What`s New? Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires was interesting. Not our favorite part of the trip because of some uncontrollable circumstances, but we still had great experiences here.

The Good:

* BsAs is incredibly cheap compared to Patagonia. We got to live little pieces of the high-life on a backpacker`s budget in BsAs.

* We had date night at La Cabrera, one of the most recommended steak restaurants in Buenos Aires. They even gave us champagne while we waited for a table. It was fun to get a little dressed up and enjoy a fancy dinner.

* Our private apartment in Palermo gave us Clint & Ashley space again for a whole week. It was so luxurious to not share a kitchen, bathroom, or dining room with other backpackers or families. The apartment also had a private rooftop patio, which was fantastic on sunny days.

* We spent an evening with Complejo Tango. This tango show picked us up from our apartment, served us a bottle of wine and dessert, and gave us a brief tango class. For the actual show, we had a table right next to the stage so we were feet away from the high kicks, costumes, lifts, everything.

* Recoleta Cemetery was fascinating. Clint could not, for the life of him, figure out how a cemetery could possibly be on everyone`s top 10 lists of things to do in BsAs. But we both understood the moment we stepped foot inside. They say that it is cheaper to live your entire life extravagantly than to be buried in Recoleta Cemetery. It is like a small city of mausoleums, many of which look more like miniature cathedrals than burial sites.

* I had a couple of nice solo excursions to Ashley-ish places that would have caused Clint a bit of pain. My favorites were the Evita Museum (complete with many of her old dresses, shoes, and hats... man, that woman could dress) and the Belgrano craft market (where I had to practice serious self-control).

The Bad:

Clint got a nasty head-cold, it rained a lot, a few of the attractions I wanted to see on Ashley-excursions were closed for renovations, and we had to spend quite a bit of time dealing with travelocity over the next leg of our travels. Nothing huge, just small dampers on the visit.

The Ugly:

Buenos Aires has a few disenchanting features: piles of dog poop everywhere on the sidewalks, sidewalks in various stages of repair and disrepair (aside: Really, these sidewalks are landmines. I saw an old lady accidentally step in a giant pile of wet cement and ruin her old-lady shoe), intense smog, and some pretty bad hecklers (another aside: The only time we have felt threatened on this entire trip was in La Boca--a tourist trap in a poor part of BsAs. I can only explain the locals` reactions to us stepping off the bus in terms of a cartoon: their eyes started spinning slot-machine-style and landed squarely on two dollar-signs. They followed on our heels, whispering scam ideas to one another and trying to sell us beer, Maradona jerseys, photographs, anything until we got back on the bus to our apartment. We only got half-scammed into taking really cheesy photos with tango dancers.)

Now we are in Mendoza, resting after another long bus trip. We are thrilled to be here and to begin discovering the land of Argentine wine!