Blogs from Buenos Aires, Argentina, South America - page 380

Yes Argentina, it´s getting cheaper at last. And Buenos Aires is the best city in the world!!! Arrived absolutely shattered and immediately got a taxi to meet my Spanish teacher! We decided I would study 5 hours a day, one on one for 4 days, if I hadn´t been so tired I may have noticed the craziness of this suggestion... Checked into the Lime House hostel in the centre of town, great set up, very similar to the red hostel in montevideo. One central room with extremely high ceilings with all the dorms leading off of it, very communal. Was asleep within minutes but managed to meet a few people in the evening. Went to an all you can eat (Tenedor Libre) restaurant in spitting distance of the hostel and never looked back! A huge meat ... read more

"Indifference is the worst Attitude" "Bush, get out of Iraq" "Students on Foot for Peace" "Viva Che" "October Movement" "30,000 disappeared" and "We haven't forgotten" are some of the slogans or messages that waved through the chilly air on Friday, March 24 in the streets of Buenos Aires. It has been 30 years since the military dictatorship took hold of Argentina with terror and violence which resulted in 30,000 disappeared people and 500 babies born in captivity and stolen from their families, (only 80 of the 500 have been 'recovered'). It has been sunny almost all month, but on Friday, as if the sky itself sympathized with the Madres de la Plaza de Mayo and the 50% of the population who are unemployed, underemployed and living under the 'poverty line', the wind and clouds roared with ... read more

I have been sitting here, trying to tidy up the thoughts in my head so that I can present them to all of you in a pretty package filled with meaning, love and clarity. I do not know if I can give you this gift. I have just agreed, with myself, to give you what I have and for the rest of this entry I will give you my jumbeled thoughts, run on sentences, observations, laughter, and tears stained with dirt. Last weekend I wrote about my confusion with how I was going to deal with the anniversary of the Golpe de Estado (coup). At the time I thought I was going to mark the week by reading about the 7 year Dirty War and I can say that while my thoughts got more and more ... read more

Arriving back in B.A. I headed back to the same hostel I had stayed at previously and met a few of the people I met earlier. The rest of the afternoon was spent up on the hostel's terrace drinking beers and getting involved in a traditional BBQ (in half a 44 gallon drum)! Everything went down a treat... and before too long it's 6 in the morning and your playing beer-pong with some american guy. Don´t you hate it when you set your alarm, but just turn it off and go back to sleep and end up being late for something?? Well I did that... I was suppose to be ready at 10am for a bicycle tour of B.A. Got a phone call to the dorm room at 10am while still fast asleep asking where I ... read more

Today was a national holidiay in Argentina. Read about it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/24/international/americas/24cnd-argentina.html?hp&ex=1143262800&en=ee3d68e79d4efba6&ei=5094&partner=homepage It's a new holiday to mark the anniversary (this year is the 30th) of the military coup that lead to the bloodiest dictatorship in Latin America. I didn't have school.... read more