The Chamber of Secrets

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First let me note it´s my bday tomo and nick and melissa are throwing me a surprise party. they don´t think i know. jk, we´re just chillin on the beach i think.

This is nick - tomorrow for greg´s birthday i was planning to surprise him and take him to the beach. damn. i dont know how he found out.

ok, from where we left off. melissa and i took a quick tango lesson, i´m thinking about going pro. you´re not supposed to use your hips or your shoulders, melissa really struggled with this. i on the other hand, struggled with everything. after the lesson, we went to hear live tango music. the instructor lead us down the street to a hidden door and into a small theatre. definitely one of those places you could only find if you´d been there before. after, we headed to watch the locals dance, they were amazing. our instructor was quite the little tease with the local men. it was funny in a ¨see your teacher outside of school¨kind of way.

Day 4: headed to South American Explorers, a guide agency of sorts for travelers. the workers there helped us plan out the rest of our trip. we moved our stuff to a new hostel in the upscale barrio norte neighborhood. from there, we headed to the museo nacional de buenos aires. that was pretty cool, melissa got us in trouble yet again for taking pictures in areas we weren´t supposed to. after el museo, we took the subway to a recommended steak house. awesome dinner. it was the first meal that none of us could finish. steaks were enormous, way tastier than anything in the US, and it was about $9 each. upon returning to our barrio, we happened upon a huge ice cream shop called Freddo. nick was bastante contento. melissa is still very nervous around dogs ---and Nick andGreg like to expolit it ---. Except, of course, the little disgusting ones that nick and i can´t stand.

Day 5: Yet again we had to get up early to catch the Busqebus, which is the ferry which took us from Buenos Aires to Colonia. Colonia is a small town, a little touristy, right on the coast of Uruguay. Right off the bat we stopped and exchanged money which was very easy this time, no age questions. Afterwards we went and grabbed a bite to eat, then found a new place to stay. Our hostel loans out free bikes so we each grabbed one and set out to ride up and down the coast. Our free bikes seemed great in theory.. not so much in practice. There´s a reason they were the last on the rack. My bike shook and rattled when it rolled, and had brakes that were there for show more than anything. Greg´s inital bike was pretty nice, melissa however can´t pick a good bike to save her life and got the absolute worst one so greg traded her. He´s really the best guy. The chain fell off the bike every five rotations or so and eventually the steel pedal sheared completely off. That happened about three miles or so from the hostel so I opted to pull him back. Nevertheless the coast was absolutely beautiful and I can´t wait to get back to it tomorrow. Andddddd here´s melissa.

The bike ride was amaaaazing. Gorgeous. At the end of our bike ride there was a Sheraton with a golf course and a spa, aka heaven. One night there would cost the same as four complete days in Uruguay, but maybe later in life haha. I could easily stay in this town for a week. People keep saying "it´s so cold, who would want to go swimming in this?" Meanwhile, we´ve been dying for a swimming pool haha. It´s been like mid 70´s and we´ve been walking about 18,000 steps a day - thank you free podometer. Okay so to continue...we had a so-so dinner tonight, honestly the first one that hasn´t been so great. I tried the noquis, which is gnocchi. Uruguay is famous for its gnocchi so I´ll have to try it again. Then we got helado, which is kind of a mixture of gelato and ice cream here. BA and the surrounding area has a big Italian influence. We´ve been averaging about one ice cream trip per day haha. AND we had fresh churros on the beach that were filled with chocolate or dulce de leche, which is like caramel. Amazing. After helado we stopped into a random little casino that´s right next to our hostel. We decided that all of the slot machines that spit out too much money in the US are sent to Uruguay, because the guys kept winning! Nick played with the same 10 peso coin for like twenty min. Greg played a dolphin game and won about 100 pesos. To put this in perspective, 25 pesos is one US dollar. We won less than five dollars total but that can get you pretty far in Uruguay. We had the itch to spend the winnings so we bought some excellent bubblegum. Great day. We´re thinking about doing laundry tomorrow for the first time. I wash my clothes here even less than I did in college, which I used to think was impossible.

PS thanks for the comments :D

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Comments

[Karen Alexander]

Happy happy birthday Greg!
We're celebrating your birthday with a new bike ride today. We'll be thinking of y'all on the beach, hope it's a sunny, warm windsurfing day.

[Cassie Cedarholm]

Melissa, i feel for you about the dogs. But way to scream when you see one! You should have seen what abbey was doing today! And i need about a million pictures of these churros and and helados! They always taught us that helado was the same as ice cream in spanish class, what a bunch of liars. And happy birthday greg!

[Karen Cedarholm]

Fun!
You guys sound like you are having way too much fun...I want to be there too! Happy Birthday, Greg...glad you liked your Lizzie card. Nick, I didn't hear any bragging about your spanish abilities this time! Love, One of the Mom's

[Andrea]

Absolutely hilarious
Hey Melissa, This sounds awesome. I was laughing pretty hard as I was reading through this entry. I think that you guys should consider writing a travel guide because you would have plenty to share. How was the gnocchi? Reminiscent of the stuff we had a Bucca di Pepo? (Not sure if that is how you spell it). Well, I'm off to read your next journal entry. Kudos to you guys for keeping us updated on this end. Safe travels!