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 :)