Are we in Paris or Buenos Aires?

Okay wow, I know you've been on the edge of your seats waiting for the Argentina update and I totally left you hanging for far too long, so my apologies senoras and senors. We made it safely to Bolivia, so I am writing to you from 11,000 feet in La Paz, making it the world's highest de facto capital city, Quito being the highest legal capital. Cool huh!? Ugh, but I got ahead of myself because this blog is about Argentina NOT Bolivia...so let's cool it on Bolivia and dive right in to Argentina stories!

First thing's first. Buenos Aires looks like a mix between Paris (although let me be real with you, I've never set foot in Paris, but I really like the movie Midnight in Paris with Owen Wilson and plus I've opened a book so I obviously have seen photos of Paris, anyway...) and New York (although New York has no cool buildings like Paris, but seriously there's a section in downtown that you could swear you were in Time's Square, big light up billboards and a Pepsi ball that rotates and lights up). It's a beautiful city steeped in history so our first day there we spent the whole day just romping around the city checking out insanely old churches and government buildings. I also have a little thing for Evita (more specifically, Eva Peron), I find her story so fascinating and she hails from Buenos Aires so naturally we found the famous balcony she spoke on and also went to the cemetery she's buried in!

Okay so that sounds creepy, going to a cemetery, but the cemeteries in Argentina are incredible! They have huge headstones like HUGE, like mini-churches that whole families are buried in. Some are super creepy because the doors are broken and you can just pop your head in and see caskets and one we could see bones, EEK! Seriously, we probably over stepped our boundaries there, but we were enjoying freaking ourselves out. I personally thought that Halloween would be a fun time to go poke around the cemetery...I digress. So we saw Eva Peron's grave and people still leave roses there, it's so great, she's amazing.

We also tried out a TON of cafes! You know why? Because of medialunas. MEDIAFREAKINGLUNAS. The best thing to ever happen to anyone. They're croissants, but better because they put some deliciously sugary topping on it and it just melts in your mouth and pair that with a cafe con leche and your set for the afternoon. We loved them so much, well I'm pretty sure I was more gung-ho about the cafes than Eric, but he loved them too in the end. I've actually successfully turned him into a coffee drinker, sort of. I mean come on, he grew up in Seattle and never drank coffee!? I'm proud to say that he's succumbed, or at least while we're in South America. Anyway, so cafes are everywhere, much as I imagine them to be in Paris! So we lounged around outside and drank coffee and ate more croissants than a normal person should, but come on they were INCREDIBLE.

We also wine tasted! Remember how we missed out on Mendoza? Well to make up for our failed trip we booked a wine tasting with this amazing place called Anuva Wines, started by a guy from none other than, Portland, Oregon! Say what!? So he came to Argentina and fell in love with Lourdes on day 2 of his trip, and well, he never left. So they did this amazing wine tasting with 1 sparkling, 1 white, and 3 reds (2 Malbecs of course, did you have to ask?). They paired each of them with food, SO GOOD. We got this amazing spinach empanada, sorbet, homemade chocolate truffles (DARK CHOCOLATE OM NOM NOM), and some bread and cheeses of course. We were living it up. We also met the nicest people at the tasting! It was a blast to say the least. We also maybe, kinda, sorta bought an entire case of wine (12 bottles = free shipping), it had to be done. If you're extra nice and extra good you might be able to get in on that action, but we're saving one sparkling to pop when we move into our SF apartment. Okay I'm really rambling here. Let's get back to the stories.

So wine tasting was obviously magical, we had the best time. We also learned to Tango! That's right. Eric and I took a Tango class. It was the most fun ever! It's so fun to do new things together even after dating for almost 4 years. We loved it. Okay and I'll be honest, I'm terrible at following. He was really patient with me, but I think we need more practice. I had to close my eyes so I would stop trying to lead. Anyway, we had so much fun! Our teachers were great and there was such a diverse group of dancers. Then, after our Tango class we got beers and watched a LIVE TANGO ORCHESTRA! It was seriously the coolest thing ever. We were both just in a trance amazed at how incredible and how normal that was for Argentinians. All of these people showed up to watch and just Tango the night away! These people were amazing at it too, and just so adorable, just couples came to dance together and enjoy the music. It was by far one of my favorite nights of the trip yet. The orchestra even had 4 accordion players! Accordions! How silly. And they really took themselves seriously, it was awesome. Plus violins and cellos, it was so beautiful and intense. Needless to say we might try to find ourselves a Tango class or two when we return to the states, we just had too much fun!

What else, well we had the most amazing pizza! Buenos Aires has incredible pizza that's like deep dish with a ton of cheese. They're known for this one called a Fugazetta, which is with tons of onions and mozzarella cheese. So we went to this restaurant that is where all the locals go (you know, can't be seen as tourists...which reminds me that everyone in Brazil thought I was Brazilian! Who knew!?) and got a Fugazetta and it was amazing. I mean, I love all pizza so I'm not a tough critic, but still.

Lastly, we almost got mugged! Buenos Aires was probably not the safest city ever, but seriously we were just wandering along a busy street getting to this pizza place and we both notice these three kids following us, keeping up with us, etc. I was like woah there and I think so was Eric so when we got to our street that we were going to turn on we veered off to the side and the kids kind of decided not to mug us, but one kid still asked for money and we just ignored them until they scattered. So it was the closest I've ever come to getting mugged. I was very prepared to not give these 17 year olds any money, but rather a stern Spanish talking too, because let's be real, you're 17!! Stop being a criminal sheesh. But anyway, we were pretty scared after that, but don't worry because we're alive and we're fine and we made it to the pizza place! And then we ran home after, I mean not literally, but basically ran.

Let's see, my brain is having trouble here since I'm so high up, there's less oxygen you know? But I think those are the main highlights. Oh yeah, so I really love dogs (obviously, I mean Muppet come on), but anyway there was this HORRIBLE dog that would bark every morning nonstop until we begrudgingly would be forced to wake up and get out of bed. The bright side was that we woke up and got to have dulce de leche right at 9:00am! What a great way to start the day, with dessert. In my opinion, we should do that in the states. I mean a little dessert never killed anyone...Tonight we leave on an 11-12 hour bus ride over to the Salar de Uyuni to check out the incredible Salt Flats. We're beyond excited, but we'll be out of internet land until Friday so don't expect to hear from us until then. Also, our internet blows at this hostel so if you don't hear from us in general, we're probably still alive so not to worry :)

Oh gosh, you need a picture! Sorry! Here's a picture of us on a little trip to a place called La Boca. So La Boca is where the famous futbol stadium is, La Bombonera and also is where the first settlement was in Buenos Aires so it's super historical, and we're history nerds so anyway we had to go, right? Okay this was one of the weirdest places I've ever been. It was a tourist TRAP. The buildings were neat and all different colors, but there was just weird Tango dancers everywhere trying to get you to watch them and then pay money or take pictures with them and it was just so bizarre. So La Boca is also pretty unsafe, so we didn't really bring much with us in order to avoid getting mugged and at the end of the main road there was a guy literally telling people not to go any further because it was too unsafe. How funny is that?! I think it's funny, my mom and grandparents might not, but it was pretty silly. Don't worry you guys, we did NOT go further! But it was the weirdest place. So I leave you with a picture that we took there, in front of Buenos Aires' flat iron building haha, just kidding kind of. I think you had to be there. Why weren't you?

xoxo,

Mandi & Eric