Buenos Aires

BA is, well, pretty BA.  And people actually call it BA (unlike “Barc” – that’s a shout out to Ryan).  I had heard that Buenos Aires is the “Paris of South America” and that there is a heavy European influence. And those people were right! Weird.  Buenos Aires is my kind of town.  If I didn’t know any better (as if I were completely ignorant of world geography), I would guess that I am in Europe.  It’s like a time warp and it’s 2008 and I’m back in Spain: living in a hostel whose entire demographic is European, drinking multiple café con leches a day, not understanding a word locals are saying when they speak to me, admiring an absolutely beautiful city, and planning my tourist activities solely on what a guidebook tells me (Rick Steves, I MISS YOU).  The only exception is that it is SO hot.  I swear it’s hotter here than in Piura – and Piura was in a desert.

The front of our hostel.  Beautiful. And only $16 a night!

Our room.  I am so embarrassed of our suitcases. I knew I should have gotten a backpack.  All the cool kids have them.

Yenny lookin super cute at the Japanese Gardens in Palermo

Rose gardens in Palermo.

Lunch with all of our new friends from the hostel.  In this picture, we have Australia, New Zealand, USA, Ireland, and Brazil represented.  We are sooooo international.

At the MALBA (Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires) cafe

Neat bench at MALBA

The following pics are a shout out to Ash and Kathryn H.  H Read would be so proud.

At MALBA we saw the likes of:

Frida

Xul Solar

Tarsila do Amaral

Wilfredo Lam

Art photos source: Arte Al Dia

And it was awesome.  Seriously, it was a definite highlight of the trip.  I was so excited, I almost punched Yenny in the neck.

Dinner with our friends from the hostel.  Steak and red wine.  Argentina, where have you been all my life?

Another food picture.  Typical. Yenny and I were super excited about this breakfast.

This was in my guidebook.  It's really famous... or something.

Market in Recoleta

Finger puppets at the market in Recoleta.  This one's for Kathryn.

Awesome antique fair in San Telmo.  I wanted to buy absolutely everything, but I didn't have any money.... so I didn't.

More of the antique fair.

Casa Rosada. Government building in Plaza de Mayo

For Kristen - can you believe it?  Even in a classy place like Buenos Aires.

Yenny and I are such cool hostel people.  Or at least, we had everyone thinking we were.  This was at a "jam session" at our hostel.  They said anyone could come up and play if they wanted - if only I had taken guitar a semester earlier.  Damn the luck.

Always the good Roamin Catholic - went to Mass at the Cathedral on Sunday.

Recoleta cemetery - we were in awe.

Don't cry for me, Argentina. Evita's buried there.

caaaaaat

Spppoooookkkkyyyy.

Jeez, Lori, how did you get to be so artsy? Oh, I don't know.  Probably that sweet photog class I took in high school with Mrs. Matteson.  I'm all about the rule of thirds.

After all of this great blogging about Buenos Aires, I know the first thing you're going to do after reading this is hop on a plane down here.  But beware, Argentina requires a different converter (we were not aware of this).  It looks like a sad face :(

And finally, what I woke up to on our last day in Buenos Aires...

So much for a female dorm.  This girl's booty call was definitely invading my personal space.  Like his hand could have easily grazed my face.  At first, I was convinced there was a dead body in the bed because no one could actually sleep like that.

Then he started comin at me from the other side!

P.S. How creepy is it that I took pictures?! I was loling to myself, but the only other person in our room at the time was Yenny and she was asleep.  The girl responsible had just left her gentleman caller in there!  Oh hostel living, never a dull moment.