25 January 2011

After putzing around in Buenos Aires for a few days, this is finally it. The plane was supposed to leave for Panama City at 3 am but was delayed until 7:15 am. Now I am on the plane. From Panama I will fly to Miami. This journey is over. Who knows what lies ahead?

Adios, Buenos Aires

The End

21 - 24 January

There are no entries for these dates.  I don't know why I did not write anything down.  Not much happened anyway.  Mostly just a lot of wandering around Buenos Aires.  

One notable thing did happen and that was when I went to buy my plane ticket from an outlet at a hotel I started speaking in horribly butchered Spanish. Thankfully I was stopped by the clerk who said, "We speak English."  I told him what ticket I wanted but my credit card was declined. Very embarrassing.  I told him I would sort it out and be back.  

In Buenos Aires there are internet cafes which also have phone booths.  I called my bank and was told my credit card and others had been cancelled because the information had been hacked. It wasn't my fault.  After pleading to the operator about my situation he agreed to reactivate the credit card and authorise the one payment for the airplane ticket.

Also at some point in Buenos Aires I happened upon a really snazzy jazz club.  I walked in and stood in the back until the song finished.  Then I got a table and a beer.  A couple from Brazil joined me after the show.  So did an American guy. We shared a bottle of wine. I remember the American guy said he had always wanted to drive to South America. So this must have been before I wrecked my car. He also gave me his email address.

I see in my files that I do not have a lot of Buenos Aires pictures.  This is really surprising to me. I cannot explain it.

Walking around the city I noticed all the graffiti so I decided to take as many pictures of that as I could. 

January 21

January 22

January 23

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.

17 January 2011

Last night I kept hearing applause so I went to search out the source. There was a large group gathered around two guys lip-synching a drama as a man and a woman. Later more of them were dancing a la Michael Jackson. One was even dressed like Michael circa smooth criminal.  They danced to a medley of MJ songs and did some of the dances in the videos.

Today has truly been disappointing. I walked all the way to the Venezuelan embassy only to learn that despite what the USA state department website says, I don’t need a visa to enter Venezuela. I did not understand what the lady was telling me at first so I sat back down watching other people do paperwork. Then it dawned on me that I probably needed to give her copies of my documents so I asked and understood nothing in response. Finally I was told in English by another worker that I did not need a visa. Thank you state department website for the misinformation.

On the way to the Brazilian embassy I witnessed a horrible car accident. Two cars. One veered off the other over the curb and across oncoming traffic lanes of traffic which were empty and into a large tree with exposed roots.  All I heard was the squeal of tires and the thump as the car ran over the roots. I don’t think anyone was hurt because I saw everyone exit their cars and walk around.  A jogger also stopped to help out.

At the Brazilian embassy I was told I needed to make an appointment but the next available date is January 26th which is too far off. I was told I might be able to get one at the border at Foz do Iguaçu. 

I headed over to Clasica y Moderna, a highly recommended cafe/bookstore which I had attempted to drink at twice yesterday. It’s not a cafe. It’s a high priced fancy restaurant with a tiny bookstore in the back. So once again I can drink a coffee here but this is no place to hang out or read.

After that I walked probably two miles to the Che Guevara museum.  It’s not really a museum.  It’s a shop that houses some of the artifacts from the the museum after it closed down. There was a sign posted on the shut metal garage door: “Cerrado por vacciones”. What a let down. I took the subway back towards the hotel. With its wood paneling interior and tiny ceiling lamps and open windows it was pretty quaint. Tomorrow I will take the subway to the U.S.embassy. My feet are tired from walking all day but I got to see a large swath of downtown and Palermo.

Che Guevera museum

16 January 2011

I thought someone stole my iPod. The light in my car was on and my iPod was gone. What a bummer. It was under my jacket on the backseat. I blasted The Dodos’ Visiter twice plus two William Shatner albums. I drove until almost 2 am. I finally pulled into a closed gas station and climbed in the backseat to sleep.

I woke at 7:30, filled up the tank, washed my face, and was in Buenos Aires by 10 am. Just before the two lane separates into a four lane autopista I drove past a sexy photo shoot at an old gas station. I followed the signs for Centro. There wasn’t much traffic downtown. I consulted my guide for a good cafe but the one whose review I liked was closed. So was the next one I went looking for. Both hostels the guide recommended were full. The largest hostel in Buenos Aires with 300 beds was full until Thursday. I did not think well of this situation. I took my laptop and when for a stroll down Florida Ave, a pedestrian mall, looking for a cafe with wi-fi.

Lots of vendors and street performers. Tango dancers and musicians. Blankets spread out with all kinds of trinkets. Instead of a cafe I found a cheap hotel for three nights. 60 pesos a night. The receptionist said I should park in a garage. Two American girls checked in before me. The place is a bit rundown and almost seedy. Reminds me of the hotel in downtown Portland. The plaque out front says “Hostel Touristico”. There’s wi-fi.

The internet said the second cafe, Tortoni, was open so I walked on over. It still looked closed: door shut tight, windows covered, no outside seating, but the door was actually slightly ajar so I poked my head in. I was seated right away.

I’ve been ordering cafe con leche because coffee and milk are what I like.  But in this part of the world a cafe con leche is more like a cappuccino. Scouring over the menu I saw they had cafe con creama and something in my brain clicked. I ordered a cafe con creama and apple pie a la mode. The waiter returned with a tiny espresso shot and a large bowl of thick cream. With a dab of cream the coffee was perfect. This is what I’d been searching for and not just in South America but in all my coffee experiences for the past five years. I was instantly transported back to Adrianna’s and playing cards with Jenni. No more cafe con leche for me. But a cafe wasn’t going to be enough for me so I ordered a cafe dobla and mixed in the rest of the cream. Two old couples were seated at the table next to me. One of the men had a baseball cap from Port Lockroy Antarctica. Cafe Tortoni is very old and beautiful but it’s not a place to hang out all day.  It’s a restaurant not a cafe.

On the walk back to the hotel I saw an edition of Borges’ complete works in a bookstore window and the urge to read his poetry suddenly and irrationally overtook me. No bookstore I’ve been to has Borges in English. It started raining.

I used the wi-fi again to plan my route to the embassies of Venezuela and Brazil tomorrow. I also discovered El Ateneo, a bookstore with a cafe. It’s in a refurbished theater and is listed as one of the most beautiful bookstores in the world. The cafe is on the stage. The first cafe I went to was listed as opening at 5 on Sundays so I walked on down but even at 6 pm it was still closed. El Ateneo however was open.

El Ateneo bookstore

I imagine Buenos Aires will roar to life tomorrow but for the moment everything is closed and traffic is minimal. There’s a large obelisk in the middle of downtown. Either there is no defined skyline or I haven’t seen it from the right angle yet. All the buildings are dingy off white and old. It seems like an exciting place.

This morning a man trying to lure customers into his store asked a passerby, “Would you like to see a leather jacket?”  It was very funny.