tango, tango

Okay, so we arrived in Buenos Aires two days a go and for the first time actually got a taxi without the help of someone we have met. Therefore, we were probably horribly ripped off, but we arrived at our hostel safe and sound. The Chill House (our hostel) is warm and the people are very friendly. The first day we spent just walking around and exploring Palermo Viejo. Palermo Viejo (not Palermo Valermo) is a local residential area that has so much style. There is a fashion show going on this week and even though there are stray dogs and cats everywhere, the shops and restaurants are clean and expensive. That evening we hung around the hostel, ate dinner early and went to bed early.

One thing you should know about most of the countries in South America is that people stay out very late here- some of the bars and clubs do not open until around 2 a.m. When we stayed with Franco and Consuelo they went out until around 4 in the morning after we had retired!

Yesterday we saw La Boca, which is considered the mouth of Buenos Aires. People at our hostel helped navigate us there by bus and we took two different buses to get there. La Boca is filled with really colorful building and had a lot of tango dancers practicing on the street. There was a great art show there with lots of useless gifts and some cool things. One woman had carved little people on the ends of matches. We had el mate a typical Argentine drink that tastes much like tea. You drink it out of a funny looking cup. Our next stop was San Telmo, which has a great market on the weekend, but of course not when we were there. The area has many antique shops (Diane would have loved it). The plaza, Plaza Dortego was also full of artists selling their work. We walked down Florida Ave to the main square, Plaza de Mayo. We saw ´the pink building´ where Evita said ¨Don´t cry for me Argentina.¨ Doreen and I fed the pigeons with some chips left over from Peru. We finished walking Florida Ave towards the Plaza San Martin. The walk was very frustrating, because of all of the people. We had a difficult time navigating our way home- the buses do not pick up on the same street going towards Palermo (all the streets are one way). Finally we found the right street for the 106 and hopped on. Last night we went to dinner at a Chinese restaurant, which was silly being in South America and all, but very delicious. We ended the evening with a tango show and going to a club until 4 in the morning. We were with Doreen´s friend Josh and he went to breakfast after we left (but before going to bed)!!!