´Don´t Cry for me Argentina...´

´Patricia´beer is brewed in Uruguay. This one´s for you ma!






Check out this exotic carport!

We are officially having a sweet sweet love affair on dear Buenos Aires with its neighboring colonial country Uruguay. We took a short 1hr ferry ride over to Colonia del Sacramento and quickly realized just how cozy and lovely this little town is. Colonia is a UNESCO world heritage sight and lives up to its name with its cobblestone streets and beach blotted coastline. Colonia has one main street where you either see people sipping Yerba Mate (a drink that is in the hands of several passing locals, that we have yet to try) or mozying along on scooters. In fact most of the locals drive scooters as opposed to vehicles and you can see several tourists flying around on them too, as well as golf carts for the more laid back visitors. Aaron and I rented a scooter each and had the time of our loves flying around the town and checking out every beach and side road that our little scooters could go. We saw things that we would never have on foot, like the beach where all of the locals go and the historic bullring that has a slight resemblance to the Colosseum in Rome.

We scootered around for about 7 full hours and are paying for it today with nasty sunburns! Luckily, it's overcast and on the breezy side because we had a horseback riding trip booked during peak sunlight hours. We just got back from 2.5 hours of crazy horseback riding escapades. It was just us, two Canadian girls and our "guide". I put it lightly because he didn´t speak a lick of English and looked about 15 years old. We ended up going on the most unsafe and unruly horseback riding trip that would hardly be considered safe by Canadian standards! Half of us had hardly been on horses before, one of the girls was practically flopping off from a disheveled saddle, my horse ran away because I hopped off to try and salvage things flying from one of the girls´backpack that unzipped during mid-gallop and the horses were freaked when we came up to the beach that had a higher than expected tide and branches in every direction gouging us and them. Our "guide" had fallen behind because he himself was trying to get his horse to calm down. All and all, it ended up being quite the adventure and we saw some amazing landscape and had more freedom then we could obviously handle!

We topped the night of at a beach side restaurant where we devoured delicious short ribs, a bottle of wine, potatoes and salad for only $9 bucks each, CDN! Parrillada is a Spanish term for BBQ and most of the restaurants here specialize in grilled meats and carry quite the selection, so we thought we should try it out and it was delicious. The people in Uruguay seem just as friendly as the Argentines and appear to speak better English. The restaurants here also carry more English oriented menus, probably because they depend on tourism as one of their main industries.

I will post more pics from beautiful Colonia when I get to a computer that doesn´t take 10 minutes to upload each photo! Ciao!

Temperatures are rising and we are loving every minute!

Already I have two blisters on my feet, two sunburns have come and gone and I am up to my tenth mysterious insect bite, but none of that matters to me as I continue to soak in this lovely country. The people here appear to be completely ego less and befriend us everywhere we go. Salespeople are constantly excusing their poor English, which is hilarious because it should be the other way around. On Monday night we went to an outdoor music performance- Labamba del Tiempo, that was packed with backpackers and Argentinians alike. The musicians were awesome as they beat on their djembes and maracas and the crowd grooved, beers in tow.

We have been walking a minimum of five hours a day and trying to drink as much h20 as possible. Taking evening siestas has become a necessity in a city packed with such cool stuff to see. The weekend is definitely slower paced than the work week, yet people are still totally chill and polite. Something peculiar we have noticed is the amount of people out late with their kids on school nights. The cafes are packed at midnight, more so then around 6 or 7 pm which is what we would consider dinner time. Apparently BA is known for its nightlife, having some of the best clubs in South America. This cafe culture is something I could definitely get used to and cafe con leche and an empanadas has become my favorite snack.

We walked to Recoleta to see its famous cemetery that holds 4800 tombs of important people and their families, dating back to early 1800. Evita´s drew the most excitement, but all of them were incredible to look at and totally elaborate. Recoleta, as well as Palermo are pretty affluent neighborhoods and have several beautiful parks to catch some shade in. We visited the botanical garden in Palermo that that has crazy statues and thick vegetation. We also went to the zoo to check out all of the animals. It is by far the best zoo I have even visited, not only for its wealth of animals but again for its surrounding environment of buildings from colonial times and vast plant life.

Apart from our terrible espanol skills, we are having a blast! Until next time...hasta luego amigos.

Welcome to Argentina! First stop...Buenos Aires.

What better way to experience Argentine culture than to start with its well anticipated capital,

BuenosAires. We arrived in BA on Saturday morning at 10:30 (6:30 am, AB time) and took a taxi to Kaixo hostel which is located in the city´s centre. Our taxi driver didn´t speak very much English, but acted as our tour guide as he pointed out several churches, barrios (neighborhoods) and monuments as we drove into the city´s core. Our hostel is in a prime location as it is located about two blocks from the Obelisk, which has got to be the tallest landmark in BA and has become the perfect tool to navigate around. We set out to tour the city on foot to get our barrings and ended up seeing a large chunk of what BA has to offer: old school cobblestone streets, historic architecture in every direction and cafe´s, pizzerias and ice cream shops on every corner. We saw most of the parliament buildings, including the large pink headquarters in which the president resides. Hilarious!

The trees here are incredible, not only because of the variations from one to the other but because of their sheer size. The weather has also been incredible and the single fan in our room at Kaixo has been workin´ overtime already! Our first night we enjoyed a steak dinner and bottle of Malbec from the Mendoza region, which is west of BA. We also sat on the terrace of our hostel and drank giant (1litre) Argentine beers that cost only $1.50 CDN and chatted with a group of travellers from the UK and one guy from Toronto.

We walked to San Telmo district to browse its infamous Sunday street market and antiques display which covers a whopping 13 blocks. There was umbrellas popped open for shade at several of the tables and we couldn´t resist the fresh squeezed o.j that was offered on every block. We caught a glimpse of a Tango routine and enjoyed checking out all of the unique artwork and crafts that are native to Argentine culture. We walked to Boca Junior´s Stadium where futbol fans go to cheer on their home team and boast BA pride. Seven hours later, we returned to our hostel and got ready to watch a live Tango show and have dinner. We took the subway, which resembles a San Fran style street car, very authentic! The Tango show was thrilling to watch. The footwork was quick and precise. The makeup and costumes were flashy and sultry. The dancers even got the audience involved by pulling some of them out of their chairs and getting them to strut along with them to the music. The music score was a four piece ensemble; violinist, accordionist, pianist and double bassist.

We have only been in BA for two nights and have fallen in love with this city´s charm. The people are very gracious and accommodating. The way of life here gives new meaning to the phrase ´laissez faire´. For a city of 14 million, they seem to have it all figured out.