Lake Tahoe sticker at Catedral

No photos

No photos yet! I have to wait until I have a computer that has safari or firefox on it. One problem with Mobile Me is that is doens´t work on Intenet Explorer. Blah!!

Funny Things that have happened

Subway- people walk by and put things on your lap. Scissors, hair clips, pad of paper. At first I was thinking what the heck are they doing. Then, I realized they want you to buy the stuff. They walk by drop it in your lap whether you want them to or not, then they walk back by and pick it up a few minutes later. People are so used to it. They sometimes don´t even acknowledge that there is anything on their lap or they pick it up and look at it. I never saw anyone buy anything. Huh, not sure if that business plan is working to well.

I am officially the jack ass of the trip. First I was late for the first bus and they all had to wait for me, then I lost my baggage ticket when we got off the bus. They would not give me my bag. I had to bribe the guy to give it to me. None of these people know me in my group and their first impression is of this absent minded girl who can´t seem to get herself  together. I think since I am on vaca, I have left all of my responsiblity at home. My mind is all over the place. I have since made up for my bad first impressions and I think the group likes me a lot more now. Who wouldn´t right! They actually thought I didn´t like them. I will probably never live down this entire trip.

Longest bus ride ever. 24 hours from BA to Bariloche. I was in and out of sleep the entire time. Weird, ever since I got here, I sleep like a baby. At home I was getting 4 to 5. Here it is about 7 or 8. I think it is the no stress. My feet swelled so bad. Yuck, that has never happened before.

At the grocery store in Bariloche, I heard these two guys speaking english. I got so excited I walked up to them and said, Hey, you speak english, where are you guys from? Turns out one is from here and the other is from Canada. They own a travel company. They invited me to learn to Tango that night. I took one of the girls from my group and we went to this hotel. It was very nice and totally lagite. It was a group lesson taught by this lady that spoke no english, but it was so much fun. We learned the basics and we had a blast. They invited us for dinner and drinks. It was so nice and FREE. Funny who you can meet in the grocery store.

Last night we went out on the town and an Argentinian bought me a drink. He didn´t speak a lick of english. I laughed, because he kept trying to talk to me and I couldn´t understand a word. His friend had to translate for him. Heehee.

Today, I took the bus up to Catedral, the ski resort, to go skiing and it rained. Not just rain, but down poored. I walked around for about 20 minutes and got soaking wet. Two days ago everyone keeps telling me the weather was great. Man, I guess today was not the day for snowboarding.

Cemetary/Shopping/Dinner of International Cuisine

Well, I will have to add the pictures later. A lot has happening since my last update. I sort of ran out of Internet access for a while. In the past couple of days I took some excursions to exciting place, did some great shopping and hung out with what are now friends.

Highlights-
On Wednesday I walked to the Cemetary of Recolecta. This is an amazing place. All of the graves are like tombs. Some are very new with marble and granite with glass covering the entrance. Others are old and run down. Coffins are readily visble to the passerbys. My favorite was the cats. Cats roam the graveyard playing about. They are all very healthy looking and have a lot of character.

Went to Palermo to shop. Sarah, my sister,said there was great cheap shopping here and well that is what I did. I got some great things for very cheap. Gotta love shopping in a huge city with great prices.

Dinner with Yvan and his girlfriend. They met me at Argentinia Mexican food. Called the Taco Box. I had to laugh, a little funny for a name and I have to say I was not expecting it to be very good. Well, they were some of the best tacos I have had. Thetaco shells were corn hard shells and delicious.  After dinner we went to an Irish Pub and had some very good local brews. Yvan likes the same type of beer as me, so I have been lucky enough to have some great beverages. I like to consider this the night of International Affiar. Yvan and his girlfriend were so nice to have me along and show me around. Thanks to them if they read this!! Great, great people.

Thursday
Woke up and took the Subway to meet Yvan for some more shopping and lunch. It was actually easy to get on the subway, even though my spanish sucks. I did get off at the wrong stop, but Yvan was able to find me. I was lost. We shopped about and of course I got a few more bargains. Then we met for lunch at a pizzaria. Yummy! it was so good. Again, some of the best pizza ever. These Argenitinians really know how to cook.

I had to run because I had to meet up with my travel crew and catch our bus to Bariloche. Of course, the subway decided to take forever. It would stop, then go about two miles an hour and then stop. I was looking at my watch, knowing that if I was late they would leave me behind. The guide said he would if people were late. Here I am getting off the subway running to my hotel and thank god I made it. He had already left a note on my bag ready to leave me. Yikes!! I think back and it would have not been that bad if they left me, I would have just met up with Yvan and caught another ride down to Bariloche. I am glad I made it though, makes things a lot easier.

More updates and pictures to come. Busy, busy... but loving it and having a blast.

T is for Tango!

After dinner Leandro took me to his fathers Tango Club. It was so
interesting to see. Many locals took to the floor, each having
different styles and grace. Then, the pros would come out and show
their stuff. The music, the style and the atmosphere were all so
entertaining. Leandro's Dad was very very nice and fun to meet. He had
a great personality. Just before leaving Leandro's dad did a skit with
a man. It was hilarious. They danced the Tango, exagerating every
step. It was fantastic and actually pretty good. I not sure Leandro
was to impressed, but I thought it was fun!

Southern Hospitality

Yvan and Leandro were my tour guides for the day. They are friends of
my sister and brother and law. Casa Rosada (their White House), the
marina, a local microbrewery (muy bueno), an art gallery, parilla
(best meat ever), argentinian wine, and tango were just a few of the
festivities. Talk about southern hospitality... I had never met either
of these men and they took me under their wing to show me around.

Details... Of course:-)
Microbrews - delicious honey beer that was 8.5 % alcohol. I had to be
careful with these. Not having any food all day and then these will
knock u right on your ass. I made sure to eat something.

Parilla (pronounced parr-rolled r-i-sha) ll is sha in Argentina.
Basically this is a restaurant of meat. Any kind of cut you want.
Leandro was kind enough to explain the entire menu to me. I had some
type of steak, which I don't normally eat, and it was delicious. We
had this with some fantastic red wine.

The other details ;-) Both men are happily in relationships, but very
cute I must add. I met Yvan's girlfriend Martina. She is just as cute
as him.

Lost in translation

It's official, I've made it. The flight was long... 10 hrs. Luckily, I
sat next to a very nice Argentinian named Chris. He works for the
argentine government and he was very helpful with showing me on the
map the areas of town I should go. He also showed me the areas to
definitely not go. He was trying to get me to speak more Spanish, so I
was practing how to say little things. Coffee with cream - cafe con
crema. Lets face it, I'm kind of pathetic on the language side.
Anyways, he helped the time pass, and he offered to take me sailing if
I stick around for the weekend.

When I arrived I handed them my passport and I was on my way. No bag
check, no inspection... nothing. I was just welcomed by a short
smiling man with a sign that had my name on it and spoke absolutely no
ingles. He was my transfer. We tried to communicate on the way from
the airport, but it was pretty much a lost cause. I thought of what he
might be thinking, "Why is this girl in Argentina traveling when she
can't speak the language?" Well... I kind of laughed to myself,
because I'm not a 100% sure why either. I do feel a little lost in
translation, but I know I have to suck it up and get out there.
Otherwise, I will spend all of my time in my hotel room. And, by the
looks of it, I don't want to spend to much time here. It doesn't even
have a window.