this is me

well, sort of. tomorrow i plan to take a ferry over to Colonia and Montevideo, in Uruguay, and stay the night, but i´ll likely stay one more night in BsAs before I head to Mendoza on Tuesday. I´ ve seen a lot in the past 48 hours... yesterday I did head to the cemetery in Recoleta , and found Evita´s tomb...nice and understated, although there were plenty of plaques on it. It´s a neat cemetery, and I sat down and journaled a bit before I decided I was hungry. Ate in a restaurant not really worth mentioning, and then had my first taste of Argentine gelato - which they say is supposed to be as good as Italy´s because of the Italian influence here. It was pretty good. Found some more wide avenues to walk around, went inside the Modern Art museum for about 20 minutes (i´m still not big on museums...), and then headed over to Palermo, which is the most ´bohemian´ area of town. Lots of cute boutiques, cute buildings, nice cafes....sat and read for a while. Took the Subte back to near (...

why people rave about BsAs, that is. i learned today that staying the ´old´ section of San Telmo means i´m staying in the area with the skinny streets with not much life....i got out farther north and west today and it´s a totally different city. wide avenues, lots of trees, culture.... at my boyfriend´s good suggestion i´m going to wait a few days to write more so that i can write a significant blog entry, but i forgot to share this observation yesterday: -the stoplights turn from red back to yellow before they turn green. i have a feeling that would confuse me if i was behind the wheel.

got a good night´s sleep so i headed out of the hostel before 10 this morning. kinda tired now, but here are my initial thoughts about this city: -as i mentioned before, it has a very European feel to it (i´d read that somewhere before, too.) Avenida Florida feels like walking somewhere in Madrid. -people don’t clean up after their dogs. i´m sure that will catch up with me soon. -their meat is indeed very good. i paid the equivalent of about $6.50 for a good piece of steak today, and plan on going to this place called Siga la Vaca (follow the cow!) tomorrow where it´s an all you can eat kind of place. mmmm meat. -substantial pollution here. more than any other foreign city i´ve visited. -shopkeepers and waiters are very friendly and curious - always asking where you´re from, making little jokes, etc. -the Mothers of the Disappeared (look them up if you don’t know your Argentine history) still march around the Plaza de Mayo at 3:30 on Thursdays. i was there around that time, but another...

my flight from Miami didn´t take off til 1:20am or so, so I got in to Buenos Aires (from here on BsAs) around 11am. A private car drove me directly to my hostel for about $25...and then when I got there they didn´t have room! Luckily another hostel in the Hostels International chain was just 4 blocks away ( Tango City , and they had plenty of space. The cost is about $8/night, with breakfast AND dinner included, and they have all sorts of activities you can participate in. Tonight is a ´tango experience´but i´m not sure i´ll be up for much after traveling so i think i´ll find a tango show on my own later. not much else to report yet except that BsAs feels like a European city so far, which means I feel comfortable already....and staying in a dorm-style room means i´m sure to meet some interesting people.

Buenos Aires is only one hour ahead of here (DC) so the jet lag shouldn't be too bad, and maybe it won't be hard to catch some of you online (if i make time for that). :) less than 3 hours til take off!

Obviously up late on my last night in the states. Sleeping til noon will do that to you. :) So tomorrow night at 7:23pm my flight leaves for Miami, and i head to Argentina just before midnight. For at least the first four nights, I'll be staying in the historic San Telmo section of Buenos Aires, at the Hostel Inn. From there it's on to: in Argentina Cordoba Mendoza Iguazu Falls in Brazil (places I'd like to visit) Rio Grande do Sul Rio de Janeiro to see Priscila again Sao Paulo to see Fla's family Minas Gerais Brasilia (maybe a networking experience there!) Salvador de Bahia Recife in Peru Cuzco/Machu Picchu Lima as you can see, i don't have many firm plans....but i'm excited about that. excited to speak spanish and portuguese, have some time to myself, meet other world travelers.... i'll write more when i'm on the other side of the equator!

I leave a week from today for my 9 week trip through South America! Right now I'm sitting in my mess of a room, trying to figure out how to prioritize which things to do first. More soon!