I am arrived in Buenos Aires! On the bus from the airport I examined a world very different and at the same time extremely familiar. It is winter here. There are no leaves on the trees but next to the barren trees stand palm trees just as the houses with swimming pools and tennis courts stand adjacent to the slum houses with rusty tin roofs. Even though it was a winter tuesday, the Argentinians were out in full force picnicking in the parks, playing soccer (well everywhere) on the grassy medians, and embracing in the street. This is a people that makes their presence felt. Whistles, catcalls, horns, offers of assistance, and infringement of personal space are continuous. I am fairly sure the socially acceptable distance to stand next to someone is about 6 inches here.
The flight was rather uneventful. I flew from Vancouver to Toronto and at midnight left Toronto for Santiago, Chile. It is a 10 hour flight but it is in the same time zone. I went to sleep and woke up to a brilliant orange sunrise over the snowy Andes. It was one of the most breathtaking sights of my life. Later we also had a perfect view of Anacongua, the highest mountain in the Americas. I gave up taking pictures as they were poor facsimiles of the sight.
In Santiago we had to deplane even though we were continuing in the same plane to Buenos Aires. To my horror we had to go through security getting off the plane. I had filled up my waterbottle in Vancouver after going through security and still had about 700ml left. I looked around for somewhere to dump the water. There was nowhere. Not even a garbage can. I could see the guards hastling a woman infront of me for having liquid so I did the only thing I could to save my waterbottle. I chugged it all. I passed security with flying colours and rushed to find the nearest bathrooms. No bathrooms were in working order. I almost had an accident but fortunately I found an open one at the far end of the terminal 20 minutes of frantic searching later.
I feel like my Spanish has come along way (we are starting at nothing here) I managed to buy a bus ticket, navigate to my hostel, speak to my Columbian room mates and go buy a lock from a hardware store, which like everything else around here is open until at least 10pm. The hostel here serves dinner but not until 8 30.
Tomorrow I plan to walk the city, maybe sample some local cow, and learn to tango!
Buenos dias
The flight was rather uneventful. I flew from Vancouver to Toronto and at midnight left Toronto for Santiago, Chile. It is a 10 hour flight but it is in the same time zone. I went to sleep and woke up to a brilliant orange sunrise over the snowy Andes. It was one of the most breathtaking sights of my life. Later we also had a perfect view of Anacongua, the highest mountain in the Americas. I gave up taking pictures as they were poor facsimiles of the sight.
In Santiago we had to deplane even though we were continuing in the same plane to Buenos Aires. To my horror we had to go through security getting off the plane. I had filled up my waterbottle in Vancouver after going through security and still had about 700ml left. I looked around for somewhere to dump the water. There was nowhere. Not even a garbage can. I could see the guards hastling a woman infront of me for having liquid so I did the only thing I could to save my waterbottle. I chugged it all. I passed security with flying colours and rushed to find the nearest bathrooms. No bathrooms were in working order. I almost had an accident but fortunately I found an open one at the far end of the terminal 20 minutes of frantic searching later.
I feel like my Spanish has come along way (we are starting at nothing here) I managed to buy a bus ticket, navigate to my hostel, speak to my Columbian room mates and go buy a lock from a hardware store, which like everything else around here is open until at least 10pm. The hostel here serves dinner but not until 8 30.
Tomorrow I plan to walk the city, maybe sample some local cow, and learn to tango!
Buenos dias
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