Como se dice?

The End.

2009-04-21T07:39:00.000-07:00

I have been back in the U.S. for nearly two weeks now. I am so glad to be home and certainly have a new outlook on where I am from. I hope to be going back to Buenos Aires very soon, as I made life long friends there and still have places I would like to visit.

I am currently in Jacksonville and preparing for the next phase, which may be the UCF graduate film program. James and Nicolas are continuing the adventure now from Australia, where they plan to be for the next six months or so.
You can visit their new blog about it here:
http://kangaroobarbeque.blogspot.com/

Thanks for reading the blog and supporting us in our adventures. To end,

TOP TEN THINGS I MISS ABOUT ARGENTINA (in no order):

1. Best steaks EVER

2. Best wine EVER

3. The candid nature of the people I met. Open and honest people who are generally not afraid to talk about their lives and life in general in a meaningful way. I never felt unwelcome or unloved in the company of an Argentine.

4. An amazing blend of cultures. Though I cannot testify to this being an exclusive characteristic of Argentina, I will miss the complex and beautiful meshing of cultures in Buenos Aires. Simultaneously European and South American, but something distinct and all its own.

5. Yerba Mate. I cannot find any here yet and I miss it. Not quite tea, not quite coffee. It was bitter but it made me feel great and always brought people together. Starbucks always talks about coffee bringing people together, but I didn't quite understand that idea until I had been introduced to the social institution of mate drinking.

6. Tango. As I am writing this, I am realizing that the things I miss are all the things that travel guides mention to sum up the country. As cliche as it may be, the Tango was something not to be missed. It is an amazing dance, but more than that, the music is beautiful. I will always think about the times I was in a cab where the driver was actually listening to Tango on the radio. Watching the city blur past me with Astor Piazzolla on the radio is something I will always miss.

7. Late nights in the city are a regular occurance. As a night person, this lifestyle suited me very well. Too bad nothing was open if you were awake before 10am. Too bad everything closes in Florida super early.

8. Futbol everywhere! I love watching the sport and it is never on television here in the U.S. But I suppose it's pretty huge everywhere else in the world too...

9. The Patagonian desert has something about it that I cannot describe. Being there and driving through was almost spiritual for me. The epic landscapes and wildlife and isolation really helped me to understand why they call Argentina the edge of the earth. It was literally the last place for humans to inhabit, the last frontier. That is not to say it was primitive, but somehow it really clarified my perspective of myself and the world I live in. It also gave me a sense of the frontiers of my own country, as they might have been long ago.

10. Finally, the pace of Argentina. This is something I missed the moment I stepped off the plane in Miami. Somehow Buenos Aires, and all of Argentina for that matter, can exist just like our country but exponentially more relaxed. The pace is slow, the mindset is tranquilo. The people of Argentina "go with the flow" in a way that defies logic. At times it was very frustrating, but overall I learned a great deal about living from Argentines. The know how to do it and do it well.

Thanks again for reading!
-Kate

Cisco is gone. Forever? :(

2009-03-31T11:24:00.000-07:00

Mar Del Plata VIDS!

2009-03-31T11:20:00.000-07:00

It worked!

2009-03-31T11:02:00.000-07:00

Because the internet in this house is clogged up by 12 or so people constantly, I haven't been able to upload videos. Suddenly it worked, so now I'll try uploading some old vids and photos of iguazu all while in the comfort of my shanty room on the roof listening to gay travel podcasts. Here's the Argentine flag.

And Now For Something Completely Different

2009-03-13T08:22:00.000-07:00

My Uncles recently took a cruise from Santiago, Chile all the way around the Southern tip of South America and up to Buenos Aires to hang out with little ol' me. Here are pictures from the Tango dinner show we saw while they were here. Featured also are Francisco and Fionna as well as some friends from St. Louis and Minneapolis. We hand a blast while they were here, this show being one of the major highlights.

The Real Argentina - safely from a car window

2009-02-28T17:17:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago Francisco, another St. Lunatic, Fionna and I rented a car and planned a trip to see some of the real Argentina. We decided to trace a similar route to the one Francisco and I had taken previously to Bariloche - stopping in Santa Rosa, La Pampa, and staying with Francisco's father in Villa la Angostura. When I made this trip before, I took overnight buses to each new region, so I missed all of the changing landscapes and whacky local gas stations. From Villa la Angostura, we drove south and east, through the real Patagonian desert. Once at the coast, we stopped at Puerto Madyrn and the Valdés Peninsula, which was home to some of Darwin's old stomping grounds. Below is a map Francisco was kind enough to make to show you the route we took. (As always - click on the map to make it bigger - same goes for all photos)
After La Pampa, we traveled South towards Bariloche. The endles stretches of cattle land and crops soon became the orchards of Neuquén. "Apples, Pears, Wine and Dinosaurs" - or some variation on that was the tourism slogan for Neuquén. The dinosaurs part is about all of the fossils found here. We stopped here for lunch, I believe, but had to press on to make Villa la Angostura by night.

As the mountains began to appear...
This picture is of some cassette tapes we saw in a gas station. It reminded me of the rock tapes you see at truck stops in the U.S.
It is a dry time of year and an even dryer time for the climate in this region. Above is a dried up lake we saw - one of a great many. Below is a river that was almost gone.

We spent a few days in Bariloche and Villa, eating chocolate, climbing mountains and hanging out with Francisco's dad. At this point in the trip, we had planned to go back to Buenos Aires the same way we came. Thankfully, Mr. Fisher suggested an alternative route that would take us through the "real Patagonia" and up past the Valdéz Peninsula. It was an ambitious route, but the mystery of the Patagonian desert and beaches full of cute sea lion were too much to resist. In the photo above, you can see the gravel road that we encountered a few times in the middle of nowhere. When the highway turns to gravel, the next town becomes exponentially farther away. Below is an example of the landscape throughout Real Patagonia, which greatly resembled the wild wests of the U.S.

One thing that we had hoped to experience was the wild sage that grows all over the region. Apparently if you drive through areas with all this sage during the right time of year, it has turned a burnt red color and fills the air with a scent that makes you euphoric. We had also heard the sage could open your mind in ways you never thought possible. Obviously, the mystical sage alluded us, but there is always next time...

Above are some photographs of the sea lion on the Valdéz Peninsula. Around this time, my camera died, so hopefully I can get some photos from Fiona to complete this part of the trip. The peninsula was a large, gravel-roaded national park. People drive around the peninsula, getting out at certain points to few the various wildlife colonies. Penguins, sea lions, elephant seals, right whales, dolphin and orca are common at different points on the penisula. We did not see any orca, but think we saw some baby right whales underwater in an inlet. The peninsula is massive and largely not roped off from tourist invaders. Despite this, it remains well kept and respected - it must if the animals keep coming back. This was a great treat - someplace in the world that is pretty unique and has a lot of history behind it (the Darwin thing, remember?).

Overall, we traveled over 3000 kilometers (there are 2.2 kilometers in a mile). It was the best road trip I've been on yet and the highlight of my time here in Argentina. On top of that, I learned to drive a stick. Not many people can say they learned to drive a manual car in the Patagonian desert, but now I can. Hopefully, I will get some more pictures up.

-Kate

Casazul

2009-02-18T06:32:00.000-08:00

James and I have neglected to take any photos of the house we have been living in since January. But since we both plan on spending the remainder of our time here in Buenos Aires in this house, called "Casazul," here are some images of our new home away from home.This was James' room for the month of January. He has since moved to the roof, in the room seen below.

The roof with excellent view of the church across the street.
Our pool.
Some roommates on the roof kitchen (there are two kitchens total). In the center is the owner of the house, Fernando.
This is the living room connected to the kitchen on the roof. It's like a greenhouse, but inside is a kitchen and living room. This is, by far, the best room in the house.

These stairs are behind the roof kitchen. They lead to the bedrooms on the 460 Pasco side of the house. Let me explain. The layout is two, two-story houses connected by a roof. Both houses have courtyards open through both floors. On top of the roof are two other rooms, a large glass enclosure (the roof living room/kitchen) and two large patio areas. I live on the 454 Pasco side of the house, upstairs. James used to live on the 460 Pasco side, but now lives on the roof. Get it? It's bizarre. Below is me in my room. You can see behind me the open courtyard.
The stairs outside of my room that lead down to the door/ground floor. The ground floor of both sides of the house is not connected to the 2nd floor or the roof. So, there are essentially 4 front doors, depending on where you live in the house. Each floor has about 4 or 5 rooms, so we have a ton of roommates.

Below is James looking out the window to his room. Note Mitre, the white cat to the left. There is also a black cat that lives on the bottom floor.

In our kitchen, below the roof, we have a lot more room to cook than we did at the Lavalle apartment, which was more like a college dorm kitchen. Here are a couple of pictures from the night James led us in figuring out how to make our own empanadas.

Also, in order to leave our mark at Casazul, James and I commandeered a large, blank canvas in the roof living room. We are currently painting a large piece to hang in the living room. The painting will heavily feature pandas, as you can see.

Coming soon! Videos from James!

Uruguay: The Little Brother that Became a Best Friend

2009-02-02T09:23:00.000-08:00

I recently returned from my visa-renewing trip to Uruguay with Francisco. This is the easiest way to renew your tourist visa, which expires every three months. They even have special day-trips (probably for people like us) that include a boat over to Uruguay, a meal and then a boat back.

The boat we took, Buquebus, was not your standard fairy. Taking so many people across only a few times a day, the boat was massive. It had your standard on deck hang out areas, complete with bar and blaring music. Below deck was three levels with shopping, an arcade, several bars, a cafeteria and live music. There was plenty to do for the three hours it took to get from Buenos Aires to Colonia. However, we remained on the deck most of the time.

Hasta luego, Buenos Aires!

I didn't want to go to Uruguay for the day just to renew my visa, so we made a long weekend of visiting several different cities. I paint brushed crude arrows on this map of Uruguay. It is the route of our trip. Click on it to make it bigger.
The majority of the photographs that I took on the trip were in Colonia. There was little else to do here. Colonia was a very small tourist town and site of structures dating back to (you guessed it) colonial times. It was first colonized by the Portuguese, who were quickly thwarted by the Spanish. This may explain my impression that it was very much like St. Augustine.
[Above] The old lighthouse with ruins of something colonial. We think it might have been a convent? Either way, this is the image on every postcard from Colonia. Where I lack in actual knowledge of Colonia, I tried to make up for with nice photographs of the place.

Keep in mind, we're not to the ocean yet, just the wide mouth of the Rio de la Plata, which Uruguay and Argentina share. Below is the sunset on the river.

From Colonia, we took a bus to Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. We only spent time in Montevideo to catch the bus to La Paloma (the beach) and then to catch a boat back to Buenos Aires. I imagine you get to know very little of a city by hanging around the bus station and the port, but that was the extent of our time there. I liked what I saw and what I saw was pretty much like a smaller Buenos Aires. On the whole, we also saw more antique cars. This was exciting for Francisco, but as I am a girl, I could do little but take a few photographs and say, "that's nice."
The main event was La Paloma, a small beach town that I picked randomly on the map. The major beach city in Uruguay is Punte del Este. Punta del Este is very big and ritzy, attracting tons of tourist and Latin American celebrities. I would still like to go; the pictures look pretty cool. But I thought if we could get out to a smaller place on the beach, we might have a better time this trip. So we went to La Paloma, which turned out to be perfect.
I only took this one picture of our hostel in La Paloma. Unlike Colonia, I had much more to do here than take pictures, like lay on the beach all day. We stayed in a little hostel on the beach, employed with surfers who drove Francisco around looking for the best surf. We finally ate seafood, which to our dismay was just as crappy as in Buenos Aires. I should do a separate post about the issue of good seafood ANYWHERE. Another time, another time...

There were lots of people camping in the heavy woods that were around. Some beaches had lots of rocks and tide pools and some were sandy and crowded with people playing a form of bocce ball with discs. Some beaches were covered in dead, stinking mussels that wash on the beach with each tide. There was a lot of variety for such a small place and I would go back in a heart beat.

The trip back was a bit stressful, as finding transportation back to Buenos Aires from Montevideo on a Monday was nearly impossible. Should anyone be in the same position, I would recommend booking your return to BsAs from Uruguay ahead of time. We ended up taking another Buquebus back from Montevideo. This time, the boat was small and fast, making about twice the distance in the same amount time as the big boat to Colonia. This boat was considerably smaller and much more like an airplane (we couldn't go on deck). It did, however, have a duty free store selling Clinique products and liquor, both of which I always need. Not to get into too many details, but we had the opportunity to buy liquor that was about half the price it would normally be in the States and Buenos Aires.

A nice end to a nice trip to Uruguay. On the whole, there was little difference between Uruguay and Argentina, besides a currency that was around 22 pesos to every 1 U.S. dollar. And perhaps Uruguay was a bit more relaxed, as hard to believe as that may be.

Our First Trip to the Beach: Mar del Plata

2009-01-11T11:24:00.000-08:00

UPDATE: James and I just moved into a new house, in a less touristy side of town. We share the house with 8 to 10 (we're not really sure) other people from all over the world. A virtual (or at least pictorial) tour is coming soon!

Several weeks ago, James, Kathy, Nicolas and myself made the four hour journey by car to the coast. There are many smaller beach towns to go to on the Atlantic Ocean, but we decided to save the best for first. We went to Mar del Plata, a sprawling beach-side metropolis and tourist hot spot. The trip was great. Two days on the beach eating fruit salad and beef sandwiches with warm beer. We found a hostile close to the beach for about U$S 17 a night, and even hit up the smokey, massive casinos that were EVERYWHERE. No one won anything, of course.

Here are some photos courtesy of Kathy Conway:
One of the largest beaches we went to. Tons of cabanas with bars and DJs and you name it. We just went to the public side, which as you can see, was pretty packed.

This pic below was taken at grocery store near our hostile. It is a massive palm tree that they built around, I assume. It went all the way through the roof.

This second beach we went to was called Wikiki (go figure). It was a popular place for surfing, but no real beach to speak of. Everyone made places for themselves amoung the rocks. This sea mammal-style sunbathing took some getting used to.
Here are the three crazies at a rest stop on the way, recharging with Mate.
I expect to visit some smaller beach towns in the next few months, as more people from the city take time off and rent beach houses for vacation. Should be fun! Also, we have to renew our visas in this next month, so I am planning a trip to Iguazu Falls, which connects to Paraguay.

Villa La Angostura and Bariloche

2008-12-22T11:56:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I returned to Buenos Aires from a trip south with my friend Francisco. We took a bus through La Pampa, ending up in Villa La Angostura. While I was there, we visited Bariloche, which is an hour and a half or so by car from Villa La Angostura. I climbed mountains, went to the beach and stopped to smell to the roses. Here are some pictures.

This is in Villa La Angostura. We went to a beach on one of these lakes a few times. The lakes are very deep and granite stones line the beaches.

Downtown Villa and a good example of the ridiculous quantities of roses that were everywhere. When not in everyone's yards or in public planters like these, roses grew wild in the forests and on the mountains.

Franciso and his father, Bill, took me on a trail up into the mountains. This picture is unflattering, but good evidence of the utter exhaustion I felt whenever we stopped to rest and take pictures. There aren't a lot of mountains in Florida. The prize at the end of the hike was this waterfall. Que linda.

A historical square in Bariloche. It was raining and cold while we were there, but looks like it is normally a very nice skiing town in the winter. Here are a few more photos of the abundance of roses, which I never got used to.

On my last night, it snowed. It was a beautiful change from Buenos Aires, but of course, I am glad to be back to celebrate Christmas and New Years in BA.

-Kate

Shults-fab-fam-fotos and more!

2008-12-21T07:18:00.000-08:00

Grandma?

BTW click the photos to make them big. :)

This is Nicholas.

The time came for me to sell my leaves and I couldn't do it. So nowww I'm going to...... Teach english? I have an interview Monday. We'll see.

This is when we went to AMERIK. My last time at this wild club. I ended up barefoot in the street trying to catch a bus at 6:30am. No wallet, No phone. Thank God I had two pesos to get home.

High Five!

2008-12-19T18:19:00.000-08:00

I taught the woman who hands out flyers outside our apartment how to high-five tonight. I'm tired of the peruvian kiss kiss shit. "Listen lady!, it's up high, down low, in space, and IN YOUR FACE!"

Or nothing at all.....

-J

Alcohol I Have Learned About In Buenos Aires, Vol. 1: Fernet

2008-12-15T01:13:00.000-08:00

It has occurred to me that I could write multiple posts on new drinks that I have encountered here. Beyond the bad ass red wine and limited beer brands available (both of which I intend to cover at some point), I have also been made aware of the liquor world outside of your standard gin, vodka, tequila, rum and whiskeys.

Which brings us to the mighty Fernet.

Originally made in Milan, Italy, this dark, bitter liquor has become something of a national drink here in Argentina. Upon further research, I have found that Fernet is typically served in cola, coffee, espresso or with some kind of ginger ale. However, here in Argentina, it is exclusively drank with cola. The brand to look for is Fernet Branca, which also makes a mint Fernet.

Some benefits of Fernet which I have gleamed from those here who swear by it:
1. It gets you drunk (45% ABV)
2. It makes you shit (one of its original uses was as a digestif)
3. It makes you dance (I have not personally tested this one)

What more could you ask for in a drink, really?

To say that Fernet is bitter, in my opinion, is a gross understatement. Fernet is so bitter I can taste it in my drink if the ghost of a man who thought about drinking it passes through my glass. To me, it tastes a bit like motor oil that wishes it were Draino-soaked grass. To the people of Buenos Aires, it must taste like freedom and fun in liquid form. It is an essential party drink and after work cocktail.

When I asked people what it was made of, I got the same one word answer: herbs. To be more specific, Fernet is grape-based and made from over 40 different kinds of herbs, including myrrh, rhubarb, chamomile, cardamom, aloe and saffron. It was originally used as a home remedy and can still be used to help menstrual pain, digestive issues and hang overs.

I find that last one little hard to believe, as I have only had experiences with Fernet causing hangovers, but that's what Wikipedia says.

To end, some silly ads for Fernet that I found on the internet, a few of which suggest that we should add to the drink's list of benefits boobs and girls kissing each other. Have a Fernet and cola on the rocks and imagine all the dancing and shitting (hopefully not at the same time) that is to come. Enjoy!

Cambio?

2008-12-09T05:02:00.000-08:00

The shortage of blog entries will be corrected tomorrow, as Rachael is leaving this evening to go back to Florida. In the meantime, I wanted to talk about a different kind of shortage in Buenos Aires - the coin kind. There is currently a coin shortage in Buenos Aires, which directly affects anyone trying to get around in the city or anyone that buys anything (so pretty much everyone). The problem is that people and businesses hoard coins, which are needed to use the bus or make change anywhere. As a result, the one peso coin has become more valuable than the two peso bill. Read on...

Thanks to Francisco for the article.

-Kate

James' spanish words of the day:

2008-12-08T17:02:00.000-08:00

Let me bust out my trusty moleskin and see what new words we've got.

1.Pelo = Hair

2.Circa = Close

3.Broma = Joke

4.Fantasma = Ghost

5.Mierda = Shit!

6Tranzar = To Make out

7. Tetilla = Male nipple

Now lets make a little sentence. :) :) :)

Mierda. Tranzo con la fantasma. Estamos "so" circa, me pelo tetilla "fell out." No broma!

Btw, Kate and I met a spanish teacher in a hardware store here and she said she'd give us spanish lessons for cheeeeeaaaap. 13 bucks or so for one hour. Nice. Sadly we still haven't found jobs. Though I'm currently making some bad ass leaves. Example above. The plan is to make these leaves from paper, wire, thread, twigs, flowers etc. then try to sell them in one of the street markets. There are tons of these markets here where people sell crafts, art, clothing and basically anything they think people might buy. I'm going to market the leaves as "magic leaves" an depending on where you hang these little decorations, you get different desired effects:

Kichen = good food

Bathroom = good hair

Office = interesting bloggings

Garage = safe travels

Bedroom = good night life

Bedroom, specifically above your bed = very good night life ;)

Pantry = fresh food

Attic = Poor air circulation and high phone bill

(not recommended to hang in attic)

I have 5 done right now and hope to have at least 12 by next saturday. I'll let you know if I'm rolling in the pesos after that. If not, I'll have to face the music and get a real job. Ugh!

You think you know Shults, but you have no idea.

2008-11-30T11:07:00.000-08:00

Fabulous dinner on the water in La Tigre. A group of islands we day-tripped to. No drinking water on these islands and everything has to be delivered by boats. Notice Kate correcting her posture in hopes for a photo op.

Our lovely tour guide Sandra informing us on the history of La Tigre

Mr. Shults explaining the local flora and fauna.

Bizarre Shults rituals.

Raining in downtown B.A. Kate and I walking to the hotel.

Brandsen Photos

2008-11-27T08:58:00.000-08:00

Kate eagerly waiting for the bus.

2 hour bus ride with this old man laughing at me and saying questionable things about Kathy and Kate.

Give her a drink and she's all smiles.

This mattress was originally owned by Pablo's great great grandmother. Kate said it was as comfy as a corpse.

Adorable clothes line.

Adorable homeless dogs. Everywhere.

Pablo walking the streets of Brandsen, where everyone know his name AND we saw the mayor getting a coke in the kiosko (711)

Chicho preparing the grill.

Tricycle, Pablo's 17 year old three legged dog.

Kate says this tango dance is A-okay.

Our delicious asado in Pablo's backyard.

Pablo and Chicho helping the ladies into bed.

Kathy looking up new spanish words. Ex. Helado = Icecream

The sunglasses crew joyriding in Brandsen.

The well stocked bus with eager thieves drooling over my ipod. (jk) (sort of)

Lovely Argentine countryside. 50 kilometers outside of Buenos Aires.

Beautiful trees

2008-11-26T14:19:00.000-08:00

These trees are everywhere in B.A. Purple pedals line the streets.

This is right outside the modern art museum.

James in a car with Chicho and Pablo

2008-11-26T14:05:00.000-08:00

Joyridin' in the streets of Brandsen.

Argentine countryside

2008-11-26T13:48:00.000-08:00

My bus ride home from Brandsen.

Pablo cracking himself up and KITTEN

2008-11-26T13:35:00.000-08:00

Kate, Pablo, Kathy and Chicho waiting for the castle tour. Pablo is the one talking about chicken.

Weekend in Brandsen

2008-11-26T05:24:00.001-08:00

This past weekend James and I took a break from the bright lights, big city and caught a bus with our dear friend Kathy out to Brandsen. Brandsen is a small town about 80 kilometers north of Buenos Aires in Argentina. Our friend Pablo lives and teaches in Brandsen, and he invited the three of us out for the weekend. I'm having trouble uploading pictures, so I'll just have to use words on this one for the time being.

After about three hours on the bus, we arrived in Brandsen and began preparing for the asado (BBQ) that night. It's pretty standard to barbecue every weekend here. We bought a variety of meats and vegetables to grill and had a good look around Pablo's stomping grounds. James and I agreed that Brandsen reminded us a great deal of the suburbs of Tampa, minus the beach. This photo (the only one I can get up so far) is of Pablo's dog, Tricycle. You may notice that the dog only has three legs. Pablo told of that one of his legs, "caught off." A gruesome translation, if I ever heard one.

The asado was fantastic, of course. It was the four of us, plus Pablo's friend Chicho. Chicho brought over a grate and set it up on top of some cinder blocks, building a fire on the ground. A friend made the point that, in college, we had a grill whose legs broke off. We ended up propping the grill up on cinder blocks and it worked fine. Some things are the same everywhere, I guess.

After many liters of Quilmes (the Bud/PBR/High Life-equivalent of Argentina) and tons of food, we headed for the ice cream parlor. Being an English teacher, Pablo had some pupils come say hello and practice their English talking to us. Neighbors speculated as to why Pablo had so many American friends - we stood out, as you can imagine.

We spent the next day walking around La Plata, the capital of Buenos Aires, the providence. La Plata was a nice place, with a beautiful cathedral. Lavender grew everywhere and as a result, the air smelled sweet and clean everywhere. Even the trash was like aromatherapy. Sort of. We also went to an outdoor market, where people were selling purebred puppies for the equivalent of a hundred U.S. dollars. We had to drag Kathy away crying and screaming, shooting estrogen out of her pores (these dogs were fucking cute).

It was then back on the bus and to Buenos Aires. It was only home and in the shower that I realized that the mattress I had slept on in Brandsen had bed bugs. I was bitten all over. I have pictures of that as well. We will hopefully get those up soon. I know you can't wait.

Kate.

Marcha del Orgullo LGBT - November 1, 2008

2008-11-13T09:19:00.000-08:00

This was only a few days into our trip here in BA. We heard banging and singing in the streets outside of our hostel (which is pretty normal - there are a lot of marches and protests down Av. de Mayo) and went down to check it out. It was the Marcha del Orgullo LBGT (Lesbian Gay Transgender Bisexual), a massive march/party from the Congress down Av. de Mayo all the way to the Pink House (their equivalent to our White House - where Evita stood on the balcony and all that). There were over 40,000 people there, walking down the street, dancing, kissing, shouting, drinking. People wore costumes or no clothes at all! Families were everywhere and straight couples made out right along side gay couples. It was a wonderful sight to see and totally by accident! When the parade got to the Pink House, it became a massive dance party and political rally. Unfortunately, we understood little of what the speakers were saying, but it seems that the GLBT community is not much better off, rights-wise, than it is in the U.S. This is a shame because Buenos Aires, I have been told, has the largest queer community in South America. Here are a few photos from the event and some of the colorful people we met.

This nun's breasts are fake, but we saw plenty of real ones on the street - people just naked with heels on. Wild.

James admiring one of the MANY massive floats loaded with people that came by. Each float had their own DJ, so if we didn't like the song playing in the nearest float, we walked to another one and the dancing resumed.

Warning: For Those Traveling to Buenos Aires

2008-11-13T07:38:00.000-08:00

This is a post I made for some friends recently. I was venting about a bad day here and it came out pretty funny, I suppose. I got such a good reaction, that I thought I would repost it here. You'll have to excuse the language, Dear Readers, it was not intended for such sophisticated subscribers such as yourselves. : )

Warning: For Those Traveling to Buenos Aires
1. I had heard that because there are so many Europeans here, you do not necessarily need to know spanish to get around. that's false. And even if you thought you knew spanish (me), you fucking don't.
2. if you shout "fuck bush" or "obama" or "hugo chavez" in a crowded club. you'll make some friends.
3. Ladies, if you even look at a boy for half a second, they will put their tongue down your throat and say you're boring if you get offended.
4. Don't go through something at a club that people call the "fuck tunnel" with your cell phone in your back pocket, it will get stolen. so you'll get fucked either way.
5. When it's raining, do not ask for a "pancho," you will get a hot dog.
6. When sitting in a cafe, don't expect to leave sooner than 4 hours later. This is the "tranquilo" lifestyle. straight up.
7. Hostels are a good way to make friends. beware the "Hostel Hoe," it may be you.
8. If your landlord has a wolf finger, don't pay her in American dollars.
9. BEWARE of the gatorade lookalike, it does not taste like orange or glacier ice or blue fucking courage, it tastes like rotting corpse.
10. The people of Beunos Aires are into candy. But if you buy a cracker that says it tastes like a cheeseburger or pizza, it tastes like a triscuit.
11. You wanna get a cheese pizza? Oh no, you get a thick crust loaded with mozzarella that tastes closer to ass than ass itself. Where's the marinara sauce? Good question. If you want pepperoni, be prepared to get blood sausage or just straight hot dog.
12. You thought you were going to eat dinner at 7pm? Oh no, child, you're still sleeping off the mediocre night at the club. Dinner is at midnight, if best.
13. Last but not least, don't set foot in La Boca (The Mouth of BA) - we have not actually been there but apparently it is the closest thing to hell you can get here. night time + dress + no panties + la boca = ass slave. Even locals are afraid of being "stolen," whatever the hell that means. sounds fun. boca juniors games are held in this side of town, enough said. i'm there.

with love, your friends,
james and kate, better known as "la casa it's too real."

Our roof.

2008-11-11T08:11:00.000-08:00

Roofies.

The Sights

2008-11-10T11:25:00.000-08:00

Kate here. James and I are finally settled in a new apartment in the Microcentral and have the luxury of doing things like update blogs. It's been a rough week and a half, but lots of fun too. We already have so many photos of all of our adventures, so I decided to start with some broad photos of the city. A taste of Buenos Aires before we get into our particular experiences here. James and I hope that this blog will serve not only as a way for friends and family in the States to see what we are up to, but also a creative outlet for our particular dialogue with this new city as we experience it.

Photo time!

2008-11-01T10:03:00.000-07:00

Get ready for some photos. Soon as I get some batteries we're gonna go hog-wild. Here's a taste....