wire and guards in full riot gear to protect them, so crazy. My first live futbol game is one that I will never forget, the Argentine´s are so passionate about their futbol!
Hari and I also decided to take the local ferry over to Uruguay for 2 days. Being less than 2 hours away we figured we had to go check it out, so we got tickets on the Buquebus ferry and made our way to Montevideo, the capital city of Uruguay. The new part of the town was nothing special, lined with shops and very crowded, but the colonial part of the city is quite beautiful and much more quiet. There are tons of antique shops, and one in particular was very special to both of us - Hari had given me a beautiful coconut ring engagement ring in Indonesia that I love, but his mom and sister busted on him a bit for not getting me a ¨real¨ ring. I told him that I didn´t mind either way and didn´t need to get anything big or fancy. We were just walking by one antique store and one caught my eye - it was perfect, not too big and very unique, definitely more my style than the typical large diamond engagement ring. We said we´d think about it and the next day Hari bought me the ring, I absolutely love it. The streets of Montevideo are lined with artists selling hand-made jewelery and antiques, it is very quaint and quiet. During our stay we also had the best steak dinner, even better than anything we had in Buenos Aires (and also a bit cheaper). We only had 2 days in Montevideo, but it was a wonderful time and I would highly recommend heading over to Uruguay if you are already in BA and have a few extra days.Back in BA we started discussing where we would go next and what other cities we wanted to see while in Argentina. We both definitely wanted to see Mendoza, but Hari had also been dying to do some trekking in Patagonia for years. I also love trekking, so we booked a flight to El Calafate in southern Argentina near the border of Chile where we would do a 5-day trek of Torres del Paine.
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