BA

I arrived in Buenos Aires (BA) excited to explore this city famous for its dancing, food and drink, football (soccer) and colorful night life. For the first two nights I checked into a bed and breakfast in the Palermo area for a splurge after 6 weeks of dorm rooms. Palmero is a trendy area with cute little shops and really delicious (but pricey!) restaurants and bars. The bed and breakfast was an old mansion redone in beautiful decor that included a breakfast that would blow you away. Argentina is famous for my newest addiction: dolce de leche. This is made by boiling sweetened condensed milk for hours to make a really sweet carmel syrup. Argentinians put it on EVERYTHING from their toast in the morning to their ice cream, pastries, chocolate and anything else you can think of. Having a croissant with doche de leche, yogurt, eggs, cheese, fresh fruit and coffee may seem over indulgent for breakfast but after the typical breakfast of white bread, jam and tea served by all hostels thus far I ate to my hearts content.

The next day I ventured to the famous Sunday San Telmo market. This is a wonderful street market filled with artisans, artists, street performers and antique dealers. You can purchase anything your heart desires and the market is nestled on a narrow street with gorgeous colonial buildings surrounding it. The area of San Telmo is the famous for Tango and you can see tango dancers at many different locations. I sure wish I had more time to learn this seductive and beautiful dance! I also enjoyed the Evita museum later on that afternoon. This museum was really interesting and a great lesson in Argentinian political and social history.

On Monday morning I checked into an HI hostel in the heart of downtown on Florida street. The downtown is bustling to say the least. It was a sea of people and while trying to navigate my way to my hostel with my two huge packs strapped on my back and front, I soon realized that walking was a really stupid idea! This hostel turned out to be a gem! It was HUGE with over 100 rooms (and 4-6 people in most rooms!), a great common area, fun activities planned and in a great area of BA. I shopped a little and got to know my awesome roomate Christina from Brazil. She's a doctor and a real sweet heart. We decided to hit up the hostels pub crawl which was fun more due to the group that was on it than the bar choices :).

Tuesday started with a long walk with Christina to check out La Boca. This area of town is famous for its brightly colored buildings and was really neat to see. We enjoyed chatting up a local artist and the live music and tango. We also toured past Boca stadium which is home to one of the top soccer teams in the world.

Wednesday I packed up, enjoyed my last empanada, said goodbye to my new friends and headed for the airport. I so enjoyed my time in South America! It really opened my mind and calmed my fears about travelling alone. It seemed that almost everyone I met on this trip was travelling alone. Never before on a trip have I met so many people or travelled with new friends for an extended period. It's funny that when I got home everyone asked me how travelling alone was but in reality I only spent maybe 5 or 6 days of the 6 week trip alone. It was great to meet some like minded people from all over the world and explore this part of the world together. Now for my North American part of my vacation, Nanaimo with my sister and cousin and the Sasquatch music festival in Washington state with my brother and friend Heather!