Back to Buenos Aires

I´ve left my little hotel room since I last wrote, making a crosstown trek with a fully loaded backpack (the first time I´ve actually carried the full weight-- it feels much heavier than the 19 pounds the airline scale registered) to the Tango Backpackers Hostel. That first night I woke early for my flight to Iguazu, and there were hurricane force winds whipping chairs around on the roof patio, and rain drenching the hallway outside my room. Back in Buenos Aires now, there has been nothing but sunny weather.

Yesterday I met two Spanish girls staying at the hostel, and also a Swede named Carl who has been here in South America for three months and is flying back home this weekend. He says traveling alone is the best way to go, and highly recommends Bolivia as the place to travel. He´s also been able to explain some things that I´ve noticed, like the disproportionate number of Israelis traveling here. There were about 10 at the hostel in Iguazu, and several more here at the hostel in Buenos Aires, and apparently there are entire hostels devoted to Israelis which are only recommended if you speak Hebrew. Apparently Israelis are really into drugs and come here to party where things are cheap and available. One Israeli I met in Iguazu told me Colombia is the best country in South America, and now I´m wondering if coca has something to do with it. And apparently Swedes are alcoholics because of the winter depression that sets in, and so the taxes on alcohol there are intentionally very high to keep people in check. Carl told me that if he were to go to the French Alps (the party place of choice for Swedes during the winter) and tell someone he was Swedish he would be punched in the face, so bad is the Swedish reputation for drinking and being out of control.

I´m almost learning more about the world outside of South America than the places I visit! So far I´ve seen most of the main districts or barrios of downtown: Palermo, Centro, San Telmo, Puerto Madero, Recoleta. Each has its distinctive little quirks; for instance pure-bred dogs are very chic in Palermo, and everyday you see professional dog walkers with their herds of orderly canines walking the streets. The parks here are filled with dogs. One park I visited this morning must have had a hundred dogs, all barking at each other from where they were leashed, and people sunbathing yards away as if the racket was nothing. And the parks here are something else; like if Pullen Park and the Rose Garden were put together and expanded, with a splash of Japanese Gardens, and then a planetarium were thrown in for good measure.

After an out-of-breath soccer match this afternoon, it´ll be one more steak dinner to celebrate my last night here in the city, and then perhaps going to a transvestite club with some people from the hostel around 2am; the clubs here don´t really open until then, and with a flight at 5:45am, I figure there is no use trying to sleep tonight.