another more or less uneventful day. at 8am, started driving back to buenos aires from rosario, picked up the visa at the brazilian consulate, ate lunch, then drove up to colon. per elizabeth’s recommendation of guiaoleo (yelp of argentina), we found the highest ranked parilla in buenos aires: a huge place on the outskirts of the city that was mildly reminiscent of a barbecue joint you might find in the south (of the us). tables were old and empty (except for a 1-sheet laminated menu and cutting boards used as plates and serving dishes) and service was quick (there weren’t many menu options, so it’s quicker to make the food). although los Talas del Entrerriano looked very working class, and was in a more working class neighborhood, it was filled with more business men than truck drivers (the prices were cheap, but not THAT cheap). colon is a small, tranquil tourist town, which seems like a weekend getaway for the portenos of buenos aires (similar to tigre and mar del plata).

there are a lot of old cars here — especially big old american ones and small old european ones.

when argentinians pass on the highway, they first flash their highbeams (a useful tool to let the other drivers know not to get in their lane).

several times, i’ve seen motorcyle drivers with their left arms through their helmet — wouldn’t their head be a safer/easier spot to hold on to it?

cordoba is a nice city, although i’m not sure why (according to lonely planet) it was the cultural capital of the americas. rosario, on the other hand is quite cool. we got here at night, but it seems to have a great vibe. it’s smaller, safer and more manageable than buenos aires, but still has fun stuff to see and do. i wish i could stay here another day to explore the city, but we’re on a timeline to pick up adrian’s visa from the brazilian consulate tomorrow. a few anecdotes:

the sentra has some issues. i took it to a mechanic this morning, and he said the wheel bearing was bad. he’s probably right, although i think there might be other issues as well. he was going to charge me $100 and take most of the day, so i decided to postpone the fix. however, i did patch a tire i had broken about a week earlier ($2.50).

elementary school kids in argentina wear labcoats. why? i don’t know.

argentinians drink mate everywhere. it must be incredibly tedious to have to bring the hot water, yerba, sugar, gourd, etc. everywhere they go.

as in most of the world, people on the street will offer to wash your windshield for money. in panama they were pretty aggressive. in chile they were almost non-existent. in argentina, they’re incredibly polite, asking you if you want your window washed first.

people don’t honk their horns much in argentina. even after argentina qualified for the world cup yesterday night, all the cars were silent.

one of my favorite things about travelling are the conversions. for instance, on the highway in argentina, you might see a sign that says ‘rosario 100’…and you’ll think, ‘oh man, that’s far…but wait! that’s only 60 miles…yay!’. or maybe you’ll buy 1 kilo of bananas for 3pesos…..but wait! that’s over 2 pounds for under 1 dollar…yay! gasoline is a bit disappointing since they use liters rather than gallons.

after getting a bit lost driving in cordoba (it’s small, but a bit complicated with the one-way streets and strikes), we headed out to the sierras a bit. we didn’t venture out too far, but saw quebrada de condorito….a nice little park, which could have been much nicer if there had been blue skies and condors. still, it was nice. then, back to cordoba.

back at hostal art, we ended up listening to some awesome local guitarists play on the rooftop until 1am.

this morning was spent getting adrian’s visa for brazil. as he said, it was kind of the opposite that we expected from our research online. first, the subway ended up taking almost 45min….it was packed and waited 2-3 minutes at every station. next, we showed up at the consulate, which was surprisingly empty (nobody in line for visas). however, for some reason, the lady demanded a letter of purpose from adrian’s employer (stating that he was going to brazil for about a month and would not work there). the next 2-3 hours were spent finding an internet cafe and getting some coworkers from the new york office to fax the form in (it was 6am in san francisco). we got the letter faxed in about 30min before the consulate closed for the day, ran back and, again, were fortunate to have no line (the transaction took maybe 2 minutes). then, we waited in line at the nearby bank to pay the fee, which took about an hour (541.25 pesos….why not a round number like 550 pesos?). finally at 3pm, we were all done and headed out west.

we finally arrived at cordoba shortly after 11pm, found a hostel, some food, a cochera and then went to sleep.

after preparing for adrian’s visit to the brazilian consulate this morning (he needs a visa), we took the train over to tigre. the train was packed…like a crowded tokyo subway. tigre was also packed with tourists…including a lot of portenos (people from buenos aires), on account of the holiday weekend (dia de colon). we wandered over to the river and caught a boat which then drove up and down the river for a couple of hours….which was really nice. it turns out the tigre has tons of little islands and narrow channels between them. it’s kind of like a more natural version of venice (or kinda what i imagine the bayous to be like). the islands are all covered with nice green grass and cool trees, and lining the river are houses…from small rusted shacks to beautiful mansions. it’s really peaceful and feels like you’ve been transported to another world. in addition to taking passengers like us, the boat also serves as a shuttle and a delivery boat.

unfortunately, my pictures aren’t too good…and can’t capture the beauty and calm of tigre. later, we went to a nice little cafe. i don’t like mayo, so i tried to request the salad (rice, tomato, palmito, etc) with chicken instead of chicken salad. as expected, i ended up with a heaping bowl of chicken salad instead.

note: locaton is buenos aires, argentina

today, adrian showed up from the us and then we walked around buenos aires….seeing everything from the casa rosada (presidential house) to the painted houses of san telmo. pretty chill and uneventful day. also, for the first time in a while, i avoided meat! i’m starting to get sick of it. argentina can be a good place to fall in love with meat or (eventually) to become a vegetarian (even though the produce isn’t too good here).

note: location is buenos aires, argentina

this morning was spent driving around buenos aires looking for a new hostel. buenos aires can be a bit confusing at first, so what should have been a 5 minute drive always turned into a 30 minute endeavor. the new hostel is not that great either, but oh well, it’s good enough. next, we checked out the museum of contemporary art, which had some cool exhibits, including an interesting bench from a french guy. the bench started off normal (you could sit on it), but then the wood continued like a vine, and climbed up the walls to the next floor (unfortunately pictures were not permitted). then, a quick bite to eat, some laundry (where i originally ended up with an extra pair of boxers and was missing a belt…but things were resolved) and then we headed over to the house of a german guy that my swiss travel buddy met in ushuaia.

the german dentist had scored us standing tickets for the match between argentina and peru (peru is already out of world cup qualifications, but argentina needs to win the remaining games to make it to south africa). the game was at the river plate stadium, which is huge….but for 40 pesos ($10), we got seats up at the top with quite good visibility. if you squinted and made your hand into a pinhole, you could even see maradona (or, maracoca, as an ecuadorian taught me….the argentinians, it turns out, don’t like that nickname). the game was fun and exciting, but then it started to rain. hard. so hard, that on the walk home i walked through 1 foot puddles without caring (or sometimes noticing).

luckily, the german guy had some extra clothes; then we went to a fancy parilla next door (los arribenos). for 60 pesos ($15), we got more food than i could have imagined. we started off with the cubierto (bread/dip which, in argentina, is always included and costs another 7pesos…unless you make a big deal and say you don’t want it)…but their cubierto was quite good, with almost a dozen different toppings (mashed potatoes, olives, sauteed eggplant, sauteed vegetables, roasted garlic, etc.). but then came the salad, french fries and meat — which it turns out was actually two big pieces of beef per person. imagine a big piece of meat….and then double it. insane. i might not eat anything tomorrow. i might also get a heart attack during the night and not even see tomorrow. (…and i only had one of the pieces of meat).

ushi is now in a cochera for 35pesos/day…which was worth it today, since the car leaks when it rains. and here’s something i was thinking about today: most of the time you need something fixed, you can get it done…even in the countryside. people are, for the most part, creative and can get things fixed using rudimentary tools. but, they’re also usually a bit too confident about their work. ‘yeah, of course i can fix it’. in ushuaia, the guy who fixed my windshield said he would first drill a precise hole above the crack, then fill it with a special wicking glue under high pressure. it ended up being a dremel and loctite in a syringe. but, i’ll hand it to him, it did work.

today we traded the calm of mar del plata for the chaos of buenos aires. having your own car has it’s obvious benefits. but there are some equally obvious downsides. for instance, this afternoon we spent several hours trying to find a good hostel/hotel with parking. we finally found one where it’s supposedly safe to park outside all day/night…but the hotel kinda sucks, so tomorrow we’ll move to another place…or, worst case, i pay $10-20/day to keep the car in a garage.

so far, i don’t really care for buenos aires. it’s big, chaotic, terrible traffic and the people so far have been pretty cold. i think there attitude comes from paranoia. for example…today, we arrived at a hostel as a girl was leaving (her family owns the place). we told her we were looking for lodging…so she called up to her mother…then closed the door, left and told us the mother would contact us via the speaker at the door. why not just have us go upstairs and talk face-to-face? or, at another hostel, the first thing the receptionist asked us was how we got in…not ‘how are you?’ or ‘how can i help you?’…but ‘how did you get into this building?’ (answer: the door was left open).

today, we walked several miles all around mar del plata. it has a beautiful coastline, and must be very crowded in the summer time. right now, it’s quite calm as the beach bars prepare for the upcoming season. among the highlights were:

– a cool outdoor prayer shrine with tons of little plates attached to the stone wall
– a pier with numerous sea lions. we even saw two sea lions fighting (with some blood by the end)
– a museum with a huge collection of sea shells/snails (supposedly the largest in the world). many of the shells were really beautiful.
– a honda dealership right by the water…what a beautiful location.