Argentina, Part I

Considering I was already at the border to check out green horses, I decided (in pre-organizational stages of the trip, in case you were wondering) that it would make sense to go from Yacuiba down to Buenos Aires to visit my cousin Yaz who was studying abroad there from UPenn (and thus the Radjy legacy lives on, hehe). As Mauricio jumped on the occasion to tag along and discover Argentina, we decided to go backpacker style, i.e. from Yacuiba, a 27h busride to Buenos Aires!

The double decker bus we rode in was incredibly comfortable (good) and we got the upstairs front left seats - so we had front row seats for the view (good, even though after the first 5min it was a repeat sequence of land that looked perfect to race around on a horse on) as well as in relation to the small TV in the aisle where approximately 9 movies were played during the trip (good squared). Unfortunately, our bus stopped absolutely everywhere (bad) which is why it took so damn long to get to our destination! At least we got to enjoy Argentinian meat from the very first stop (gooood - see Mauricio digging in the photo below left). Overall, it was more fun than anything else - and yummy, because I got to catch up on sleep big time! On the left, our view out the window... lots of flat greenness and a ton of bugs that went kerrrr-splat!

And of course, at the first checkpoint I mentioned to Mauricio that traveling with me was never all that easy and definitely never boring, and sure enough - at checkpoint no. 2 we were asked into the policemen's "office" (a trailer parked on the side of the road) so they could check through aaaaall our stuff. I even had to take off my shoes! Next time I am totally traveling with Red Cross gear so that maybe they realize before making me unpack and repack everything that I am not a bad person! Hmpf.

Once in the wonderful city of Buenos Aires, we settled into our hostal, Palermo House (neat, clean and relatively inexpensive - just be warned that there are a million stairs to get anywhere so don't go with this option if you are lazy or even mildly disabled in any physical way!), we went out to call Yaz, and met up a few hours later for dinner at a trendy spot called Asia de Cuba in the Port district. Great wine, delicious food, and then the place turned into a club! Most practical.

On the left, my crazy and brilliant cousin Yaz (think she's eating vegetarian sushi) next to another friend of hers who came to visit from California. Among the four of us at dinner, we represented Bolivia, Greece, Iran, and Switzerland!