B.A. - Biking through traffic, meeting my truckmates and grave-hunting...

(According to my map this is Torre Monumental de los Ingleses...All I remember is trying not to get hit by one of those cars!)

Date: July 12 & 13

Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina

Info: I woke up in the freezing hostel, ate breakfast (hello dulce de leche) and headed to Plaza San Martin to meet my bike tour. As most of you know, I have this weird love affair with bike tours in traffic-filled foreign countries. I don't bike at home in Toronto but put me in a new place, preferably with tons of traffic and I for some bizarre reason feel the need to get on a bike.

(Puerto Madero - new condos, new bridges, expensive restaurants)

I found the Plaza no problem (Steph, I think my map skills are getting better!) but when I arrived, there were no people on bikes to be seen. I ended up walking around the neighbourhood to avoid the homeless men in the park and about 1 million pigeons who were coo-ing and flapping all over the place. Just before the tour was scheduled to start I returned to the plaza and found Ana and some bikes. Since there weren't any other customers, I got a private tour. I jumped on my bike and followed Ana out into traffic, across train tracks and bridges and through parks...

(Ana rocked. She's a university student in B.A. and we talked about uni, music and travelling...)

(Last time I rode a bike was in Bangkok (remember that Elz?!). Luckily this time we didn't bike through any markets with guys frying stuff in vats of boiling oil, canals filled with green slime or streets filled with tuk-tuks)

We stopped for about 30 minutes in the neighbourhood of La Boca, where the buildings are painted bright colours, artists sell paintings and tourists are hassled to eat lunch at overpriced cafes. One waiter saw the Canadian flag on my bag and tried to impress me with his hockey knowledge. Dude, do I look like I play hockey?

(This kid was not happy that his mother made him sit there and get a caricature drawn...)

(Can't remember for the life of me what this monument was for. I just remember that I had to bike up a huge hill in the park behind it and that I almost ran over a stray dog in the process.)

Our last stop on the approx. 3 hour ride was the famous Plaza de Mayo. Getting here was insane! We biked through some awful traffic and I came very close to denting a few cars....

(This area reminded me of Paris)

(The Presidential Palace (the pink building). If you squint, you can see the balcony where Madonna...uh, I mean Eva Peron gave her famous speeches)

After dropping my bike off at a hotel garage I said goodbye to Ana and headed back to my hostel to pick up my pack and walk to the hotel where I'd meet my tourmates. I arrived at the new hotel, checked in and was taken up to my room in a tiny, cage-like, probably 100 year old elevator. The room was nice enough but FREEZING (again) so I climbed into my sleeping bag and fell asleep.

The tour's initial meeting was later that night and when I arrived I met the two Dragoman leaders/drivers, 'Nick' and 'Ray' *(see footnote) and my fellow travellers. We discussed our itinerary, stuff we'd need for camping in cold weather and paid our kitty money. Our tour was made up of 3 other Canadians, a German and 5 Brits. I met my roommate, Abby and we hit it off right away.

That night we went out for drinks with some of the people from the last tour, which had ended in B.A. We went for dinner at a restaurant where there was a tango performance, which was great and not too touristy. The guy sitting beside me somehow fell asleep even though we were seated right near the stage. (We later discovered he did this after almost every meal. No joke.) Check out video of the tango performance below.

The next morning Abby and I joined Ray and an other passenger, in a quest to find some camping stores. Some people hadn't brought enough camping stuff and Ray thought we'd need extra blankets when going from Argentina to Bolivia. Remember people, it's winter in South America...(although in B.A. it was about 15 degrees and people were wearing fur coats and hats!)

(Abby and I met these dogs while trying to find the entrance to the La Recoleta. The one wearing the jacket in the middle was terrifying and wanted to attack/eat us.)

We finally found some blankets and some too expensive camping stores and then returned to the hotel for an episode of CSI on the fabulous AXN channel. Later Abby and I hopped in a cab and headed to La Recoleta. This cemetery is similar to Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris in that it's filled with lots of famous people with extremely large and ornate tombs. The most famous person in La Recoleta is without a doubt, Eva Peron.

Tania, one of our tourmates had gone the day before and had a hard time finding Evita's tomb. We got instructions from one of the Canadians ('turn at the monk'....I think the monk turned out to be a statue of Jesus!) and found her more modest tomb surrounded by tourists. We took a few snaps, got out of the way and wandered up and down the rows.

It was really interesting to see the varying condition of the tombs. Some were well kept, others not so much. In some you could see coffins, pictures, urns of generations of family members. Some were just downright creepy...

(One of the many stray cats which live among the tombs at La Recoleta. How is this position comfortable?)

Abby and I walked back to the area near our hostel (it was a nice walk through some very expensive neighbourhoods) and decided lunch was our next order of business. We found a place with a lunch special and tucked into a huge-ooozing-with-cheese pizza. We quickly discovered that the majority of the pizza in South America is way too heavy on the cheese.

After a search for postcards we headed back across the huge Avenida 9 de Julio (one of the world's widest roads), where I took a quick video in an attempt to show just how crazy driving and walking across this thing is. Check it out below.

That night we were both too exhausted to go out so we relaxed in the hotel room and watched tv. If I recall correctly, we had to meet the truck at 5AM so it was an early night.

Next Post: We meet Amber....our truck, visit some Argentinean gas stations and experience the 'Saw' shower. Oh, and Abby and I sleep in the Hoff. 'Nuff said.

*I was going to try to use code names/initials for people but it was way too weird to write (and there were way to many people with names beginning with 'J'). If you still want me to change your names people, leave a comment...

'Nick'=Mick

'Ray'=Jay

Clearly, I don't have a strong enough imagination or rhyming skills to make up 16 code names.

Mission: Get to Buenos Aires...

(Even the beautiful views of Chile couldn't make me feel better...)

not as easy as you might think...

The Original Plan: July 11 - go from Nashville, TN (I was there to attend Steph & Tony's wedding) to Miami and then on to Buenos Aires.

Oh, if only it had gone that smoothly. But where's the travel challenge in that route? Here's what ended up happening...

1. Get a phone call at B&B in Nashville telling me the flight to Miami was delayed from 2PM to 4:45PM. Thanks American Airlines for letting me know. That was very nice of you.

2. 4:00PM - Taryn drops me off at the airport where I'm told that there's no way I'm getting to Miami in time for my connecting flight. They re-direct me to Dallas/Ft.Worth and then to B.A. Thanks American, for lying to me when I talked to the rep on the phone but whatever.

3. Land in Dallas with over an hour before my connecting flight. Unfortunately we sit on the runway because there isn't a gate for us. For the next hour we watch other planes come and go...they have gates. I FINALLY get off the plane and am told by the gate attendant to run to my next flight because they're still boarding.

4. Problem - Dallas is one of the world's largest airports and I have to take a seriously slow monorail thing around 3 terminals. Run to gate. Get laughed at by the gate attendants. Plane is long gone. At this point I'm getting really tired of AA people.

5. Get put on plane to Santiago, Chile and then a flight to B.A. Not before I make a call home where I sob to my father about events #1-4.

(Finally flying over Argentina...only took 24 hours)

6. Emerge in B.A. to find that my huge-full-of-everything-I-need-for-the-next-6-weeks-backpack has been left back in Santiago (I hate you American Airlines!) and after waiting for 40 minutes at a counter am told it will be delivered to my hostel sometime that night. I am doubtful. Very doubtful.

7. Get ripped off in the cab. It was scary. I was threatened by the two drivers...that's all I'll say about that incident.

(Crappy grocery store dinner I had to buy in order to get change. OK, the dulce de leche oreos were damn good.)

8. Make it to the hostel alive. Can't pay with 100 peso bill because Argentina has a shortage of change. Bloody hell. Go to a grocery store. Beg for change. Email home describing my ordeal. Bag magically arrives at hostel. I go to my room (thank god I booked a single) and collapse into bed. Wonder whether this trip was such a good idea...

Next post: I indulge my penchant for bike riding through traffic-filled cities, meet my Dragoman crew and end up in a cemetery. Yeah, I bet you're interested now...