All we can really say is Buenos Aires is an amazing city.
Although obviously unfortunate, the financial collapse of the country in 2002 has made B.A. an incredible bargain for Americans which we have been fully taking advantage of. The thing that is amzing is that the Argentine peso was pegged 1:1 to the dollar until then. The prices here haven´t changed much in terms of Argetine dollars, but now the exchange rate is 3:1 peso to dollar. A cab ride costs around $3 on average, and the Subte (subway) is about 25 cents. A good steak costs around $7 and is more than you should eat. A leather purse at one of the more popular designers runs about $40.
The city is comprised of many fabulous boulevards entertwinned with hundreds of criss-crossing one way streets. The buses and taxis have no regard for human life or each other. They appear to be playing a game with each other as they constantly cut each other off and jockey for position at the stop lights. Lanes are simply a guideline. The most interesting bit a driving trivia is that they give a yellow light after the red light as well as before. Our first cab driver explained this as "enter at your own risk" because so many cabs and busses feel there is a good 5 seconds after the red light when they can still drive through. In addition, there are intersections throughout the city with no form of traffic control at all - somehow the driers just intuit when someone else might be coming. The drivers don´t appear to slow down much at all. We think they are just hoping for the best. This means that pedestrians have to be very aggressive as well. Any percieved break is an opening for people to cross. And they stare at you odd if you choose to be a bit more prudent.
So far Sarah has been having the time of her life - cheap shopping, cool restaurants, hip designs everywhere we go. We got cool haircuts at Glam - strangely I look the same, but Sarah has the South American pseudo mullet that all the women have around here. With the help of Time Out we´ve been able to track down a number of local designer shops which have allowed Sarah to greatly expand her wardrobe. Needless to say a country so well know for its beef also has a thriving leather trade, which has become Sarah´s obsession of late. If you´re ever in town, Prune is a good place to go for purses and wallets.
Despite the fact that prices must still be very high for Argentines, there is shopping everywhere. It puts LA to shame, much to my dismay, as virtually everywhere you go in the higher end districts - Ricoletta, Palermo, Barrio Norte, Retiro - you are surrounded by shops that always seem to be crowded. Monday afternoon at around 2 PM we were on a pedestrian shopping area on Florida street and had to literally push our way through all of the people. Sunday appears to be the only day when the streets are not thronged with people.
The coolest thing we´ve seen so far is the Ricoletta cemetary. Originally the first public cemetary in the city, it is now the resting place of much of Argentina´s elite, containing the masoleums of many presdents, writers, Evita, and more. There are over 4000 masoleums, most with intricate sculptures, stained classed and iron work. It´s similar to New Orleans, but much more high end and in much better shape. It is one of the most popular attractions in Buenos Aires.
More on the oddities of Buenos Aires coming soon.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Latest from BA
So after searching high and low for a true "internet cafe" we realized that all they really have in BA are internet kiosks, most of which are stinky and hot, so we apologize for not posting earlier. I'll split this update into multiple posts so this one won´t be rediculously long.
The flights to South America were surprisingly comfortable. It took cloe to 24 hours from start to finish and until we got to Santiago was largely uneventful. We were able to precure an exit row seat so we had plenty of leg room. We would recommend LAN if you ever flying to South America. They were polite, had a decent selection of movies, TV and music with screens built into the headrests and served ham and cheese sandwhiches every 6 hours or so, including for breakfast. They even had decent wine on the flight which was a pleasant surprise. I ended up watching Mission Impossible 3 and Pirates of the Carribean 2 - both highly regrettable movies that were painful to watch from start to finish.
Along the way we stopped in Lima for a coulpe about an hour which was an interesting experience. The terminal we were in was brand new and reminded me a bit of the Dallas airport. Virtually everythig was in english and they even offered a lottery of sorts for american tourist flying through. We didn´t try it out cause the kiosk was closed - it was around 1AM - but from the advertising it was directed entirely at Americans and you could win $10,000. We sat in a bar of 80´s cool - plush white leather loveseats, odd lighting and C&C music factory blaring. It was a bit surreal.
By the time we arrived in Santiago the sun was finally coming up and the city was completely shrouded in a thick layer of fog so we couldn´t se the city very well flying in. It is almost entirely surrounded by imposing mountains that put Denver to shame. Once in the terminal the first thing we see is a Starbucks with a Ruby Tuesday just around the corner. So far the trip had not been as exotic as we had hoped.
After waiting for about 2 hours and trying to get on the wrong plane, we found out that our flight had been delayed and it would be a least an hour before they could tell us a time when the plane would take off - some undisclosed problem with the plane that didn´t bode well. We quickly transferred to another flight that was leaving about 30 minutes after our initial flight was scheduled which left withoug a hitch. Flying over the Andes was unbelievable. We crossed about 500 miles of the most incredible, seemingly impassable mountains that you could ever imagine. It was a swirling mass of rock, sheer cliffs hundreds if not thousands of feet high, thick snow pack covering most of the summits. We saw no settlements at all even though the visibility was perfect. There might have been roads, but they looked more like streams. Somehow we are going to be crossing through that in a bus in around 2 weeks. Should be interesting. Once on the other side of the Andes, we hit the Pampas, which is as flat as the Mississippi Delta, has about 1/10 the number of trees and stretches for over 1000 miles. It´s the heartland of the beef industry in Argentina.
So finally we arrive in Buenos Aires, tired and a bit wary because of rumours we had heard about scam artists. Plus Jenna Bush just had her purse stolen under the nose of secret service. We were the last folks off the plane and we get through customs without problem but it takes forever. We get to baggage claim and everyone has already collected and left and our luggage is nowhere to be found. Things are not looking good. We talk to the lost and found folks who tell us to wait for the flight we were originally on to see if the bags are on that flight. So we wait, and wait, and wait and about an hour later the flight arrives. And so we wait, and wait some more, and watch most of the passengers collect their bags and leave. Then finally we see one of our bags come out. And about 10 mintes later we see the rest. The whole experience was exhausting, but finally we are on the road into Buenos Aires.
The flights to South America were surprisingly comfortable. It took cloe to 24 hours from start to finish and until we got to Santiago was largely uneventful. We were able to precure an exit row seat so we had plenty of leg room. We would recommend LAN if you ever flying to South America. They were polite, had a decent selection of movies, TV and music with screens built into the headrests and served ham and cheese sandwhiches every 6 hours or so, including for breakfast. They even had decent wine on the flight which was a pleasant surprise. I ended up watching Mission Impossible 3 and Pirates of the Carribean 2 - both highly regrettable movies that were painful to watch from start to finish.
Along the way we stopped in Lima for a coulpe about an hour which was an interesting experience. The terminal we were in was brand new and reminded me a bit of the Dallas airport. Virtually everythig was in english and they even offered a lottery of sorts for american tourist flying through. We didn´t try it out cause the kiosk was closed - it was around 1AM - but from the advertising it was directed entirely at Americans and you could win $10,000. We sat in a bar of 80´s cool - plush white leather loveseats, odd lighting and C&C music factory blaring. It was a bit surreal.
By the time we arrived in Santiago the sun was finally coming up and the city was completely shrouded in a thick layer of fog so we couldn´t se the city very well flying in. It is almost entirely surrounded by imposing mountains that put Denver to shame. Once in the terminal the first thing we see is a Starbucks with a Ruby Tuesday just around the corner. So far the trip had not been as exotic as we had hoped.
After waiting for about 2 hours and trying to get on the wrong plane, we found out that our flight had been delayed and it would be a least an hour before they could tell us a time when the plane would take off - some undisclosed problem with the plane that didn´t bode well. We quickly transferred to another flight that was leaving about 30 minutes after our initial flight was scheduled which left withoug a hitch. Flying over the Andes was unbelievable. We crossed about 500 miles of the most incredible, seemingly impassable mountains that you could ever imagine. It was a swirling mass of rock, sheer cliffs hundreds if not thousands of feet high, thick snow pack covering most of the summits. We saw no settlements at all even though the visibility was perfect. There might have been roads, but they looked more like streams. Somehow we are going to be crossing through that in a bus in around 2 weeks. Should be interesting. Once on the other side of the Andes, we hit the Pampas, which is as flat as the Mississippi Delta, has about 1/10 the number of trees and stretches for over 1000 miles. It´s the heartland of the beef industry in Argentina.
So finally we arrive in Buenos Aires, tired and a bit wary because of rumours we had heard about scam artists. Plus Jenna Bush just had her purse stolen under the nose of secret service. We were the last folks off the plane and we get through customs without problem but it takes forever. We get to baggage claim and everyone has already collected and left and our luggage is nowhere to be found. Things are not looking good. We talk to the lost and found folks who tell us to wait for the flight we were originally on to see if the bags are on that flight. So we wait, and wait, and wait and about an hour later the flight arrives. And so we wait, and wait some more, and watch most of the passengers collect their bags and leave. Then finally we see one of our bags come out. And about 10 mintes later we see the rest. The whole experience was exhausting, but finally we are on the road into Buenos Aires.
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
9 hours and counting
Welcome to our honeymoon blog. It's 9:50 PM on the 23rd and we are finishing up our final preperations for our trip before we leave at 6:40 AM out of SFO. We have a long journey ahead of us to get to our first stop Buenos Aires. We'll be flying via LAX, Lima, Santiago and finally into Buenos Aires at 11:05AM on the 24th. Buenos Aires is 5 hours ahead of us in San Francisco so we're looking at just under 24 hours of travel time. Needless to say we're are looking forward to getting there but not looking forward to the flights. It's quite a relief to finally be at this moment. The planning for the wedding and the honeymoon was quite an under taking and for the first time in over a year we'll be able to relax and not worry about the things we should be doing. We hope that everyone has a great Thanksgiving. Stay tuned for the tale of our flight and arrival into South America.
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