The day before I got to Buenos Aires I watched the Evita musical and finally learned where that song is from. I also learned that Evita was played by Madonna, who is hot.
So we had five whole days in Buenos Aires, and after 11 days stuck on the ship they were so so welcome. Cabin fever is real!!! Not really, but I think being stuck anywhere for over a week would drive anyone crazy. Laziness is setting in and I did not do a lot of research before coming into port. I just looked at wikivoyage and decided that there was not much to do. A lot of people were going to hike Patagonia (oh and embarrassing on my part, I didn't know Patagonia was a mountain, I totally just thought it was the brand of clothes) and other than that most people were staying in the city.
On the first day my roommate and usual travel buddy Amber wanted to go see all the sites of Eva Peron aka Evita and I didn't feel like doing that so I went out to explore with another friend, Ellen. We started walking in no direction in particular and following other SASers but they didn't seem to know where they were going either. We branched off and decided to venture into the subway system. My Spanish always is worse than I think it is when I attempt speaking it, so after much gesticulating and blank looks we were on a subway heading to Palermo, a (supposedly) nice area in Buenos Aires. Both of us were wearing shorts which I guess is not a thing in Buenos Aires because everyone and their mothers had on pants. It was warm outside so I assumed it was a cultural thing. We made it to Palermo and didn't know where to go, we walked in the direction of Palermo Soho and hoped to find something. It was really beautiful, most of Buenos Aires is, and we walked for a bit before finding a nice cafe. It had wifi and we sat there for a while Facebooking and Instagramming and talking to friends. The rest of the first day we walked walked walked back through Palermo Soho, into Recoleta, another neighborhood, and then cabbed it back to the ship. One funny thing about Buenos Aires is that there are so many dogs. People own them and their are just random street dogs. There are dog walkers that walk fifteen dogs at a time, and you have to always watch where you step! Recoleta was nice, its lots of stores on the street, pretty trees grow over the streets and shade them, and there are a lot of restaurants and places to sit and chill out. We had told a girl that we would go back to the ship to meet her for lunch but somehow miscommunicated and that didn't work out.
We headed back out for lunch and had an altercation with a cab driver. A traveling tip: cabs will hang around areas with lots of tourists and try and tell you twenty american dollars to get to some place. They are usually ripping you off, and they can change the price when you arrive if they are mean. So the tip is to always use the meter! That is really common sense, but us SASers are dumb kids and take a while to pick up on these things. One cabbie was like $10 to go there so we were like yeah, it cost us 60 pesos to get from that same area to the ship, so we knew it was fair. When we got there we handed him a 100 peso bill and wanted change back but he tried to keep it. We were like dude we need change and he tried to tell us that 100 pesos is 10 dollars but we were like no, its not, don't be an ass. I tried to explain in Spanish but he kept shaking his head when we gave him 60. I was not going to get out of the cab unless he took the 60, I was considering running away but luckily he gave in after legit 3 minutes of back and forth. When I got out of the cab and started to walk I realized how freaked out I was. Always get a cab that uses the meter!! Lesson learned.
We had lunch at an Italian place. There are tons of Italian immigrants in Buenos Aires and its the biggest community of Jewish people in South America too. They have the only kosher McDonalds outside of Israel. Fun fact. After lunch we went to the Recoleta cemetery. This is definitely something you have to do in Buenos Aires, the cemetery is for all the rich society people and they build these huge crypt like things for the dead people. Some have glass doors and you can see the coffin (is that what thats called? I don't know if that is the right word.. but its the box that the dead person is buried in). It is really creepy and beautiful at the same time. Some of the architecture is pretty amazing. We saw Eva's grave, got some dulce de leche ice cream (because its the famous flavor of Argentina) and then walked around the parks before walking back to the ship. Buenos Aires is huge and the ship was a 45-60 minute walk from Recoleta, which was the closest neighborhood you would want to walk around in. I had a field program the next day, so I skipped going out and went to bed early. Because I'm cool.
So the second day in Argentina was better than the first, I had a field program called Cafes of Buenos Aires and it was super. The group was small and half were older people, faculty and lifelong learners, and half were students. I liked it better than all my other field programs. We toured the city on a bus and stopped first in San Telmo, another neighborhood, and it was so pretty. They had a beautiful church (cathedral? meh) and a great square with some local people selling crafts and Plaza Dorrego cafe and bar. It was really cool inside, they had kept all the old decorations and had old liquor bottles lining the walls. Right across the street there was a Starbucks. We got to look around and then we got back on the bus, passed Casa Rosada ("Pink House", another famous thing in Buenos Aires) quickly and saw the square and other famous things and then stopped at the next cafe, Cafe Tortoni, on the busy Avenida de Mayo. This is a famous cafe because really famous argentinian writers and artists always hung out here. We get back on the bus and head out from the city center to Cafe de los Angelitos. This cafe used to be where all the robbers and thieves hung out back in the day and was ironically named angel's cafe. We stopped here for an hour to have coffee and medialunas (croissants). It was amazing coffee, I felt proud when I could drink it without milk unlike the other americans. We had two more stops, the next was in Recoleta, I didn't catch the name of the cafe or why we stopped there but we got to walk around. It was actually right next to where I had lunch the day before. I bought an alfajores, the famous argentinian cookie. Yumm. Last stop was a cafe in a book store. The bookstore though wasn't just any bookstore.. It was a bookstore in an old theater and it was amazing. I will try and email pictures to the blog so you all can see it, it was really cool. The field program ended there, me and a few others decided to hang out there rather than go back to the ship. We walked a lot and popped in and out of stores, had empanadas for lunch in Recoleta, went to the mall in Recoleta and then headed back to the ship. The stores outside of the mall were kind of cheap/ nothing special but the mall had a combination of American brands and amazing little boutiques. Back at the ship I took a nap and woke up to get ready to go out but I didn't feel like it so I just stayed in and watched a movie with Sumi and Maia. Because I'm cool.
Day three! Sumi had been occupied for the first two days trying to get her visa for Brazil, but today she was free and Amber, Sumi and I went to San Telmo. They had more crafts than the day before and it was a beautiful day with perfect weather. We stopped for coffee, shopped, walked down the street to an indoor market and had a nice day. San Telmo is known for its antiques and cool stores, we all bought something. We saw a tango performance outside and bought more alfajores. We also took advantage of wifi at Starbucks and looked for a place to eat dinner that was close and inexpensive. Cabbing around always takes a toll on the wallet. We found a place that had beer and cheap empanadas. Score. We sat and talked and drank and ate for a while. Amber was meeting up with other people at the apartment they rented so that she could go out that night, Sumi and I left for Tango Porteño to see a tango show! Porteño is the word for Argentinians. Side note. The show without dinner was only $45 and we were able to buy tickets at 9:45 for the show at 10:00. It worked out perfectly and the show was spectacular. They had singers and the most amazing dancers. I think I got a little bit more sexy just by watching them. After the show we went back to the ship.
Day fouuuuuuurrrrrrr. I had to register for classes back at home, so I did that at twelve. Sumi, Maia and I then headed out to Palermo Soho to shop. We didn't really do a great job of finding stores, but we did find food and the best guacamole ever. All of my food experiences in Buenos Aires have been great, but I have heard from others that its not the best. After lunch we continued walking around. I wanted to find the area that had all the yarn shops. There is a big knitting club on the ship, so I bought some materials and I have already made a headband! Some guys though are legit and are making sweaters for themselves. Anyways, after the yarn we didn't know what else to do so we went back to the ship and ate dinner and then took a nap before going out for Friday night. I almost didn't make it out, but my roommate bullied me into it. We left for Plaza Serrano in Palermo where all the bars and clubs are and made it to one place. We got there at 1, ordered margaritas, ate more guacamole, had more margaritas.. I swear these margaritas were not normal margaritas. I had a fight with a margarita and the margarita almost won, but in the end I prevailed. We had a good time and headed back to the ship.
Day five was a saturday and we heard that there was a great market in recoleta on saturday. We went there to spend the last of our pesos on gifts, fresh squeezed orange juice and sandwiches. The weather was still beautiful out and it was a great last day. We headed back to the ship a bit early to avoid the lines and spent the rest of the day watching movies.
Buenos Aires isn't the most exciting of places but there is definitely enough to do if you try. I had a great time. Now its three days on the ship and then onto Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Salvador, Brazil, 12 days at sea, Havana, Cuba, exams and then home!! The homesickness is definitely present but it doesn't make me enjoy the ports any less. We have only 5 classes left, which is crazy, and then we arrive in Fort Lauderdale. There is a rumor going around that because its the 50th year of SAS we are having a surprise stop in the Bahamas, but I don't think that will happen. I am trying not to get my hopes up about it anyways.
Lets see, what else. We were only two hours behind Tampa time in Argentina, tonight we lose an hour as we travel east again. Thats all I have for you guys for now. As always please email and add me on Facebook! maren.douglas.fa13@semesteratsea.org
Peace
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