in wine country

So the past 9 days or so have been crazy. I loved Buenos Aires, it was such a beautiful city and had a ton of stuff to do, I could never have fit everything in if I stayed there a month!

Like I mentioned before, I went to the Recoleta cemetary, where all the richest and most influential people in argentina have been buried. Saw the graves (well actually mausoleums) of Evita, past argentian presidents, writers, artists, politicians, etc. The sculptures and architecture of some of the graves were just so beautiful, sometimes it was hard to remember you were actually in a cemetary. Right across the street from there was the Museo de bellas artes (national art gallery) and I loved walking through there as well. There were a ton of famous european and north american paintings, but the most interesting part was the argentinian section, especially since a lot of the paintings were done by the people who I had just seen in the cemetary.

On other days I went to museums in the centre, the Casa Rosada (presidential palace in front of the square, made famous by Eva Peron, or should i say Madonna?), shopping in Palermo, botanical gardens, historical San Telmo (birthplace of the tango), to a tango show at Cafe Tortoni´s (the oldest tango house), artisan markets, a futbol game, ate a bunch of steak, including at one place that is basically a meat buffet, all you can eat. Just to name a few activities.

The city totally throws off your schedule though, since all the locals stay up extremely late (if you walk around the streets at night, there are families and older couples out for strolls until 1 or 2 am) and eat really late as well. No one even thinks of going out to a club until after 2 or 3, and they only fill up around 4 so basically if you go out at night, you might as well not even think about getting back home until 6 or so at the earliest. I think I was actually starting to become nocturnal, which made it harder to fit everything in that I wanted to see, but I think I did pretty well at napping at opportune moments.

And as amazing as everything was, it was even better because it seemed like all of the people I had become the closest with over the past few months were all there at the same time as I was. And since most of us knew each other, there was a big group that had pretty much seen the continent together, and this was the last hurrah before most of them head home. Really really fun people, and it just made me realize how many good friends I have made on this trip.

And so now I have escaped from Buenos Aires before becoming fully nocturnal, and taken a night bus with two of those girls, Emma and Marika, to Mendoza, which is in the central west of Argentina, famous for its steak and especially its wine. We´re planning on staying here for 4 days or so (the last ones of their trip) doing some bike tours of the wineries, lounging by the pool, etc. And then they´re off to Santiago for their flight home, and I´m not sure if I will be heading there as well for the last part of my trip, or if I am going to venture further south into Patagonia. Just depends on who is around I guess and how much money I have.

off to find lunch..........