Argentina Aconcagua Tour

We arrived in Buenos Aires in 90 minutes with a temperature outside of 90 degrees! At the airport we found a service to take us and our gear to a hotel for $5 a person. We loaded the trunks of two cars, packing them full. These were nice cars and they knew how to drive them. The city driving seemed like total anarchy. Why there were lanes in the street was a mystery to me, everyone was driving like madmen. I was trying to figure out the rules as pedestrians have no right of way. Honk, move or die. The drivers of our two cars were racing each other. We were sad when we all reached the hotel because we were having so much fun. The city reminded me of New York, same amount of people, smells and noises. Our hotel rooms were nice, both with a balcony with a view over the street, great for people watching. It is unbelievable that we only paid $11 per person. After we were settled in we went on a walkabout. First we went over to the capitol building, then toward the Ocean. It was an adventure every step. At half the road crossings you take your life and put it at the mercy of the drivers here. We ate at a deli spending a total of 6 hours sightseeing. We took a big break and nap before we headed out for a late dinner. We found a nice place and ordered 2 pizzas. The first was ok, sort of a salad pizza but the second was disgusting. The pizza had whole fish on it and it stunk. It tasted worse than it looked and I decided to eat simpler and cheaper foods for the rest of the trip.

Today I awoke late and skipped breakfast. We started the day visiting Florida Street, a busy pedestrian only shopping street, followed by a visit to the tourism office. We wanted to go to Uruguay, so they sent us to the boat service who ferries over there. We first had to take a taxi to the Uruguay Embassy to see if we needed Visas. Once again, driving on the roads was a source of entertainment itself. The embassy said the keewees needed one but it could not be ready until Monday. So much for Uruguay. Since we were now on the other end of town, we decided to explore. This part of town was less noisy and nicer. After lunch and more exploring we took a taxi back to Florida Street. I bought a t-shirt, hat pin, and a bumper sticker. We also stopped at a real grocery store on our way home for siesta. After our sleep, we went across the street for a steak burger. After dinner, Boyd and I went to the movies and saw Titanic. There were Spanish captions at the bottom but you hardly noticed them. Good movie but what is all the rave about, mostly a chick flick. We got back to the hotel around 1 a.m.

Today was a relaxing tour of Buenos Aires. We left around 10 to go to the flee market we had been hearing things about. When we got there nothing was happening, maybe because it was Sunday. A bit later we found another flee market but it was just getting started. We continued our journey (north) until we hit a very large soccer stadium. Bob and Rob tried to buy tickets but chickened out when it looked dangerous in line. They bought some hats instead. Soon we arrived at the waterfront where we found a large tourist area. We were in the oldest part of town and they had some of it decked out. We went down one street recommended by somebody and it was a ghetto. We just kept moving, although I still felt safe everywhere we went. We split up and I spent a few hours walking back with Boyd to our hotel for a siesta. We went back out that evening looking for theaters but could not find any. Walking around at midnight you would think it is only 9 or 10 p.m with all the people out.

Today our group tried to get Boyd and me up early to see Evitas grave site but we passed on that. Good thing we did because we awoke to a bunch of commotion over at the capitol building. We went over to find a giant political rally for the President of Argentina who was up for re-election. There was about a quarter mile of guards (military) on horseback, with hundreds of people with banners and signs. Cops, military and other official looking people were everywhere. Then the president drove by in the middle of the procession as well as a military band on horseback. The drums were echoing off all the buildings. Then the crowds all crowded around the capitol building where we heard what seemed to be a taped speech. The president was standing there but I do not think he actually spoke. All the supporters had shirts and hats with his name on it. The police were blocking all the supporters in the area so it was a bit tricky getting out of there. There were now opposition party protesters walking outside the barricades. A few people were even shooting fireworks out of the crowd. These things shot up and blew up like and M-80! Eventually Boyd and I left and went to the flee market to meet up with everyone else. The market today had a bunch of stuff but all things I would never use. After we ate lunch in a park, we were all out of ideas of what we should do the rest of the day. I ended up going to the theaters to see Air force One, returning after to the hotel after to find everyone asleep. After we all awoke, we went to have our final meal in Buenos Aires. We had a very nice restaurant picked out for this occasion. The front window was a big fire with all kinds of animals cooking over it. We were the first ones in at 7:30 and did not leave until 10:30 stuffed. It was mostly a buffet except you ordered the meat separately. The first round was ribs. Then pig, then lamb, chicken, steak, I forget after that. I stopped long before the others. The employees could not believe the amount of food we were eating. The best part about this joint is how they cut the meat. The guy in charge of meat would take the side of the animal off the cooking fire to the middle of the restaurant where he would run it under a ban saw. The sound Errraaaa, then slap that tender, juicy meat onto your plate. This all you can eat experience only cost was $18 a person. When I left, the others were still ordering from the grill, the animals under the fire was from the barbecue. That night, we went to a downtown party. There were thousands of people in the street watching some sort of beauty contest. Everyone had spray cans that shot foam strings or shaving cream, I am not sure. Everyone on the street is just shooting each other and I just got covered in the stuff. People are out parting until 2 a.m. here on a work night, crazy!

Our day to go home, we said good bys to the keewees and took a taxi to the airport. A few flights and a lot of layover time, we finally arrived home. That was 26 crazy days of good memories.

Buenos Aires, Argentina