Make Time: Hello, Buenos Aires!

I'm sitting in an incredibly chill outside/inside lounge where they are playing jazz and blues. I'm in Palermo, which is the trendy/hipster neighborhood of Buenos Aires, where for the last 30 minutes I've been walking around just looking at different bars and clubs and lounges, all starting to get packed with young people. This is definitely the right neighborhood for me for this trip.

I'm happy with the hostel, which I got to around 1:30am this morning from Cordoba. The bus ride was pretty uneventful, other than a kid behind me who wouldn't stop screaming out whenever he saw a tractor (which he called "catapillar"). I slept a little and read a little and thought a lot. I thought about farming in Argentina vs the US, and about the cows and the livestock. I thought about poets. I thought about race car drivers. I thought about my family. Wait, are my family race car drivers? Maybe sometimes.

So I got to the bus station around 1am and went to grab a cab as soon as possible. The place was pretty desolate so it wasn't that big of a problem. While I'm waiting outside for a cab I hear a few dogs yelping and a guy yelling and screaming. I look past the cab line and see two policeman allowing their dogs to attack a guy. Apparently the guy directing the cab line told me that the guy across the way had drugs on him or was trying to sell drugs - either way this was standard practice for deterring drug deals in the bus station. Definitely an intense way to arrive in Buenos Aires, but I'm not planning to get into any trouble so I think I'll be ok. I was very happy to get in the cab and realize that they have meters here! Usually I always have to negotiate the price of the cab before taking off, so this is a new and nice change. Cab took a few minutes and then I was bed shortly thereafter. I'm in a room with five others, but instead of Salta and Cordoba, this hostel has air conditioning, so I'm more than happy. I slept like a baby.

Woke up and went upstairs to grab some free breakfast, which consisted of hardboiled eggs, toast, juice, and jams. Overall a nice start to my day, and the people in the hostel couldn't have been nicer. I met girls from Australia, Canada, and the US, as well as a guy from Austria. Everyone has their own story, but everyone wants to travel and travel and travel. I share some of my story but mostly I just listen and enjoy my breakfast. After that I grabbed a shower and then decided to walk to the US consulate. I wanted to see if they had information about the process to get a Brazilian visa, but of course they told me to go to the Brazilian embassy. Shocker. Sometimes I surprise myself with how dumb I am. Oh well. So I left the embassy and walked for about 2.5 hours along this beautiful parkway, which reminded me of a cross between 5th Avenue (NYC) and Michigan Avenue (Chicago). So many beautiful apartment buildings, with a huge park across the street. If I lived here I feel like I might end up in one of those towers, which was fun to think about. After the parkway I entered into the tourist center of the city, and only walked for a few blocks before I heard a great blues guitarist playing on the street. I listened for a bit and then walked and took some pics (see below), but then a huge rain cloud rolled in so I decided to head back to the hostel. I had bought a $50 Peso ($6 US) metro card so I could use public transportation while I'm here, and so I found the D-train and took it from the tourist area back to Palermo. It was incredibly easy, and I took it around rush hour so it was nice to be on the train with all the locals. I felt good. Got back to my hood and knew exactly where to walk, and on the way home I stopped in a fruit shop and bought a bunch of small oranges - incredibly fresh. The guy in the fruit stand was good vibes, and we fist pumped on the way out. I love making pals in the neighborhood I end up staying - even if it's the fruit stand and the corner store. I got back to the hostel and took a quick nap and then walked out in Palermo to see if I could find some place to eat and use wifi. About 20 minutes into my walk I saw a sign that said "Shwarma" and before I could think I had already eaten a lamb and beef shwarma and was back on my walk. Damn I love shwarmas! I now have my spot in the hood for a $3 US shwarma and drink so I think I'll be back plenty of times in the coming weeks. After dinner I kept walking and grabbed some ice cream and kept going through the neighborhood. I heard people speaking Spanish, English, French, and Arabic all in the same outside bar. This is definitely going to be an interesting city. Going to take my time to ease into it, but it feels good so far.

Before coming here all I heard from people was that it's a dangerous place, so I guess I've had my guard up a little bit. JMadden - you'll be happy to know I'm caring your knife everywhere I go, just in case I need to fend off some punks. Probably won't ever need it, but it gives me peace of mind. So here I am, sitting in a cafe listening to the Momma and the Poppas and having a fancy cocktail. Gonna sign off for now and chill, but I'm thinking of doing a big bike tour of the city in the coming days, so I'll take a bunch of pics and put them up. PS - there are SO many restaurants in this neighborhood - it's crazy. I keep wishing more of you were here so we could eat our way through the hood. Maybe another time.

Have a good night everyone.