So, I´ve covered a little bit of ground since my last entry... hence the long period of time between entries. My last days in Buenos Aires I did a lotta stuff. I took two tango lessons (tango here is different than in the US so that was interesting). I went to a fútbol game where everyone was yelling puta this and puta that (a puta is a whore, bitch, just a generally bad word) and everyone was singing songs that I couldn´t understand, but there was lots of energy even in the HOT midday sun. I watched San Lorenzo play River Plate. Apparently, there were some guys from the Argentinian national team playing so that was pretty cool. I drank a lot of wine and a lots of beer with some locals and other travelers. A good bottle of wine here is about 10 pesos... about $3 and a liter of beer is usually about $1. It´s hard to pass up.
After Buenos Aires, I went to Rosario. There is really not much going on there. My hostel was cool with all the rooms attached to an outdoor patio and the people who work there are soooo nice! Other than that, I went to a crazy club called Madame until about 5:30 in the morning when I got too tired to deal with the ever increasing crowd that was still walking in. (I don´t think that I mentioned that people don´t go out until 1 or 2 AM here. They usually stay out until the sun rises and get about 2 hours of sleep. Even coming from Buffalo where I stay out until 5 sometimes, I have a very hard time with this schedule.)
Anyway, I hopped on the 9am bus to Cordoba with 2 hours of sleep under my belt the next morning. The buses here are actually pretty decent. They are soooo much nicer than the ones in Asia. And some of them even serve meals. Upon arrival in Cordoba, I knew I would like this city a little more. There are trees everywhere and lots of nice architectural buildings. After dropping off my bags at my hostel, I wandered around the city in search of a meal. That was not an easy task. Apparently, people take their siestas very seriously in this part of the country, so from noon until about 5 or 6, everything is closed up. I wandered past locked up buildings and closed reataurants for about an hour before I finally found a little pizza joint. On my way home is when things start to open up a little more and by 10pm the restaurants were jam packed. I had a few drinks with some new Canadian friends when I got back to the hostel and then crashed pretty early... I really don´t know what time it was because I don´t have a watch, but I´m thinking it was maybe 2 or 3am. I saw some of them the next afternoon and they said they didn´t get home until after 7! Crazy, right?
So, I got a bus to this tiny little town called Villa General Belgrano this morning. It is really nice and really clean. The clean part is something that´s been bugging me a little. I mean, I lived in NYC for 2 years and that´s a rather dirty city. The cities here are even worse. People just throw their garbage on the ground and there is dog shit all over the sidewalk. This is a nice change. It´s quiet too. I think I may actually be able to sleep through the night tonight! I´m planning to move again tomorrow to visit some Argentinian friends in Parana and then head up to Iguazu Falls. Hopefully I´ll be able to have access to a computer that works along the way to update this a little sooner!
