Buenos Aires, continued, and Colonia

Monday: We decided to go check out the San Telmo neighborhood some more, as well as go to two big shopping, pedestrian areas. (aka cars can't drive down those streets). We spent a lot of the day just wandering around looking at the architecture and taking in the vibe of the city. We checked out a couple of places where they had tango shows and the theatre district to find a play to go to. While we were buying tickets for the theatre, we got in a long conversation with an older Argentinian woman about the linguistics of spanish, which was actually fairly interesting. We saw a lot of the city because we walked EVERYWHERE or took the bus (my theory is that once you understand the bus system of a city, you've got the city down). There is a lot of cool graffiti around the city which we enjoyed looking at. That night, we went to a tango concert at the Museo de Carlos Gardel, who is one of the most famous tango musicians. It was interesting to learn a bit about the history of tango music while listening to live bands perform. A couple of the bands were really good, and it was fun to hear a variety of bands with a variation of instruments and styles.

Tuesday: The next day we headed to an area of town called Palermo. It is now one of the upper class neighborhoods--filled with boutique shops, big green, trees (it's spring here, so all the leaves, flowers, etc are blooming) and a couple of huge, beautiful parks. The neighborhood used to be a lower-middle class working neighborhood on the outskirts of town, and it's where the famous Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges grew up. I insisted on finding his house, because it was in the guide book and I really like his work. We wandered up and down the street (named Jorge Luis Borges in his honor) and couldn't find much--I expected it to be a little museum or something, but finally we found a plaque the said "Jorge Luis Borges lived here during his childhood from 1901-1914" You would think they would preserve the places where he lived a little better seeing as he's, oh I don't know, the most famous author from Argentina. After finding his apartment, we wandered through the shops in the area and admired more street art. I really wanted to find a pair of nice leather boots (Argentina is famous for their good quality, inexpensive leather) and finally after almost giving up, I found a nice pair in a little boutique shop. After that, we headed to the parks. There are a couple of different parks are really close together--a botanical garden, Japanese tea garden, rose garden and "regular" park--and they were all so beautiful and open and green and nice to get away from the city in (Santiago is definitely lacking in this aspect of their urban planning, they don't have a nice big park to get away from the city in). First we went to the botanical garden, which had everything in full bloom since, like I said, it's currently springtime down here. Then we wandered down into the bigger area of the parking, just taking in all the greenery and open spaces. Over by one of the little lakes we saw some baby ducklings...they were very cute. Last, we made our way over to the Rose Garden. It was absolutely gorgeous, they had roses in all colors of the rainbow (literally, I even saw some blue and green ones, I'm not sure how) and of course it smelled really good all over. We spent a while just sitting on one of the benches enjoying the beautiful colors and tranquility. Then, we decided it was time to head back because we wanted to go to a tango show that night. We ended up at a café called Café Tortoni which is one of the most famous ones in the city (Borges used to frequent it). It's pretty cool on the inside, although very touristy. We had dinner and a show--the dinner was quite yummy, I got a salad and (ironically) a hamburger, and we all split some wine. The show itself was awesome. There was a live band playing the music and the dancers were incredible. The did a variety of different dances from couples to just the men to just the girls, and there was a little bit of theatrical acting mixed in. I had just read an article about the Argentine tango the night before for one of my classes, so it was fun to see everything I had just read about being acted out. It's a much sadder dance than most national dances, and it's absolutely amazing how the just whip across the stage. Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed the show.

Wednesday: Bright and early we headed over to the boat station to catch our boat across the river to Colonia. The boat was really nice, it was really big--three stories plus an outside deck, a café, some comfy chairs with TVs, and even a duty-free store. The ride was 3 hours across the river (it's more like the ocean than a river) and it was really pretty. While we were pushing back there were two ladies who decided to dance tango on the top deck which was fun to watch. It got really windy, though, so I decided to head inside and sat at the front of the boat so I could get a nice view of where we were headed. When you're in the middle of the river it really feels like you're in the ocean because you cannot see land anywhere, which is kind of a strange feeling since you know you're on a river. When we spotted Uruguay, we decided to head down to the bottom deck to watch as we pulled into Colonia. When we got down there, it was a pretty cool view. It was also an open deck right at the level of the water, and there were a bunch of cars! I hadn't realized before that the boat could transport cars. When we got to Colonia, I was instantly in love. It's a small little colonial city right on the river that is just peaceful and beautiful. We went to two hostels before deciding on the one we wanted...it had free bikes, instant selling point. We ended up getting our own room since there were three of us (Carolyn, her roommate Alex and me) and the hostel itself was really nice--it had a couple two big courtyards which all the rooms opened out onto. We took three bikes, signed them out and headed out on the town. Oh yeah, they had no bike locks, they said we could just leave or bikes wherever and no one would take them...weird. We were like, are you sure? And they said, yes, it's really safe, don't worry! The town has a bunch of small museums which you buy one ticket for entrance to all of them for a whopping $2.50. We went to the two museums that wouldn't be open the next day (the close on a rotating basis) and then headed to get some lunch. (Going to the museums didn't take too long since most of them were 1-5 rooms each; we went to the tile museum and indigenous museum that day). We went to a little stand by the river that served milanesa, a really delicious sandwich that they, unfortunately (or maybe fortunately for my health) don't serve in Chile. Then we walked down to the beach and munched on our sandwiches. After relaxing a little bit and enjoying the peace and quiet of being out of the big city, we headed down the road into the main part of town (where I don't think too many tourists go). It was absolutely gorgeous.

...well this is from about 2 months ago, so I will let you all enjoy this as I try and update some of my other adventures :) Basically, Buenos Aires was really fun and a much need break from school in Santiago before the final push to the end. I had a really great time exploring the city, but when it was time to go home, I was definitely ready. When I was first picking my study abroad experiences, I was kind of bummed that my school didn't have program to Buenos Aires, but now I'm really glad it turned out that way. I had a great time visiting and saw a lot of really cool things, but I love Santiago and Chile way more than I ever think I could love Argentina. Colonia was also really nice, we were blessed with amazing weather the whole time we were there, which was definitely a bonus. It was a nice little escape from the city, giving us time to just take a step back, breath and relax. Now, onward with the adventures :)

Buenos Aires

Thursday: Well, the conquistadores had one thing right when they named this city, it does have good air (note: for those who don't speak Spanish, Buenos Aires literally means Good Aires). It was so nice to see a clear, blue sky after living in Santiago for 3 months, where the brown is always a brown-ish color. I went with my friend Carolyn who is also an exchange student at La Católica from Berkeley; we decided to bus instead of pay because being an American citizen we're hit with a $150 entrance fee if we fly into an airport in Buenos Aires (because the US charges the same to Argentinian citizens). The bus ride was 20 hours...well, hypothetically. Going there it was 24 hours because were stuck at customs for 3 hours-at least we got to be out of the bus during that time. So, we left at 10 am on Thursday and arrived in Buenos Aires at 11 am on Friday morning. The 20 hours passed a lot more quickly than I thought it would, considering I slept for about 9 of it, it wasn't actually too bad. The majority of the ride is spent driving thorough the pampa of Argentina, which is kind of the equivalent of the prairie in the US, but a little different. It was actually really pretty, although I'm sure it would have gotten a little dull if I had been awake the whole time. Anyways, between reading my Lonely Planet guide and planning for my other trips this summer, watching movies, sleeping, listening to music and staring out the window, the drive passed quicker than I thought it would.

Friday: When we got to Retiro (the bus station in Buenos Aires) we went to buy our return tickets for Santiago (because we had only bought one way, and sometimes things are cheaper in Argentina; but we also knew we needed to get them right when we got there or we wouldn't want to come back to school). Then we made our way to the metro station (called the Subte...aka subterrano...aka underground in Buenos Aires); it took a few times of us asking where it was and people giving us funny looks for calling it the metro, but then we found it. Then we had to figure out which metro stop we needed to get off, so we asked some more people for help, and eventually figured everything out. The metro in Buenos Aires is very, very old and dirty, I missed the Santiago metro immediately. Luckily, we were able to get to our destination metro station without a problem; when we came out from the metro we asked for some more help in finding the street where our friends lived. (We stayed with a friend we had met in Mendoza, Argentina back in July who studies in Buenos Aires.) Finally, we found our to the apartment. We called upstairs and after a little bit of confusion (our friend was at school, so it was just his roommates who were home, but they knew we were coming), someone came down to let us in.

We went upstairs and met his other 3 roommates, all of whom are really cool, nice people. We dropped our stuff off, freshened up a little bit and then headed out on the town.

Iván (one of the roommates) was nice enough to come with us before he had to go to school to help us get oriented a little bit. We headed down to part of town called Puerto Madero because we wanted to get boat tickets to go to Uruguay. Puerto Madero is basically a part of the river that has been turned into a canal and now has restaurants lining it and a path for running, walking and biking. We walked down most of it, passing a "famous" bridge in Buenos Aires called Punte de la Mujer (Woman's bridge) that is very modern looking. It was pretty, but there wasn't a whole lot to do. We went to one of the boat places where the told us it was going to be $100 to go to Colonia, which was more expensive than what we had been hoping for; but then we went to the other place...it was even more expensive! We eventually found a deal for $60, which we ended up getting. Then we went to a pedestrian street called Avenida Florida which is one of the famous Avenidas in Buenos Aires where there are a lot of shops and street vendors. We told Iván we needed to find something to eat because we were both really hungry and starting to feel sick because we hadn't eaten since the night before (it was like 2pm at this point). So, we made our way back over by the bus station because they had the cheapest food. We got Milanesa, a really yummy sandwich that they don't have in Chile. Afterwards, Iván had to go to school so Carolyn and I headed back to the centro to kill some time before going back home.

The Plaza de Mayo is one of the main plaza's in Buenos Aires where the Casa Rosada (equivalent of the White House) and one of the main churches are. On our way we walked down the equivalent of what looked like Buenos Aires Wall Street, it was a cobblestone street with a bunch of banks on it. One thing I noticed right away when we got there: the architecture is amazing. And, as everyone says, it is definitely very European-or at least it seems like it to me. Anyways, we wandered around the Plaza de Mayo area for a while, there's a lot of buildings to see in that area because it's the "center" of town. Then, we headed back home because our friend was due to be home. That night our friend had a joint birthday party with a few of his other friends from the university; it was pretty fun-we had to dress up: Carolyn dressed up as a vagabond, I dressed up as a Chilean flag.

Saturday: The next day we went to La Boca with another friend, Diego. La Boca is an area of town where the lower class lives; historically it was where the workers who immigrated from Italy lived. Now, part of it, the older part, is converted into a tourist shops and the like, but the area is still where the lower class lives. The apartments are tiny and sometimes 6,7,8 people live in one. The historic part is really cool though because it's all painted really bright colors, and there are cool tango murals everywhere. But, you're not supposed to visit during night because it gets a little bit sketchy. We went right before dusk, but once it started to get dark, one of the store owners told us "you guys better hurry up and get out of here. It's not safe after dark, there will be a bunch of thieves and the like." so we hurried back to the bus stop to head back into town. We then walked around a little more including going to Teatro Colón which is one of the most famous theatres in Buenos Aires. You're not allowed to go inside without a tour or going to a show-we wanted to go to a show but the were the closed the first 2 times we tried to go to the ticket office and then the third time we found out there was only one show and it was the night we were coming back from Colonia so we couldn't go. But, we got to see the outside which is a work of art in itself-really beautiful architecture. Then we walked to Avenida Corrientes which is the Broadway of Buenos Aires-it was fun to walk up and down and see all the theatre's and people meandering around. Then, finally, we went to the oblisque, which look very similar to the Washington monument in DC, but is in the middle of the Avenida 9 de Julio which is supposedly the widest avenue in the world (it is pretty wide, something like 10 lanes). It's kind of funny that they just have this monument stuck in the middle of the Avenue, but you really can see it from anywhere in the city. That night we went a concert way in another part of town. I don't really know how to classify the kind of music it was, but it was really cool. It was like what I would imagine hearing in a little club in France. The club was super run down, but isn't that always where the best music comes from? The band started with a little skit which was really funny: it was a guy talking to a psychologist, who was dressed as skeleton type thing, talking about how he thought he was insane, and how he had failed his life, etc, etc and how the only thing he really wanted was for the band to play again. The psychologist murdered him, but then the band started to play. They were all wearing masks (like what you wear to a mascarade ball) and old style clothes. The music was really good, I enjoyed it a lot.

Sunday: The next morning we went to the San Telmo market, which is a famous artisan market in the neighborhood of San Telmo. We spent the whole morning just wandering up and down the street it was on because there was so much to see. It was fun to see all the different things people were making. After that we attempted to go to Teatro Colón which was, of course, closed again. So we just wandered around the city a little bit, looked into some tango shows, enjoyed the architecture. That night, we stayed home and just watched a movie with our friends, which, of course, I fell asleep during.

Okay, I think that is sufficient for now, I will continue with the rest of my week later.

PS Sorry I have not been posting as much, it's just that Chile is my normal life now, so there's not that much to post about. But, summer is coming soon, and then there will be plenty to post about :)