Buenos Aires, Part 1

Now that I've sufficiently recovered from vacation—and feel like I'm slacking because Joel has begun posting about his jaunt through South America—I'm ready to get going with trip posts. A little background: After a few margaritas one lonely evening, Alan and I decided that we should go visit Joel, his longtime best bud and what I call his "man-wife." Since Joel has been teaching English in Colombia for several years now, we decided we should pull out the passports and make a visit. With school out for the summer, he was heading out of Colombia and onto saltier Bolivian pastures and was going to be traveling the continent with a couple of friends, so we decided to meet him in Buenos Aires. When we arrived, we joined up with him, Scott (also an old KC friend of Alan's), Scott's new fiancee, Meghan, and Adam, whom we also knew from KU. Turned out to be a great group to travel with, especially great because three of them spoke Spanish. How do you say "very helpful" in Español?

Because we knew we'd be in a group, we didn't plan too much before the trip. But to make good use of our layover in Dallas, Alan pulled out the BA guidebook.

We also called our bank and credit card company from the airport, which turned out to do no good whatsoever, as BANK OF AMERICA shut off our debit account anyway. I'm all for security, except for when you tell them you're going out of the country and they ignore you.

After our 10-hour flight, we arrived in Buenos Aires at 8 a.m., hoping to be met at the airport, but fully expecting to make our way to the hostel on our own. But lo and behold, through the crowd, right in the nick of time, came Joel, our knight in Spanish-speaking armor, and Scott, who had nearly made them both late (allegedly). We headed straight to the hostel that they had gotten the previous day, where we napped, showered and prepared to explore BA. We then hoofed it around the city on our way to buy bus tickets for the next day, and saw the La Casa Rosa, Argentina's White House. But pink.

The gang in front of the Pink House; Joel is the one napping.


One word I learned prior to the trip was "lomo," which is basically a delicious cut of beef. We went out for a great dinner that night, guzzled wine, and tried about 50 different cuts of beef, including sweetbread, before hitting the town. After three bottles of whiskey, one courtesy of an Einstein lookalike, here's the fun that was being had:

Needless to say, Argentina gave us a warm welcome. Next stop, Iguazu Falls. I hope you like pictures of waterfalls.