Schnecken on the run

They call their Buenos Aires nicely Baires. And indeed, it is a great city that every guidebook and every traveler talkes about. We planned to stay three days but due to some problems with Whitneys Brazil Visa we needed to stay eight and did not regret a single day.

Chilu, an argentinian girl we met 7 month ago in Tibet was the best city guide for Baires that we could have wished for. She showed us around during the day, took us out for lunch and dinner with her family and friends and got us on the guest list of a great party. We had a full days pampering –  thanks again, Chilu, for your time and patience, we really got to know and like your city a lot! One of our highlights was the Sunday BBQ at her families house, where we sat together with her mom, her sisters and boyfriend over a huge amount of steaks, wine and beer, chatting the afternoon away before we all made a short excursion to beautiful Tigre. That felt like a day home with the family.

During our time in Baires we decided to make a short trip to Uruguay. An hour on the ferry gets you from Buenos Aires to Colonia del Sacramento, a very beautiful colonial city where we spend an afternoon strolling though the old cobble stone streets. Our next uruguayan stop was Montevideo, just a 2 hrs busride away. We had only one full day there and tried to get a lot out of it. We walked for hours through the historical centre, enjoyed great food (meat, what else!) and Whit successfully made her most important purchase of the year (guess what?). We were happy and thought that we would like to stay another day. Whitney named this city MTVideo, so that it sounds qute (like Baires). And i think it makes it makes it easier to say that name. – You see, Whit is still working hard on her spanish. But northamericans are having there dificulties with the pronounciations. I like it and especially to bug her about it (-;

Back in Baires another highlight was the visit to a soccer game. A must do if you happen to be here on a day when one of the big teams is playing. I was lucky and while Whitney enjoyed her time on the famous Sunday market without me, I had a great time at the 3:0 loss of Maradonnas ex club Bocca Juniors against San Lorenzo. The atmosphere from cheering, shouting, singing and passion is incredible!

After 8 days we left Baires, knowing, that we will come back one day! A short 20 hrs busride would bring us to Bariloche, the start of our Patagonia experience for the next 5 weeks.