One more day in BA

Landed back in BA and my cab driver actually spoke a bit of English this time so we chatted until he'd used up all his English and I was out of my Spanish. I feel bad for going on and on about how surprised I was at how little English was spoken when I don't speak their language any better then they speak mine. I guess it's just because I've done quite a bit of travelling and have gotten by with English and sign language most places I've been.

Anyway, I was booked into another nice hostel that was in a different part of the city so off I went to explore. Was I by myself, you ask? I'm going to keep you in suspense just a little while longer.

I think the thing I loved most about Argentina were the beautiful buildings. I couldn't get enough of them.

When I walked around the corner and saw this, I literally said, "I don't think my camera lens is wide enough to get all this goodness in one shot!" These were the congress buildings.

I think this is one of my favorite buildings because it reminded me of where Christian lived in the movie Moulin Rouge. You can see the full building a bit more in the picture above this one (beside the congress buildings). It was totally abandoned and has been for the last 20 years. I think if I win the lottery I'll buy it and renovate it into a hotel. That would be awesome.

Can't forget about the purple trees! :)

Look who joined me on the subway!!! I was so happy that Leana came back to join me in BA for the night. Sad that her whole family couldn't come, but happy that we could spend one more day together. Here we thought we'd gone back in time with this old fashioned looking train.

More beautiful architecture.

The obelisk (below) is one of the main icons of the city.

As we strolled down the walking street (we need more of these shopping streets blocked off to traffic here) we stopped and watched some tango dancers until they started pulling people into their act. That's my cue to move along.

We were in search of a restaurant that a friend of mine had told me about and as we looked, we of course had to stop in a few stores. In one store, I tried on a beautiful brown, leather jacket. As much as I loved it, I already have a brown, leather jacket so I was able to put it back and move along. Good for me for having some self control, right? Don't cheer just yet. There are leather stores everywhere along these streets and since Argentina is known for their leather, I thought maybe I'd try to find a purse to take home as a souvenir. I went into the store below and as I was looking at purses, I saw this white, leather jacket. I tried it on and really liked it. Leana wasn't much help in deterring me. I found a purse and put the jacket back. I thought I'd try on some black ones as they seem more practical. I didn't like any of the black ones. Figures! Ok, let's try the white one on again. The guy on the right was using Lea to translate to me and telling her that if she got me to buy them both that he would give her a deal on something for being his translator. Well, I figured I didn't need them so I started putting everything back but he says, "Wait! Wait! I'll get the owner to come talk to you." So, over comes Juan Pablo (the guy on the left) and he speaks perfect English ... let the wheeling and dealing begin. I think we were there for over half an hour talking about prices ... me telling him "But I don't need the jacket ... him telling me "if you buy this jacket, you will get married. You walk around here with that jacket on and you will get married for sure." I said, "But I'm leaving tomorrow. If I wear it in Canada will I get married?" He said, "Oh, that I can't guarantee," and we all laughed. He was quite funny. When I told him my name, I could see the recognition in his eyes, but he didn't say anything. I said to him, "Yes, just like in Shrek." He started laughing and said, "I wanted to say that but didn't know if you'd be offended!" Then he looks at me and says, "I never lose" and of course I wanted to be stubborn and make him lose ... but in the end, he was too nice and the deal was too good. I got the jacket and the purse for $140 ... and he won. Here we are with our new friends and my new jacket. I've already worn it twice but for some reason feel a bit pretentious when I wear it. Hopefully that'll go away and I'll get good use out of it ... and not get it too dirty.

Finally we found the restaurant that my friend had told me about (I think I should charge him for the jacket seeing as I was only on that street on his recommendation) and we had a feast.

My last Argentine barbeque.

We were exhausted by the end of the night. Tried to hop on the subway but it was closed so we hailed a cab and got a good nights rest.

The next morning after we checked out, we caught a cab to the bus depot where we would store our bags all day ... and we passed this sign on the way. I guess the whole world was gearing up for the excitement. :)

We had a bit of time to do some more sight seeing before I had to catch my bus to the airport and Lea had to catch her bus home, so off we went. I wanted to take a picture of this tower and as we walked up to it, we walked through the grass and were SWARMED by mosquitos!!! I got bit at least 20 times, if not more. It took all my strength not to scratch them. I find that if you don't scratch them, they go away faster and since I had to sit on a plane for the next 18 hours, I didn't want to be scratching all day. I managed to do it and got a couple of good pictures in the meantime.

We headed off to the river to walk along the boardwalk and see all the buildings they've converted into loft condos. I would've loved to have seen inside them and can only imagine how much they would cost. The weather was great and it was nice to get a bit of sun on my last day.

My buddy, Lea. Thanks so much for coming back to BA to hang out with me. I had SUCH a great time!

The loft apartments. Anyone looking to invest? ;)

We stopped for ice cream on the way back and as we were waiting for our turn, I looked at my watch and realized I had 2 minutes to be at the bus depot! What? How did that happen? Only by the grace of God did I make it. Seriously. We were so far away from the bus depot and there just happened to be a taxi pull up who was letting someone out right where we were waiting and we pulled up to the bus depot just in time. Phewf! Made for a quick goodbye with Lea, but maybe that was good. I still got teary eyed and was so thankful for the time I got to spend with her.

Ok, so get this. On the flight to Chile, there's a elderly lady sitting behind me and when they hand out the papers for people getting off in Chile, she reaches around and, with her whole hand, pokes me in the arm ... and not lightly. She starts rambling in Spanish and I have no idea what she's saying, so a lady across the aisle from her says to me, "She wants you to put your seat up so she can use the tray table." Uhm, I don't know about you, but my tray table usually works even if the person in front of me has their chair back. I guess the lady saw that in my facial expression because she said, "It'll just be for a few minutes." So, I complied. 20 minutes later, I turn around to check and she's LOOONG done her paper and I guess forgot to let me know I could put my chair back again ... so, I do it. Well, then comes time to eat our supper. Around comes the hand and poke, poke, poke. I ignored her. I'm sorry, but I'm not going to move my chair up every time you need to use your tray table. That's not how it works. I would never think to ask the person in front of me to put their chair up. Yeah, sometimes it's not so fun, but it's just a fact of life on a plane. About 30 seconds after I ignore her, through the slot between my chair and the chair beside me comes another hand ... poke, poke, poke. I turn around and it's the guy she's with motioning for me to move my chair because they are eating. I try to talk to him but of course he doesn't speak English so I just shook my head. Guess what happened next? The two of them grabbed my chair and physically moved it back up by pushing it! Can you believe that? I didn't know it was possible to do that ... but I guess when you use enough force, it is possible. I turned around so quickly and the lady on the aisle that had translated for her earlier quickly looked down. I don't think she was with them and didn't want to get involved. The lady behind me wouldn't look at me so I slowly moved my seat back ... ok, I only moved it halfway back (I don't know if it was because I was now scared of them or because I had a bit of compassion). If I didn't know that they were getting off the plane in Chile, I would've called the flight attendants over and told them, however, I decided to just seethe about it alone for the next hour.

Then, as if you want to read anymore, it starts getting a little bumpy. No problem. I've been through worse before. The pilot comes on and says (first in Spanish and then in English), "Ladies and gentleman, we're going to be experiencing some major turbulence over the Andes." Excellent. Anyone seen the movie 'Alive"? Yeah, that's all that's going through my head. Well, I wait ... and wait ... and wait. Nothing, which makes me pretty happy, until all of a sudden we start nose diving ... fast! You know how you can feel (and see the front of) the plane tilting downward when preparing for landing? Well, this felt way too fast for that. Everyone starts looking out the windows and all I can see ... the Andes. Yikes! My heart did start beating quite fast and then the pilot comes on and says, "Ladies and gentleman. You've probably noticed we've started our descent into Santiago." Gee, you think! Could've been a little slower for my liking, but Santiago is really close to the mountains, so I guess you have to stay high over the mountains as long as you can before descending. Since I wasn't sitting next to the window, I had to take a picture of them once we were in the airport waiting for our transfer flight.

So that's it. My trip to Argentina in a nutshell ... haha, largest nutshell you've ever seen, right? :) I am SO glad I went ... only wish it could've been longer. Where, oh where, will my next travels take me........