Argentina

When we last checked in a week ago, we were just about to board a bus to the Bolivian/Argentine border.  We won't dwell on the events of that little 12 hour journey, but the next time you see us ask about it.  It was so comically awful that it is too difficult to type into words.  Crossing the border was a simple but long process due to 5 hours of waiting in line.  We planned ahead this time and decided to buy our bus tickets to Buenos Aires when we got to the Argentine side... this way we could not be abandoned by another bus.  We ate a little lunch, killed a little time, and then boarded our first bus on the 30 hour haul to B.A.

Not a bad view

This ride was surprisingly luxurious and lovely.  We lucked out and got the front seats on the second level, which has wrap-around windows offering stunning panoramic views of the passing landscape.  Northern Argentina is beautiful, very reminiscent of Arizona with it's hills and tall cacti.  Night fell and we arrived in Jujuy, where we changed busses.  Things got just a tiny bit hairy here.  The company we bought our tickets from sold our fares to another company, which ended up being some semi-legal private charter operating just outside the main bus station.  If there hadn't been a guy on our bus who had the same ticket we would have never figured out where to go.  Things worked out for the best though.  The man assigning seats was so excited that we were from the U.S. that he gave us the great front window seats again.  We slept well on the bus and the night passed quickly.  The next day on the bus was long, only broken up by a 30 minute lunch stop.  Now, I´m not sure what you all did for Valentine's Day, but we held hands over a romantic gas station buffet.  What?  You think that sounds bad?  Try eating in Bolivia for a week.  (Sorry Bolivia, you had that one coming.)

We pulled into Buenos Aires around 9:30 pm and took a cab to a hotel we had read about.  The primary draw was that it was cheap, but it ended up being this awesome old mansion.  Yes, it was kind of falling apart, but you could tell this place was so glamorous about 100 years ago.  It was clean (enough) and centrally located, so we booked it for four nights and called it a day.

Its hard to capture all the old architectural details

We woke up the next morning and seeing Buenos Aires by the light of day... it was love at first sight.  The city is incredible.  It has the hustle of New York and the european charm of Paris.  We started our day sipping café con leche and snacking on medialunas (tiny, sweet croissants) at a little sidewalk bistro.  If Portland is where young people go to retire, then this is where we will be heading when we are older.  We decided to hit the ground running and loosely did a four hour self guided walking tour from our guide book.  It was a great chance to see so much of the city in one afternoon, hitting many of the architectural highlights, though our favorite part of this tour, natuarally, was lunch.  This parrilla (restaurant serving an overabundance of grilled meats) was a cow's nightmare and our heaven.  We decided to keep it simple and opted for two sandwiches;  one chorizo and one blood sausage.  We also threw in a litre of Stella Artois for good measure.  It. Was. Awesome.  There is not much else to say about that.  It left us full for the day so we passed on propper dinner and were forced to eat giant cones of the most beautiful gelato instead.  Basically, life is really tough here.

Plaza Del Congreso

Game over

The Argentine congress building, drawing forthcoming

The next two days were filled with more of the same.  Lots of walking and sitting in beautiful cafes eating more medialunas, empanadas, gelato, and the best beef sirloin we've ever had.  It was such a wonderful contrast to the debacle that was the previous week.  It didn't take long for us to fall pretty hard for Buenos Aires.  We are already scheming a way to get back as soon as possible. 

We wish we'd had more time here, as well as the rest of Argentina which went unexplored... but the show must go on.  Yesterday we hopped a quick four hour bus to the Uruguayan border town of Fray Bentos.  It is very small, but with lots of local charm.  It doesn't seem as frequented by tourists and the residents are very laid back.  The reason for stopping here was to visit a museum, (about meat!) but breaking up the 8 hour journey to Montevideo proved to be quite necessary.  In the fun little game we have been playing to see who can come down with the most serious illness, Reid, the dark horse, pulled ahead with a 104 degree fever, requiring a quick little trip to the hospital.  One fantastic doctor, two hours, and fifty bucks later he was much, much better.  Not to get all Sean Penn on you, but South American health care - 2, U.S. health care - 0. 

Meat factory turned meat Museum

This afternoon, rested and recovered, we continued on to Montevideo.  The ride was very comfortable and a great chance to just sit and take in the Uruguayan countryside.  Arriving in the city was significant for two reasons.  One, we have just really wanted to come here for a while now, and two, it marks the completion of the goal if this trip.  We crossed the continent entirely on land!  Its been great, but truthfully the journey has been far more exhausting than we'd anticipated. Much has been learned on this trip and it will definitely change the way we travel in the future.  Starting now.  We have already sprung for plane tickets to get back to Lima.  We're adventurous, but not masochistic.

We can't tell you how much we are looking forward to the last week of our trip.  We have some pretty serious eating to do here in Montevideo and some much earned relaxing to do on the beach.  We'll let you know how that goes.