Buenos Aires, say no more!

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Leaving El Calafate this AM to EZE and it has been a blast. Heading back into civilization always leaves me feeling a bit out of sorts, like Grizzly Adams meets Sex in the City. It's a love hate relationship I fear, a fabulous expresso and fresh salad versus eternal solitude of the mountains is always a trade off.

Ironically in this trip the food and showers were better camping then on the cities, Carlos was a fabulous chef, making masterpieces out of a fire pit. You can really see the strong European Influence in the food and some of the culture as well. Christmas is celebrated on the 24th followed by massive fireworks at midnight an the 25th is more of a hangover, leftover day.

Crapes are regular meal here, in both the entrees and desserts and just little things here make me feel culturally at home due to my European heritage. I just wish their influence included coffee. I was so sick of instant Nescafe and even when I found a shop to buy a cafe solo or an Americano it wasn't that good. Ned was seriously jonesing for a good cup of joe. Eating dinner however at 10pm would definitely take me a while to get used to, especially with my early wake up schedule.

Lazy morning of journaling and packing, unfortunately the wi-fi is still down as I wanted to look up the info on hop on hop off bus for Buenos Aires and again our itinerary for Easter Island (squeal!). Michele and I both were struggling making everything fit into our 60 litre packs; could not wait until we added the wine and other presents, as shopping was bound to happen. Put my pack in the entrance to the hotel, only to have my ziploc bag of dry cereal explode all over the nice tiled floor. Only in Ned's world...........

Said goodbye to Fede (BFF) and off to airport. Flight is 2.5 hours to EZE and the OZ married couple wanted to sit together so I got his emergency seat, sweet! I offered it to Michele since she has such long legs but she was settled in, so little ol' 5'3 me got more room then I needed, but boy was it wonderful!

Arrived in EZE and it was more than obvious that we were in a city of 20,000,000. Even writing that is mind boggling, truth be told.

We arrived at the hotel Viasui which was quite nice; the group was starving and it was all we could do to pay attention to Laurena's (or tour guide for the day) briefing. We finally bolted out of the hotel to the grocery store and somehow in a flurry of low blood sugar everyone disappeared and I was standing alone in EZE all by my little lonesome feeling somewhat frustrated. So I grabbed some water, an apple and yoghurt, went back to the hotel, picked up a map and went wandering on my own.

Headed down to the hard to miss phallyic symbol (The obelisk was built in 1936 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the first founding of the city.) and walked toward the port area. Passed across Florida street and it had so many tourists on it I was so NOT going on it (crowds stress me out - especially when I'm alone). Had a stroll along the brick buildings and the river area of Puerto Madero. Up Ave Cordoba and back to hotel. Was a nice walk and I got orientated for tomorrows outing and saw some really neat buildings and architecture, which I love.

We met in the lobby for our Tango show, and took the bus there. Total cheese, total dinner theatre styled but didn't have higher expectations. The wine was table vinegar to be honest, food was less than average, but the tango lessons were a heap of fun. Michele was my partner and I was laughing so hard I started snorting, what a blast! Watching Bronsen trying to stare deeply into Kelly's eyes was classic, she look mortified and he looked intense to say the least. The whole group had a fabulous time stepping on each other's toes and laughting at one another; you can clean us up but can't teach trekkers to dance necessarily!

Back to the show, for adequate dinner and a fun show. The lead dancer was a true pleasure to watch, she had those sensational leg kicks and they were spectacular! It showed us the evolution of tango throughout the 20th century and even with the show in Spanish it was relatively understandable. Lot of history to this dance, I can see why it is iconic in their history and cuture, so was a pleasant evening.

Back to the hotel after that, some of the group continued on, but for me, it was bedtime, after all it was just shy of midnight!

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Photos

Obelisk
Can't miss that landmark!