Buenos Aires – Final 3 Days of Trip! « Chicagogirl1302′s Blog

Buenos Aires – Final 3 Days of Trip!

August 26, 2009

We arrived in Buenos Aires after traveling for over 22 hours! Uhg….saving money to fly from Lima to Panama and then back down south of Lima does not make sense once you are exhausted and in the airport. Thank goodness for the Panama airport….or actually not….no internet cafe, once again, no phone service and the only restaurant is so disgusting a man was leaving as we were sitting and told us we may as well find the only other food in the whole terminal, a subway, because it really was just not worth the attempt. The thought of Subway made us even more sick and we decided that chugging a bottle of red wine and getting 2 pizzas couldn’t be that bad. We had some heartfelt discussions and had a few tears (wine or exhaustion or simply really good convos, who knows)? We soon realized that we had 9 minutes to pay, use the bathroom and get to our gate (which we had no idea where it was). After a loud, “one two three, chug it” and causing all the tables to look in our direction as we ran out with all our luggage, we barely made it to the gate. Once on the plane, we were the annoying laughing girls for the first 30 minutes until the sleeping pill kicked in and we slept for the next 7 hours.

Rafael picked us up from the airport at 6:00am and drove us right to the hotel where we crashed for a few more hours….screaming out loud when we had queen size beds, hot water, tap water where we could actually brush our teeth (we had been using bottled water for 13 days at this point and barely had warm showers). I took a 20 minute shower…..feeling horrible that I was wasting water after being in a country that had none…but it felt so good and warm, I couldn’t stop!!

Rafael took us on a walking tour after lunch in Puerto Madero.The city was so incredible – it is the 2nd largest city in South America – and reminded me of Paris or a very clean new York. It is amazing to think they just became a democracy after a crazy dictatorship ended in 1983. It was also interesting to think about the similarities to Peru, where Argentina fought for independence from Spain and finally won in 1816.

We enjoyed cafe con leche, saw the “Pink House” (like the US White House), walked down Florida street, viewed the Obelisco de Buenos Aires (built in May 1936 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the first founding of the city, located in the center of the Plaza de la República), and enjoyed the Revolution Museum before heading home to wash for dinner.

We bought tickets to see ‘Los Fabulous Cadillacs’ – they had a final show that evening at Luna Park. It was so fun to go to a concert in another country and even though we couldn’t understand all the lyrics, we enjoyed the energy and the other concert goers.

The next morning, after mas cafe con leche and dulce de leche cookies, Rafael took us to La Boca, a part of town that was originally started with European Immigrants in the 1920′s and known for where Tango started. The town was very colorful and the streets were lined with artists and mini shops with souvenirs depicting the famous time period. After that, we went to lunch in Palermo Soho….filled with designer shops and delicious bistros. We drove through the city to see more sights and finally came home to take a mini break before going to dinner. We did drinks at 10pm at a place called “Freak” and of course I had to enjoy my favorite wine of all time, which happens to be from Argentina….Malbec!! At midnight, we went to dinner, 2 more bottles of malbec and enjoyed some famous free range, non-marbled beef and cheesy gnocchi. Food was to die for and the conversation ranged from religion, to childhood upbringings and marriage ideals. We finally were kicked out a 2am (reminder, this was dinner) and we went to a few clubs before calling it a night around 4:30.

Friday consisted of a late breakfast/lunch at the famous design center and then did a bit more sight seeing in the car (The Metropolitan Cathedral, Floralis Genérica sculpture, etc) before heading to the airport. Shannon and I were distraught and really did not want to leave except to finally be able to speak to our friends and family. We had 3 flights, 20 hours of traveling, and the entire time wished our flights would be canceled and we could stay longer.

Huesto Luego, South America! I will return soon