BsAs
After a four hour ride on the ferry, which I spent watching the sunset over the sea and then later watching March of the Penguins on my mp3-player, I reached Argentina's capital: the beautiful city of Buenos Aires. The emails I had sent through the Couchsurfing website, looking for someone to host me during my stay in BsAs, had turned out to be unsuccessful -at least in that respect. I wasn't very bothered by this, though, as my friend Seth had informed me the pension he had been staying at didn't charge more than the equivalent of about €5 per night. As some of my loyal readers might remember, I met Seth about a month earlier as we were both hosted by Marcia in Rio de Janeiro. Seth had run into some trouble with his visa and was forced to leave Brazil after a mere week or so, and thus decided to travel South through Uruguay and set up camp in Buenos Aires. He had been there for about a month by the time I showed up at the door of his pension that night. We caught up on the events of the past month over some cheap whiskey and made plans for a weekend of partying.
Seth
After some pregaming, we headed out into the BsAs nightlife and took a cab to Club Niceto, AKA Club 69. Like true porteños, we wouldn't be caught dead at a club before 2AM, so at about 3AM we found ourselves in line outside the club. After waiting in line for an hour, we finally got in. I was pretty tired after the long day (I had gotten up at 7AM that morning to travel to Colonia del Sacramento, cf. previous post), so I crashed on one of the couches and even took a nap in the club, despite the pounding techno beats. When I woke up, I ordered another Stella Artois and went for a stroll around the club. Other than the stripper on stage, I also found Seth who had met up with a girl he had met the week before. This girl turned out to be a doctor and worked at Pacha, one of the city's best clubs. Seth and the doctor took off for some private time and little later I walked out of the club and into the bright sunlight where I got ripped off by the taxi driver who gave me a ride home.
It was well past noon when I woke up the next day. No sign of Seth, so I decided to take a stroll around the center by myself. It turned out to be somewhat of an eventful walk, being lured into a brothel while I honestly believed the woman wanted to show me a newly opening club. Anyway, as soon as I realized what was going on, I walked out. Made my way to the famous Casa Rosa, the Obelisco and some other sights around the center.
By nightfall, Seth got back and after some dinner we repeated last night's pregaming ritual before heading out to to meet Marina, a fellow Couchsurfer I had contacted and who had invited us to join her to her friend's birthday party. We took a taxi to Belgrano where Marina and her friend Gisele met us outside her house. I have to say I was quite struck by Marina's beauty and her charming appearance, and already during the first looks I exchanged with her, I had the feeling there was something quite special and amazing about this girl. The party was a good time and I had a great time talking to some of the other guests, who all made me very welcome in their city as I thanked the good Lord for the wonderful project that is Couchsurfing.
fonke leggen, Argentinian style
Catalina, Marina & Gisele
At about 2AM, Seth and I decided to head to Pacha, joined by Marina and Gisele. The connections Seth built up the night before turned out quite useful as we were let in for free, skipping the $25 cover, and escorted into the club's VIP area. The club lived up to its reputation and I was having a good time dancing to the beats. At some point I was dancing with Marina and as we were moving closer towards each other, our lips touched and we shared a kiss. It would be just one of many to come. The night turned into dawn and I felt blessed to be watching the sun rise over the sea, with a beautiful girl like Marina by my side.
Click to view
As the sun rose, the time to head home had come. We said our goodbyes to the girls and got in a taxi towards the city center, where we stilled our hunger on some 50 cent superpancho hot dogs before heading to bed.
The next day would be Seth's last day in town, before he started on his trip back to Uruguay and Brazil. We spent the afternoon wandering the shopping streets on a quest for the perfect pair of sunglasses, which Seth obviously didn't find; so he settled for the pair below.
At night, I had arranged to meet Marina for dinner, and since I didn't want to be a bad friend and leave Seth by himself on his last night in town, I invited him to join us for some famous Argentinean steak. The dinner was lovely and even though I'm not usually that big a fan of big lumps of red meat, I really enjoyed the steak. My delight was amplified by the liquid that went with it: my favorite Belgian pilsner beer, Stella Artois.
On our way to the main street to catch a taxi, an unpleasant surprise would abruptly end the evening. As we were walking, our conversation came to a stop as a guy no older than 17 years of age suddenly jumped off a scooter and waved a big revolver in our faces. The guy seemed nervous and inexperienced, uncomfortably holding the gun which seemed quite oversized for his rather small physique. He told us to keep walking and made a gesture urging us to hand over the goods. In a practiced reflex, I put my hands in the air and exclaimed Tengo nada! - I don't have anything. This was a bold lie though: I was carrying my wallet and a pocket sized camera, which I had bought just two weeks before as a replacement for the pocket camera that was robbed during my first stay in Rio. The robber seemed too nervous and eager to get away to question my statement and just urged Marina to hand over her purse before jumping back on the scooter and driving off into the night. As one might imagine, we were all somewhat in shock and dumbfounded by the bad luck we had, as the area we were in was known as a rather tranquil and safe part of town. I tried to comfort Marina as well as I could and escorted her to a taxi before joining Seth on a ride back to the center.
Early the next morning Seth took off for the harbor, but not before taking a picture of the both of us to send to our wonderful Rio host, Marcia, who had baptized us with our Brazilian names, Bruno and Joaquim.
The next day I met up with Marina at the Buenos Aires Design shopping center in La Recoleta; the barrio home to the world's most exclusive graveyard. Despite the somewhat awkward setting for our date, we had a lot of fun wandering in the mini city of exuberant gravestone monuments, eventually making our way to Evita's grave.
After checking out the graves of Argentina's rich and famous, we went for a drink and continued our date hanging out on the lawn near the famous Flower.
Later that day, I had agreed to grab some beers with another porteña Couchsurfer; Valerie. She met me near my pension and we walked a few blocks, passing the Plaza del Congreso and over to a bar where I had had some drinks with Seth a few nights prior to that. I really liked the bar, as it gave off somewhat of the same atmosphere as my home town bar, De Vissers. This was of course helped by that bar serving my favorite Belgian lager, Stella Artois, and even at less than half the price I'd pay in Belgium. But um, anyway, Valerie turned out to be quite a fun and interesting person, and we had some good conversations about some of the differences and similarities between both our nations and our views on the world.
Valeria
After another day spent wandering the streets of Buenos Aires, I was invited by yet another Couchsurfer to join her for drinks. After a very, um, 'cosy' ride in the metro, I got to the San Telmo district, known for its many tango bars, antique shops and picturesque cobblestone streets. After meeting up with Melisa, we -joined by a française we just met at that bar- headed out to the Once neighborhood, where Melisa knew of a very authentic and cosy tango bar with live singers. The bar definitely lived up to my expectations and I very much enjoyed the live tango music over some Stella. So nice to see the best of both cultures come together. :)
Later that week it was time for some more touristy stuff, so I ventured out to the La Boca neighborhood. Its main attraction is the colorful Caminito, a short pedestrian walk lined with corrugated-metal buildings. Local artists display their paintings and crafts along the walk, which adds to the vibrant atmosphere. The neighborhood is also home to the Boca Junior soccer team, Maradona's first team.
Later that week, I joined Marina and her friends for some dinner and drinks in the Palermo neighborhood.
Gisele took this picture herself
After the success of the pillow fight she organised (over 3000 people showed up), it was time for Marina's next "flash mob" event. This time she organised a "silent party", where people gather to dance in the street, all listening to their own mp3 player. It was an interesting sight, and despite the blood boiling 35°C weather, a few dozen people showed up to dance their asses off. Yours truly being among them, por supuesto!
The silent party was concluded with an afterparty at one of Marina's friend's house with some empanadas and ice cream.
Nick -why is the ice cream always gone?- Burka
As Nick's last couple of days of his exchange program to BsAs had arrived, he wanted to get all his friends together for a "noche de chill", where he treated his friends to some American smores (marshmellow cookies). The American delicatessen didn't go unappreciated by the guests. Enjoying the view from Marina's rooftop terrace, everyone had a good time talking, listening to music and just chilling out.
Lu
Maria
Belén & smores
The next day would not only be Nick's last full day in BsAs, but mine as well. I took a trip out to a Nikon store to buy a new hood for my lens in the morning, and ended up going right back to the same neighborhood in the afternoon for some maté with Marina. The inevitable goodbye came later that night, after accompanying her to Nick's house, where she was invited for "the last supper". I returned home to my pension and took Marina's advice of spending the next day visiting the Colón Theatre and the Museum of Fine Arts, before getting on an overnight bus to Cordoba.
Theatro Colón
The goodbye would turn out to be a 'nos vemos', as I would cross paths again with Marina and her friends in the weeks to come.