Anna Goes Shopping

Saturday March 22, 3:45 pm, Buenos Aires, Argentina

"Your true traveler finds boredom rather agreeable than painful. It is the symbol of his liberty-his excessive freedom. He accepts his boredom, when it comes, not merely philosophically, but almost with pleasure." - Aldous Huxley


Hello from Buenos Aires! I arrived in the capital city on a very hot Thursday afternoon. I took a cab to my hostel, Che Legarto, dropped my things and had a shower. I was happy for a new adventure, but a little unsure about the hostel which seemed to be in a slightly dodgy area, and was fairly unclean. I was in a HUGE dorm room with over 20 beds!! I only had to spend one night in that room, and yesterday I was switched to a more reasonable 8 person room.

I was starving so I headed out into San Telmo looking for food . . . I found a nice cafè and chatted with a young man from Belgium who had just finished some volunteer work in Cusco, Peru. The more I hear about Peru, the more I want to go there! I had some empanadas (as per usual), only this time they were only 2 pesos a piece (US $.65) as opposed to the Calafate empanadas which were 6 pesos (US $2). Delicious as usual! It was already evening when I headed to Florida Avenue for some serious shopping. I have been living in clothes more suited to hiking in Patagonia then bumming around a big stylish city like Buenos Aires, and I needed some nice tops. I spent the evening browsing through shop after shop and had a great deal of fun buying a skirt, two tops, a headband (I keep losing headbands!!!) , and a scarf. Very good time!

I grabbed a taxi back to the hostel where I met a young Scottish guy heading out to dinner. We walked back to the big square in San Telmo where there was drumming, music, and everyone was speaking Spanish (we may have been the only gringos). The service was absolutely atrocious and after an hour we were served something different than we had ordered, and it was the worst meal either of us had eaten in as long as we could remember. Luckily, Stuart, was at the end of his round the world trip and regailed me with tales of ridining on the backs of buses in Northern India, accidentily going to Mangalore instead of Bangalore and other such misadventures. I can't wait to go to India! Especially MacLeod Gange, Dharamasala, Shimla, and those other northern towns near the mountains.

We got back to the hostel around 1am, I wrote some emails and went to sleep around 2am- just when everyone else was heading out for the evening!

Yesterday (Good Friday) I had an absolutely lovely time walking around Buenos Aires. I started with the Recolleta Cemetary where Evita is buried. The cemetary was huge, the monuments immense, and very interesting. I visited the nearby church (really really dark bloody statues, very strange), and strolled through the open air artisan market on my way down to Palermo.

I visited MALBA the Museum of Modern Latinamerican Art, which was delightful, especially the Frida Kahlo. Some of the art was very moving, and some was that wacky modern kind that I don't quite understand!

Then I walked up to Palermo Soho and Palermo Viejo where I poked around in shop after shop and eventually had some salad at around 5pm. All in all I think I walked for 8 hours yesterday. Needless to say sitting in an internet cafè sounded pretty good for today!

I got caught in the rain yesterday but managed to grab the Subtè, or subway back to the center where I caught a cab back to the hostel. I had dinner by myself at an old historic cafè right on Avenido de Mayo, where people like Jorge Luìs Borges used to hang out. Not great food, but nice to be there. They have cheap tango shows and I'm hoping to catch one this evening. Then I headed back to the hostel and slept until 2am when my roomate woke me up and convinced me to go out to the bar. We were at this local bar with folks from the hostel until almost 5am, at which point we headed back to the hostel.

Okay, so prepare yourselves folks, this part is a little dodgy. On the way to the bar to meet up with the others, Billy, my British roomate and I were sort of mugged. Luckily all the guy got was a map of Buenos Aires, which we think he probably assumed was a wad of cash. Neither of us were hurt, and the guy didn't even touch me . . . he just dug into Billy's pockets grabbing what he could. I was glad I wasn't carrying a purse with me so there was nothing to grab. He was a big guy dressed in a nice suit, looking like he was heading out to a club. Very strange. He had something that looked like a gun, but in retrospect we don't think it really was. Obviously, this left a bad taste in our mouths, and we walked home in a larger group (it was only maybe 6 blocks to the bar).

So, I'm fine, a little wiser, and soooo not interested in walking around Buenos Aires in the middle of the night.

Also, I'm fairly lucky really.

This morning I headed down to buy a boat ticket over to Urugauy. On Tuesday morning I'll take an hour ferry over to Colonia del Sacramento, a supposedly lovely, quaint colonial town on the river. I'll stay the night and I have a boat back on Wednesday evening and then I'll head to the airport for my midnight flight to Auckland!

Well, I'm off to see the Cathedral, the Casa Rosada, and probably do some more shopping. I'm really enjoying not having a set schedule and just meandering about the city and seeing what I like, at the pace I like. I am however a bit lonely for the first time since Lima, but in exactly the sort of way I had hoped for . . . I'm spending significant time with myself and its a very good thing.

Happy Easter!

Love!
Anna