Buenos Aires

Last night I flew out and made it safely in to Buenos Aires this morning. The flights were good and went pretty quickly. Actually, the flight down here seemed to go quicker than the one to Houston.

First off, we were delayed because someone got incredibly sick in the jetway. Secondly, on the plane, I had to sit next to a very drunk and very obnoxious guy. He had a few glasses of scotch during the flight and every time he got up he sat back down with the kind of flop normally reserved for new mattresses. He also stunk, which certainly didn´t help things.

In any event, the flight down here was great. I had my own screen in the seat in front of me so I managed to watch a couple of movies and even got a few hours of sleep in.

After I got here, I headed to my hotel and fortunately they let me check in a couple of hours early. So, after a quick shower and a change of clothes, it was time to see Buenos Aires.

The first thing I did was walk over to Recoleta Cemetery. The most famous people in Argentine history are buried there, including Evita. It was easy to find her tomb even though it´s not marked on the maps. I just followed the crowd.

After that I walked around the cemetery for a while. It´s a great place if you love photography. I spent a good bit of time there.

From there I headed down Avenida 9 de Julio. That´s roughly July 9th Avenue in English. July 9th is Argentine Independence Day, but more importantly it´s my birthday.

The street itself is one of, if not the, widest in the world. It´s pretty cool. I walked down it to Plaza de Mayo and hung out there for a little bit.

From there, I walked through the San Telmo neighborhood to the National History Museum. It was pretty neat and had a ton of information. It was funny though, because they had everything in both English and Spanish, until you got the section on the war over the Falkland Islands.

That part was only in Spanish. I´m guessing they had some fairly nasty things to say about the British they didn´t want them hearing.

After that, I headed back to my hotel to rest up and find a place to grab dinner. I chose a steakhouse recommended in my guidebook and it was awesome, not to mention cheap. I´d heard Argentina was a great value, but I didn´t realize how great.

I had a 6 oz filet mignon with a side and an entire bottle of wine and it cost only $25 including taxes and tip. The food was awesome too, so was the wine. I couldn´t believe it. Oh, and I´m not heading into alcoholism, you have to order an entire bottle, they don´t sell it by the glass.

After that I had a cup of coffe and some dessert at another place closer to my hotel. I tried their crepe stuffed with dulce de leche, which is an Argentine specialty. It´s basically a thick carmel-tasting gooey dessert. It´s awesome. I´ll try to bring some back.