Buenos Aires!

Friday September 25th:
We woke up, ate breakfast, made our lunches, threw a few last things in my bag, and loaded onto the bus and headed out at 8:00 am. The time on the bus was predominately used for sleeping. Around 10:30 we arrided at a farm which also had many collections. The guy who owns it is in the Guiness Book of World Records for several of his collections. He had keychains, pencils, cans, ash trays, match boxes and so on. Also at the farm you could taste and buy jams including onion, tomato, eggplant, pumpkin, and red pepper. There were also a few animals, inluding ponies and emu type birds in the same pen. And there was a small playground with a merry-go-round swing thing that we had fun on. After playing it was time to load back onto the bus and go into Colonia. First we went to their old bull fighting arena. And we definately went inside even though there was a sign that said NO PASAR. We are such little angels. We had almost 4 hours to eat lunch and walk around Colonia before we had to go get on the ferry. We ate lunch in a pretty little park. We saw the light house and then walked around and did a little souvenier shopping. The ferry left at 5 and we arrived in BA around 6. It was a very smooth ride. We checked in at the hotel, went and got some Argentinian Pesos and went to get dinner. We ate dinner at a little Italian Restaurant two doors down from the hotel, it was amazing. It was called Brocollino or something along the lines of this. The pasta that everyone got was really good, and they had the most amazing lasagna. After eating we went swimming at the hotel in the heated pool :) until 11:30 when one of the employees came and told us that the pool closed at 10:00. Oops, but there was no sign and no one told us so oh well.

Saturday September 26th:
This was the day we got a tour of the city. We started out at Plaza del Mayo, we saw the Pink House and the Catholic Church where they have a memorial to San Martin. We also went to La Boca, Recoletta, and several other places around the city. In Recoletta is the cemetery where Eva Peron is buried so we got to see her family masoleum as well as many others. After the tour we ate lunch and went shopping at one of the ferias, they had a ton of awesome jewelry. Too soon it was time to go to the musuem. The first floor was European art including some Picasso, Monet, Van Gogh, Rembrant as well as many others. On the second floor was Latin American art which was very different. Afterwards we had a bit more time to shop but then we had to head back to the hotel to get ready for the Tango Show. We got all snazzed up and went to El Querandi, ate some dinner and then watched some very good tango dancers. I was at the end of our table so i had a front row seat for the show.

Sunday September 27th:
We began the day by meeting for church at 9. Unlike here in Uruguay where we don't even have to go outside to get to church, the church we attended was across town so we had to take the subway. It was cold and rainy outside. I really enjoyed the church service even though it was in spanish, but it was very cold during the whole thing. We did get to attend the English class afterwards. For lunch we ate pizza with the youth of the church. The original plan had been to go to a feria with them but due to the lovely rain we just chilled around the church playing ping pong, fusball, and getting to know the Argentinians. A little bit after 4 we left to go to the mall with them. We had to take a bus which was very crowded in we were definately all in each others personal space the entire bus ride..fun. The mall we went to was very big and it was also rather ritzy. Not the best place for shopping, plus everyone was in a rather cranky mood so we left and went back to the hotel, farkled a bit and then went out on another adventure. In the taxi on the way home from the museum we saw Hard Rock Cafe and decided we need to visit it. So we decide that we do not want to eat at Hard Rock because of the cost but we wanted to by souveniers and say that we got dessert there. So we go to the mall to get some more money out and to eat dinner, you wouldn't think that this would take that long and yet it did. We finally ate and get ready to go, well we could not remember exactly where Hard Rock was so we asked a doorman, we end up asking a second doorman and they tell us two different places. After asking a cab driver we decide it would be best to go back the hotel and find exactly where it is. We go back and ben looks it up on his iphone. So we get in two cabs and go to the streets where google maps said Hard Rock was, well guess what, it's not there. We end up walking and then we ask someone and at least 10 blocks later we finally find it after we are about to give up. It has the tiniest gift shop i have ever seen in a Hard Rock, but we did get our dessert and it was pretty good, inside it was pretty cool. We took a few pics and headed back to the hotel to find everyone else back from their jazz show. We all met in Amanda and Jaimie's room and discussed what was going to happen for free day and to celebrate Kate's birthday the next day.

Monday September 28th:
This was Kate's birthday, which also means it was my half birthday! Yay! We woke up got ready for our one free day in Buenos Aires, grabbed a little breakfast, and went to Florida Street to do a bit of shopping before going to La Boca for Kate's birthday lunch. We ate at a little outside restaurant that had tango dancers to watch while you are eating. They were not quite as good as the tango dancers at the show but they were still pretty good. Several of us got to pose for pictures with them. Kate got a little special attention as well. After lunch and a little shopping around La Boca we wanted to head over to Recolleta. We went back into the cemetery to explore some more being that the first time we only had a few minutes to see what was in there. After looking around for a bit a couple of us went back to the hotel. I took a much needed nap and it was amazing. Kate and I were both passed out until 7:20 when there was a knock upon our door, which was a good thing because we were suppose to meet for dinner in 10 minutes. We ate some dinner went back to the hotel and got ready to celebrate Kate's birthday. We went to hear a live band play. We weren't real sure what kind of music they were but they ended up being kind of an Indie band. They were pretty fun to listen to. We also had some starbucks while we were out. It was a pretty fun night and we enjoyed celebrating Kate's life!

Tuesday September 29th:
We woke up just like any other day, but we had to check out of our rooms before we left for the day. After we ate breakfast we were going to head to the zoo. We had a bit of mix-up and some fustration with part of the group leaving without letting others know, but we got past that and finally after a bit more confusion of direction got to the Botanical Gardens and had a relaxing morning exploring the gardens. After the gardens we went to McDonald's, i may have said this before but their McDonald's are so much nicer than ours. Some of you know that I do not like McD's in the states, but here it is actually pretty good. After lunch was the zoo. It was all in all just another zoo, however, different country so there were some different animals. They had your ordinary lions, tigers, and bears oh my. However they also had things like tapirs, kangaroos, anteaters, a red panda bear, hippos, rhinos and then they had bunny/deer like creatures and swimming, webbed feet rats, both of which were just wondering around the zoo. It was pretty exciting. We got done at the zoo and were exhausted so we went to a park to sit for a few minutes. Then it was time to grab some food and head back to the hotel to get our stuff and head back to montevideo. We went through customs and got back on the Buquebus (ferry) and headed back to uruguay. However the ferry this time was rather bumpy and almost made several of our group sick. Straight off the ferry we got on charter buses with a bunch of random people we did not know and bused it back to mont. We arrived at tres cruces, walked back to casa with our luggage, dropped it off and several of us made a trip to Castrobo's for some dinner. It was very good to be home.