Week 1: Argentina: April 16-24th, 2012 - Better late than never!

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I said I’d be giving updates a little more frequently, but...

(Monday, April 16th, 2012) Bob and I got into Buenos Aires 2 weeks ago, it was a Monday and we had a very long overnight flight. One stopover in Chile and then we got into Buenos Aires in the afternoon. We decided that staying in a Hostil was a good idea because we/ve been told that’s the easiest way to meet people, it’s been a great experience. While checking into the first place, Millhouse it was called (ranked second best hostil in the world, it was damn good), 2 of the most georgeous girls i’ve seen in a long time came over to me and said “Are you guys going to La Bamba?” I hadn’t showered, hadn’t checked in and was cranky as hell, but I said “yeah, you wanna join us?” showered up quickly and we were gone with them. These girls were Israeli, really nice. La Bamba was a native drum show that was coincidently were all the Argentinian hippies go :)

One thing I vowed to do was come back in better shape than when I left, which is hard with all the food, but the next day we joined a gym for a week, got all sorts of tests from a doctor to be able to join (everyone shakes you down), the cost was 285 pesos or 70$, nice little gym downtown Buenos Aires, all the equipment’s old but it was ok. I have a few friends I think that would like to see these places, I am officially going to take more pictures starting now. Over the 10 days we went there we got to know a few of the regulars and the guys working there, different gym’s are something I think i'll like about travelling.

We met a guy from Chicago named Dave and his roommate from Denmark named Niki and they wanted us to go with them to buy tickets for a soccer game the next night between the hometown Boca Jr’s, I think this is the team Maradnonna played for when he got into the coke heavy and owed the mob, and a team from Venezuela. Boca is the oldest area of Buenos Aires, cool but trashy at the same-time. We bought some sweet tickets and a jersey and hung out there for the afternoon watching people tango and drinking Quillemes beer. That night was the first good meal, we went to a really nice steakhouse with a bunch of people from the Hostil, I really enjoy meeting people from different places, meat in Argentina is insane, the portion size more than anything, the wine is amazing in Argentina. After diner we had a few drinks in an area of Buenos Aires called Palermo.

The soccer game was really cool, people go ape-shit over soccer, there were hooligans, riot police, the whole 9yds. Amazing. The entire town around Boca shuts down for booze prior to the game. On the walk to the stadium I kept trying to buy beer at each store and they each pointed to the clock, until one store a lady said “what country you?” I said “Canada, uno cerveja por pavor, she said “non can’t” so I started to leave, then she came running after me, and motioned all of us to come in the store, she led us down the hall into a backyard underground party, didn’t speak a word of English but I had my arm around all of them drunk at one point in the next hour telling them how wonderful Argentina is, haha, I became best friends with everyone, looking back it was sketchy.

Boca is the best team in the South American league and they won this game 2-0, soccer is a good sport to watch live, it amazes me how excited people get but it definitely makes the experience. Niki, who’s a huge soccer fan and player basically explained to me everything I didn’t know about soccer in Europe, strategies, etc… I’m looking forward to the eurocup this summer and the next worldcup and am hoping to see a game in Brazil.

We had to get our visa into Brazil from the embassy there and the earliest appointments available were Monday so we booked a bus to Rosario, a town in Argentina 5hrs away and went there for the weekend. Rosario itself from what I could tell was a shithole, but people we met in Buenos Aires said we needed to go there for the nightlife. We checked into a hostil there and Bob, myself 2 girls that work there, one of their friends, a pilot from Ecuador and a guy named Eduardo were the only ones there at this point. Bob decided to buy some beers for everyone although none of them wanted any. We ended up pumping out a dozen litres of beer 5$ each and within an hour Ecuador guy was puking, Eduardo was being a weirdo and the 3 girls were too drunk to be working, haha. 3 guys from Israel, Luchi, Guillad, Gur and an Argentinian girl name Laura arrive and see what’s up and decide to join us. These truly are some of the coolest people I met in a while, Guillad just met Laura a week before in Buenos and they started dating. I gotta say based on what I’ve seen I really have nothing but good to say about Israel. We hung out with them all night, went to the single most bumping nightclub I’ve ever seen and got back at 6am with a plan to meet the next night. I told a group of girls we were there on business, one of them spoken broken English, she translated to her friends, she asked “whatsy business”, Bob grabbed the stone on her necklace and said “Diamonds” dead serious. The women in Argentina are beautiful.

Walked for 5 hours around Rosario the next day, and then went for diner with the guys from the night before. Laura ordered for us, we had salads, cheese dishes, potatoes, a huge array of steaks, desert and 11 bottles of wine and the bill was 200 pesos each, or 50$, one of the best meals I’ve ever had.

That night we all went to a nightclub, it was packed but we snuck in by talking English and pushing our way through, they like that your foreign and you can take advantage of it. We get in and hang out for a bit when one of the guys notice the VIP section, these Israelis are trained, and 2 of them bullet their way into the VIP section right through 2 bouncers, they didn’t even see, Bob and I then jumped over a railing and next thing you know everyone’s in there, we grab a booth and settle in. The place went absolutely insane, there were nothing but 10’s everywhere, Argentina can party, this club was for people 27 and older only. Drank there until 5am (bars close at 8am and open at 1) and then went back to the hostil, got into more beer and woke the entire place up. At 6am some guy, after being asked if he had a joint, walked us to his house from the corner store, rolled us a joint, and gave it to us, nice fella.

Next day bused back to Buenos Aires. Sunday was recovery day and Monday we went back to La Bamba, it wasn’t as fun this time, I was tired. The visa process was a piece of cake, we were legally able to go to Brazil and booked a bus for Saturday to Florianapolis, Brazil.

Tuesday didn’t do much, played 2 Americans in 2 on 2 basketball, they challenged us at the hostil and said no fouls, we won the first game 11-8 and they wanted a rematch, the second game we lost 6-11 and it was now 2 out of 3, we were down a lot but ended up winning 12-10, had to add this in for my friends!

Wednesday was one of the better nights of my life...

More to come.

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