Bienvenido

New York - Buenos Aires

We just arrived in Buenos Aires. By "we" I mean Josh and I, as Alex clearly did not make his flight. We'll see him tomorrow hopefully.

Josh insisted upon being driven to JFK in a private car. New Jersey is his turf, and he informed me that his mother would be furious at me if I did not allow Josh this last luxury, so I could not really effectively resist this. Upon arrival in Buenos Aires, however, I found a good, cheap way to get into the city. We skipped the taxis and shuttles that would cost about $15 bucks each and took the 2 peso {60 cent} local bus into the city. This took about two hours, but really gave us a good view of the city.

We started amidst dirt road on-ramps and goats hanging out in trash heaps. The landscape was that of California in winter mixed with what I imagine Indiana to look like in the Autumn (bleak and dying). Campaign posters littered lamposts and sides of shacks, illustrating just how ugly many of Argentina's politicians are (and how "change" is sweeping the world.) We saw soccer pitches that looked like they could be prison yards. It was a slightly desolate picture.

The entrance to the outskirts of the city was abrupt. On one side of the highway were fields, on the other side were crowded streets and packed-in buildings. We were surrounded by exhaust, traffic, and wild dogs that were capable of crossing streets like jaywalkers in New York. We ended up on an epic road that eventually took us into the center of the city. It felt like a transformation between Belize City and Rome or Budapest.

We have spent about 1 minute on the streets so far, but our hostel is terrific. Ok, Josh is out of the shower now, so I'm going to have to update more later.

Me, waiting for the 2 peso bus to bring us into the city. I´m happy.

The roof of Hostel Estoril.

A weekly protest against disappearances that happened in the 1970s. At least we thought, but I actually think this protest had socialist overtones as well.