18 January 2011

The line outside the U.S. embassy was quite long. Many people want a visa. I was able to get in right away though because I am a citizen. I was there to add pages to my passport. I could not come yesterday because the embassy was closed for the Martin Luther King holiday. They told me to return at 2:30 to pick up my passport. That means I have to hang out in Palermo for 3.5 hours.

I walked down to Oui Oui Café on Nicaragua for a late breakfast. Eggs benedict. It’s on a very busy and noisy street corner. There is construction going on and cement trucks are idling loudly. The table with the English or Aussies, and really who cares which, is also annoyingly loud.

Last night I was using my laptop outside at a cafe and two older men walked up and said I shouldn’t use my computer outside because someone could snatch it and run off. Not impossible but highly unlikely and patently paranoid and ridiculous. The only people who came up wanted money not my laptop. One guy had a laminated sign in perfect English. Why would he have a sign in perfect English in Spanish speaking Buenos Aires? Because its a scam.

I returned to the embassy a half hour early and they told me to wait outside till 2:30. I asked if I could use the bathroom.They let me in. I didn’t get my passport until 3:15. I was pretty angry for having to wait. I hightailed it out of there and caught the subway to San Telmo and walked around Plaza Dorrego and down Defensa and back to my hotel.

Some part of Buenos Aires

I did some research about Brazilian visas in Puerto Iguazu and went to get some passport sized photos. That took a lot of time and effort but I found a place to do it for me. He even cut them so the Ak-47 on my shirt was cropped off. I cannot wait to leave Buenos Aires tomorrow. A lot of things here have been disappointing but its an enjoyable city. I could live here.

Walking back to the hotel from San Telmo I saw a car on fire on Ave 9 de Julio. High orange flames and thick black smoke poured out of the car. I thought it was going to blow at any moment. Traffic was backed up and a lot of bystanders were snapping photos and taking video footage. The fireman arrived and doused the flames before the car could explode.