I Want To Be A Part of BA!

MONDAY
We made it to Buenos Aires this morning. Rough journey - 20 hours on a bus, with two babies in the seats in front of us throwing temper tantrums the whole time. Not fun for us, or their mothers! We got here and got all settled into our apartment where we´ll stay for the next week. We´re in the Las Canitas neighborhood, which is so far really nice. Quiet, residential, tree lined, stray dogs, etc. We´re walking distance to the ¨subte¨(subway) and are planning to head to el Centro now to visit a tourist kiosk and make a plan for the rest of the week... but on the agenda are to walk around La Boca, try to go to a show at the Theater, check out the docks, maybe take a ferry to Uruguay, go to the museum of modern art, and more!

FRIDAY
It´s been a fun week. Lots and lots of walking around the city. Lots of plazas. Couple of museums. Went to the picturesque La Boca and San Telmo neighborhoods. And visited the docks by the river. Our neighborhood where we are staying has a nice trendy little strip of bars and restaurants, so we spend our evenings close to home. I´ve been getting my fill of empanadas and am determined to figure out how to make them when I get back! Today, we visted an estancia outside of the city - sort of a dude ranch experience. Rode horses, ate barbecue, watched some awesome tango, heard a great folk singer, and watched cowboy competitions. Lots of fun. We´re trying to go on a street art walking tour tomorrow. I head home Sunday night, so just a couple more days to soak it all in!

SUNDAY
Last day in Buenos Aires. Had a nice day. On the third try (after visiting two other museums by mistake), we finally made it to the MALBA (Museum of Latin American Art in Buenos Aires) this morning. One of my favorite art museums, now. We continued our many walks and strolled around the streets of Buenos Aires, did a little plaza and park hopping, and are now headed back to our apartment to wrap things up. I leave for the airport this evening, and should be back in Denver by 10 AM tomorrow!

Iguazu Falls

Just got to our hotel in Puerto Iguazu. It's totally tropical and my hair is totally frizzy. But it's beautiful so far. Kind of a jungle retreat. We're going to see the Falls and hike around tomorrow. It's supposed to be spectacular - can't wait. One of these days I'll post pics of all these things...

Malbec Mendocino

Shreena came and met me at the Cordoba airport on Monday morning. I wasn't sure who was coming to get me or how they would recognize me, so I tried to just stand conspicuously in the front of the pick up area. Eventually I met up with Shreena, her mom and her sister. After getting everything situated, Shreena and I headed into the city. We spent most of the day trying out different plazas around the city, and discussing our plan for the next few days. Now, we finally have all our reservations and plans in place.

We left for Mendoza on an overnight bus, and reached here hot and dirty, but well rested, on Tuesday morning. We are now checked into our hostel. After cleaning up and getting situated, we wandered into the main city center a bit and found ourselves some more empanadas.

On Wedesday we went on a bodega tour on bikes. Luckily we were paired up with a couple of locals who helped us around. It was a lot of fun to be riding around in the countryside. The wine was nice, too! We visited bodegas called Filosofos, Plumary and Alta Vista.

On Thursday we took a bus tour up into the Andes, nearly to the border with Chile. Beautiful views, very reminiscent of Colorado.

We are heading out of Mendoza now, on an overnight bus back to Cordoba where we will catch a flight tomorrow morning to Iguazu Falls. More posts from there!

Christmas in La Ciudad de los Reyes

I got to sleep in today in what turned out to be the "owner's suite" at the hotel. By the time i finally motivated myself and asked the concierge if there would be anything open for me to go around and explore, i thought there was no chance. But turned out that for only slightly more than what a taxi would have cost, he arranged a tour for me! I ended up on the tour with a rather loud family of 6 from Canada. Despite that, I enjoyed seeing some of the main neighborhoods in lima, including Miraflores, San Isidro, El Centro and Barranco. The parts of the city that we visited were really interesting. Lots of it was delapidated, but every now and then, in the middle of all that would be a really cool, modern and trendy looking house or restaurant. And im really curious to try the asian fusion food here. One day i hope to return to peru (it's been #1 on my list for a long time) and when i do i plan to hang out and explore the Barranco neighborhood more. It was my favorite of all those we visited. I also had a lot of fun warming up and practicing my spanish with the driver, jorge! (until the overbearing canadians joined us.)

Now i am at the lima airport , hanging out in the free wifi zone until my flight to cordoba at midnight. I still have four hours to go, and a dwindling battery in my ipod.

Made it to lima!

A few of my major anxieties have eased. Decided which shoes and luggage to take, got my bags checked in, landed in lima with no delays, confirmed with the immigration guybthat i dont need any kind of visa while im here, AND got checked into my hotel! A good day's work i think. Lima isnt as shut down and deserted for xmas as i anticipated so tomorrow i might have some time to walk around one of the neighborhoods before my flight at midnight. But for now, good night!

On Our Way

Trip planning has finally begun! I'm leaving for Argentina on Saturday morning, so it's about time.

We have a very rough plan of where we're going to be. I'm starting in Cordoba, Argentina where I will meet my friend, Shreena. From there, going to Mendoza, wine country. Heading to Iguazu Falls, on the border of Parguay, Brazil and Argentina. Then, we'll end our trip with a week in Buenos Aires, exploring the city and doing some day trips out to the Pampas from there.

I'm so excited to visit and get to know this country!