Don’t Cry

I got to accomplish two of my life goals this past week: one go to Argentina and two see Phantom of the Opera. So now that my list is slowly being crossed off, I need new life goals because honestly all that is left is going to Machu Pichu, Ireland and the rest of Latin America. Its also pretty cool while I was living out one of my life dreams, my Dad was living out one of his.

But the trip, so we left Merida at 9pm Thursday nite and arrived in Buenos Aires around 5:30 am Saturday morning.  Thursday nite I had to take a bus to Caracas.  It wasn’t till 8 pm that nite that I was informed that where the bus station is… lets just say probably not the best part of Caracas for a pale white American girl to be with a suitcase.  BUT everything went absolutely fine, the taxi was cheap and safe and the worst part of bus experience was being called white as I was walking out of the bus station.  I mean at points I had thoughts I would be the next person on Kidnap Express (where a “taxi” basically kidnaps you for money and/or makes you take all your money our of your bank accounts and then leaves you in the middle of Caracas), which is one of the most frequent crimes that occurs.  We got to the airport really early but it turned out to be a good thing.  Probably the worst part of this entire trip wasn’t being able to shower for almost three days, it was having to go through Venezuelan Migration.  It took almost two hours to walk 50 feet for a person to stamp my passport, I blame swine flu.  We got on my plane to Lima, probably spent 15 minutes in Lima all together and got on my plane for BA.

So my first day in Buenos Aires (Saturday) basically consisted of walking around the neighborhood that my hostel was in, getting medicine for a stomach condition I had and sleeping.  Both Madeline and I were completely exhausted, we ended up going to bed at 8 and woke up at 9 the next morning.

Sunday was supposed to be the day of the soccer game but since it was election day everything was canceled, so no game.  Instead we went to the neighborhood called Recoleta.  There was a cemetery filled with famous people.  Eva Peron’s grave just happened to be there, just as a man singing “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” just happened to be there.  After the cemetery we had lunch at an Irish pub where I was introduced to the amazing drink called a liquado.  Basically its fruit, water and a little sugar blended together.  I managed to have a liquado at almost every meal after that.  After lunch we walked to the Flores Gradius.  A big mechanical flower that is opens up in the day and closes at nite.  After the Flores Gradius, we stumbled to the Biblioteca Nacional.  See didn’t die in the library, it was created into a library about 20 years later during the Menum administration. I did not know until we got there, that this was the place Eva Peron died.  I just want to clear things up, I did not go around Buenos Aires trying to relive Eva Peron’s death, some things just happened to be about her, I am not that crazy and obsessed as some of the pictures we say otherwise lead you to believe.  

The third day we were there we went to the Boca neighborhood.  This is the blue-collar part of BA and probably one of the more dangerous areas.  And by saying that it was basically like we were back in Venezuela.  We went to the Boca Junior soccer stadium probably the biggest team in all of Argentina and maybe all of South America.  After that we walked around the touristy part of the area where we constantly were trying to be persuaded to watch a tango show.  After lunch in Boca we went to the MALBA or Museum of Latin American Art.  I was kind of disappointed because all the guidebooks said it was the best museum of Latin American art in Latin America but really it was only a floor of paintings.  Oh well, after that we returned to our hostel to get ready for the tango show.  The tango show was really fun.  Had a huge meal with all the wine or water you could drink.  The water was wonderful, sorry parents I really tried to like the wine but it was just not happening.  The tango went on for about 2 hours and concluded with the Spanish version of “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” with Argentina flags and everything.  

So I am not going to overwhelm all of you (and myself) with one massive blog entry, instead I am going to break it up.  So you will just have to wait on the next one, its about Uruguay.