Buenos Aires...finally!

Well, we have made it to our last destination, our first real metropolis, Buenos Aires. This city houses 1/3 of Argntina´s population. And with basically four days left of our trip we are making the most of the city.

We arrived to BA on an overcast rainy day by plane from Salta. Terrifying plane ride, seriously. After waiting for Natalie´s bag which was literally the LAST bag off the plane, we found ourselves a taxi and through a mix of pointing, sign language, and broken spanish from Lia and Lorna made it to the San Telmo barrio of the city. This neighborhood is characterized by Antique shops (how they all stay in business we have NO idea, plus they house things such as giant macrame horses and King Tut busts). THere is also lots of graffiti, a testament to the gritty nautre of the city, and a wonderful little hostel called Nomade (we are using the word wonderful liberally).


Our first two days in BA can be descibed in four words (which Lorna's father will be happy to hear)...Walking our butts off. We probably walked 12 miles over the two days. As we walked we took in the many sights this beautiful city has to offer. The creepiest and most astounding of the sights was the Cementario de Recoleta. Recoleta is the wealthy and fancy neighborhood of Buenos Aires, and the rich spare no expense when memorializing their deceased loved ones. The monuments in this grave yard were over the top, some sporting crazy marble statues. Sadly, all the money in the world cannot buy you friends or family who will maintain your mausoleum once you are gone - some of the sites were so decrepit and broke down that there were weeds growing inside. Some of them had also clearly been vandalized. Some you could see in a witness the stacked coffins covered with decades of dust, others were solid granite. We spent about an hour wandering between the mausoleums which look like a small ghost city, entranced and spooked at the same time. In one grave, which appeared to have been sorely neglected, we even spotted a human skull...Natalie took pictures if you don´t believe us. We saw Evita´s grave and then continued our urban hike, eventually making it back to our hostel.


On Day two we took the subway to the Palermo Viejo neighboorhood...a much younger area of the city. We instantly decided we would move hostels and set off to find a new one. After consulting our lonely planet and looking into a few of the local hostels we found the perfect one. Casa Jardin - a beautiful little spot right where we wanted to be, and one that for a change does NOT have 20 year old mulleted Argetine boys playing crazy loud music at 5 am. To celebrate, we found a cute cafe, had an amazing 2 hour lunch and did what we do best- shopped.

Yesterday we decided to follow the trhongs of Argentine families celebrating their indpendence day and go to the BA zoo. For those of you that have never before been to a zoo in a foreign country, they are not the same game as those in the US. It would seem that there are few employees (and none that care to enforce the rules), booths selling buckets of anilmal food (because all animals eat the same food, obviously) and animals that are riled up and doing crazy things. Among the sites: hyped up monkeys clearly in mating season, many large cats on the prowl (including a white tiger!), blind seals with cataracts, weird little rabbit things that are free to roam the zoo, zebras that are allowed to eat "animal food" from a chute (but, NEVER are you allowed to feed the giraffe. What???)
From there we wanted to get more cultured so we stopped in at the Evita museum. We are still confused but a little more edified. We did get to see her immaculate dress collection.
Other than that, we have just been people watching, eating, reading, and popping into stores. Going out here is not really that much of an option for old ladies like us seeing as the Argetine club hoppers don´t actually leave their homes until 1:3'0 am to hit the dance floors, and 2:30 if you are super cool. We are definitely going to check out a tango show though.More later, tata for now!

Las Tres Profesoras.

ps. LORNA figured out how to make the pictures big...just giving credit where credit is due.

Salta la Linda

In Salta, the only way to cross the street is by running frantically, your things bobbing up and down, or else risk an untimely demise. No, it isn´t just foreigners that do it...it´s a way of life here, seeing as there are no stop signs, street lights (except in the busiest and scariest of four way intersections). We learned to run like the locals, but I swear...walking the streets of Salta is a guantlet experience.
We arrived in Salta on Tuesday night after a 12 hour bus ride through the incredible Andes mountain range. Since then, we have eaten not one but TWO huge steak dinners complete with free champagne, salad, desert, and a bottle of wine - each of these running us about $15 USD a person...unreal). We try to look classy when we are in these places (everyone else does, and the waiters wear tuxedos and carry serviettes on their arms), however our efforts are in vain and we just end up giggling like we are getting away with something by eating a $7.00 filet. At least they seem to be pretty amused by us for the most part.
Otherwise, we have seen two movies in English (yes, I know, but we are exhausted at this point...). Lia has climbed the 1,070 stairs twice and Lorna once to get to the top of the magnificent Cerro San Bernardo, a gorgeous view the reward. And let me tell you, this is no easy climb...and even though it is blessed by the Virgin Mary herself (there are kiosks on the way up that you and pray at, and yes, people do pray), it´s still tiring. At the top you can bask in the sun next to an artificial waterfall or eat ice cream (so good!) and play with perros. Then you can take a terrifying and somewhat rickety gondola down to the bottom.
With 1070 waiting stairs to climb in Salta, you wonder why we would leave at all, right? Well, there are lots of beautiful sights around the city that warrant visiting.
Yesterday we took what will most certainly be our last organized tour. After being kept up literally all night by a group of circus performers (no seriously, they really do work for the circus) we were a bit crabby when we embarked on our 7 am tour. But we did get to see some of the freakiest and most hallucinogenic scenery we´ve ever seen...the Salt Desert (salinas grandes). A crusty, perfectly flat expanse of the starkest white that seemed to stretch forever (or would have if it hadn´t been for the mountains in the background). The three of us spent an hour taking ridiculous pictures where it looks like we are standing on each others´heads and the like. We will post them at a later time, but you have to see it to believe it. And yes, we did lick the ground (Lorna and Lia) and yes, it was very very salty. We also witnessed the beautiful seven colored mountains that literally appear to be painted stripes of green, pink, red, yelllow and purple, along with many quebradas (gorges) that run through the area. This whole trip seems to have been a smorgasbord of incredible sights.
The city is an interesting mix of old and new - glass covered buildings stand next to bubblegum colored colonial cathedrals. The main square is peppered with teenage students (of whom the girls wear ridiculously short uniform skirts...ALL of them). We are ready tomorrow to take on Buenos Aires..we fly there tomorrow afternoon! We are certain it will be all it´s cracked up to be and we will eat many more steaks in style :)

Love to all,

La Tres Profesoras