Feliz Año Nuevo Chino, from Buenos Aires and Uruguay (again???!!!)

Buenos Aires has been a good launching pad to places like Uruguay and the rest of Argentina, so I got to know the city quite well since I arrived on December 26th.

A good friend and former colleague of mine, Dana, wanted to meet up with me in Buenos Aires to do some travelling around for a bit. When she had written to me prior to arrival she mentioned she would be checking into the Sheraton Buenos Aires for one night, since she was not keen on the idea of staying in a hostel with ten million other roommates after 18.5 hours of international travel. She asked me if I wanted to stay in her room and I think I spent about negative 10 milliseconds to take her up on the offer!

We spent a couple nights in Buenos Aires, including an evening in Chinatown for Chinese New Years. Dana and I went to a Chinese restaurant and saw that it was run by Chinese people so I figured it was a safe bet. When the Chinese lady approached me, I asked her if she spoke Cantonese (in Cantonese, of course.) She said no (she spoke Mandarin...) and so I asked her if she spoke English (so that Dana could order on her own, perhaps...) She said no, so naturally, we spoke Spanish instead. I thought it was a bit surreal, to be speaking Spanish to an old Chinese lady, in a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown, in Buenos Aires!

I noticed over the past month travelling in and out of Buenos Aires is that there will be random guys just standing around yelling, "Cambio, cambio, cambio.." Which translates to "Change" for those who may need to convert their foreign currency. At first it wasn't really that interesting to notice. But after awhile, I just couldn't help but laugh everytime I heard a guy saying this. I mean, all they do, the entire freakin day, is say, "Cambio, cambio....." over and over and over and OVER again. If you thought your job was boring... I mean, why not just hang a sign over your shirt, or wear a big hat with "cambio" on it??!!

Speaking of money, I honestly think coins in Argentina are practically impossible to find. Getting change back is an act of god, and cashiers all over Argentina are unapologetically ruthless about demanding exact change when paying for anything. On several occasions, I did not have the exact change and they would just round down to the nearest peso! And it´s not just exact change they´re crazy about-- getting change back for a 100 peso note ($29) is also impossible for anything less than 50 pesos. I can't tell you how many times I was practically dying of thirst and was not able to buy a bottle of water at a convenience store. If only the cambio guys would offer not just foreign currency exchange, but also domestic currency exchange. They would make a killing!

We travelled back to Uruguay again given that I really wanted to go back to Cabo Polonio and Punta Del Este. It wasn´t hard to convince Dana, who was looking forward to some beach time. Unfortunately, the weather was absolute crap and we decided to head out to Mendoza to get some Malbec (my favorite wine) into my bloodstream. We did meet some pretty cool people in Punta, including a French girl who had been travelling since she was 18-- she´s now 25!

On the bus ride out of Punta, a Shakira look-alike with tight black pants practically painted on hopped on the bus, but all the seats were taken. Instead of standing in the aisle, as most people do, she decided to stand right in front of me where I was seated. Her butt was right in front of me, just staring at me, mocking me perhaps. I think I even heard her butt talk to me. "Hola, Daniel, ¿cómo estás?" Had I sneezed, I would have probably lost myself (happily) in butt heaven and would never see the light of day again. I whispered to Dana that I wanted to be friends with her two friendly cheeks, but couldn't really come up with the right words. I mean, what do you say to a butt for the first time you meet? Dana suggested I just give her a little slap and say something like..."Atta girl!!" If only I knew how to say "atta" in Spanish...

I flew out to Santiago, Chile to hop on a bus to Mendoza, Argentina. I had to pay 63 pesos ($18) as a departure tax, "Thanks for visiting, jackass! Smack to the face!" and upon arriving into Chile, had to cough up another $113 bucks, "Welcome to Chile! Here's a kick in the nuts for ya!" One quick note to mention, on my flight to Santiago, I sat next to a porteña (woman from Buenos Aires) who confirmed my observations wholeheartedly that the people of BA absolutely do not have a clue how to walk!

Anyway, I know I´m really behind with the pics, but my camera´s memory card recently got infected with a virus...so please be patient. And no, fellas, I did not get the chance to take a picture of Shakira´s butt!!