Buenos Aires

Greetings from Buenos Aires! Since we last spoke we have had a great time touring around Bs As. On Saturday night there was a city-wide event known as Noche de los Museos, or night of the musuems. No folks, it's not like that Ben Stiller movie, none of the exhibits came to life, but basically most of the musuems in the city are free from 8:00 at night until 3:00 the next morning. It is a really neat idea, although in practice it seems like the city was a little overwhelmed by the turnout. We originally were going to go to the zoo, but the line was about ten blocks long, so we figured we would go to the planetarium instead. The planetarium also had a very long line, but it seemed to be done in groups since the tour started with a video. After visiting the planetarium, and finishing up around midnight we decided to grab some comida arabe and call it a night. Saturday morning, before resting up for our trip to the musuems, we went to a seaside neighborhood called La Boca. La Boca is a very touristy area selling artesania and other interesting handmade items. There are also a lot of touristy restaurants, you can get your picture taken with a tango dancer, etc. After wandering around for a little bit, we had seen pretty much all there was to see, so we had another adventure on the bus getting home. In Buenos Aires, the buses have an electronic payment system where locals swipe their card and money is taken from their account, however for travelers, you must pay the fare. The buses are only equipped with machines that accept coins, and rather inconveniently there is a coin shortage in this country. Luckily we barely had enough metal in our pockets to cover the ride home.

On Sunday we ventured to the Casa Rosada (pink house) similar to the American White House, although the president doesn't actually live there. We also went to the San Telmo neighborhood where they have a street fair. Again, we saw a lot of artesania and standard tourist merchandise, although there were some interesting antique shops as well as vendors selling bills and coins from Argentina's prior currencies. Monday we went back to the Casa Rosada and took a tour, as well as walked to the Congress building. Yesterday we walked to a very nice neighborhood called Recoleta, which is also home to a cemetary for many of the cities wealthy and elite. Many past presidents and generals are buried there, and we recognized many of the names as they are also names of streets, neighborhoods, and towns that we have seen in our travels. We also passed by Evita's crypt.

This morning we went to the local zoo. Although not quite as elaborate as the zoo in Cali, it housed a great deal of animals. Also, they have brought in some of the rabbit/kangaroo rodents that we saw in Patagonia and they are hopping all around the zoo. Tonight we are planning to watch some tango, and then tomorrow morning we have to be up bright and early to catch the ferry to Uruguay! See you in Colonia!!