After tonight’s soccer (football) match, I’ve decided to head west to Cordoba. I want to go rock climbing there and hopefully the weather agrees with me. The last few days I’ve been doing some vague site seeing, walking around different areas and parks. The food here is the best I’ve had in South America, and it’s been great eating the different meats and seafood here.

I went to Boca (sp?), an area with weird colored houses-

The area had alot of food and tango-

Me and this crazy perv waiter who tried stalking two friends I was with (he insisted we take a picture together, god knows why)-

Then I decided to be normal and get a regular hotel (called ‘Own’), nice place-

Today I woke up a bit late, didn’t catch all of the Argentina match. The city was a ghost town and there were zero cars on the road/zero people on the streets. The U.S.A./England match was awesome and I watched it at an American Bar called ‘The Alamo’. The atmosphere was great and the game was very entertaining.

Overall, I enjoyed B.A. very much. I think I still like Rio a bit more, only because I enjoy outdoorsy things…but B.A. is awesome in its own right. The food here is fantastic and the parks/architecture are also cool.

Have a 10 hour bus ride tonight to Cordoba, hopefully I can rock climb either that day or the day after. My trip is winding down here (only ~2 weeks left)…both excited and sad that it’s coming to an end.

Buenos Aires is a really nice city. You can tell there is a ton of European influence here, most notably Spanish, French, and Italian. I’m staying in Palermo right now, paying $12/night at my hostel. Buenos Aires is probably the second most expensive city I’ve been to behind Rio. The peso is currently at ~P$4 = $1 USD, so that’s nice.

The architecture here really reminds me alot of Spain and France. There are dozens of parks littered all over the place and it’s enjoyable to just go for a walk or read in the park.

The food is really good here too…I’ve been eating at this great French Cafe called ‘Oui Oui’ every morning. Pizza, pasta, sushi (not terrible here, actually semi decent), and most importantly, the beef, is all fantastic. Argentina is reputed to have some of the best beef in the world, and a steak 2 nights ago semi confirmed this. Here is a picture of my eggs Benedict this morning-

Overall, I like Buenos Aires very much. I walked around a fair amount the first two days I was there, walking in different neighborhoods and read in a few of the different parks. I plan on staying here in B.A. until the first game of the world cup, which is the 12th. After that I think I’ll head out and go west towards Cordoba (sp?) and then eventually even farther, to Mendoza.

I woke up the morning after my Iguazu falls trip (Brazil side) and did the Argentine side. The two sides are massively different, and many people enjoy the Argentine side more. The Argentine side has 80% of the waterfalls while Brazil has the remaining 20%. I left at 9 a.m. and the trip cost R$95 + R$109 for the boat trip…all in all, about ~$100, give or take.

We started out at the “3 points”, where Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil all meet.

Among the wildlife we saw throughout the day were: Blue Jays, Taipir (sp? It’s a large pig looking thing that I only got a glimpse of), Toucan, lizards, and these weird raccoon animals (their name eludes me).

(bad picture of the Toucan but it was dark and I had to zoom far…bah)-

It was all very impressive…I didn’t have a chance to do some of the side detours/springs since I was with my group the entire time, so maybe I’ll do that if I ever go again. It was also kindve a shitty day, which was a bummer. That said, the Argentine side was still incredible, and Iguazu as a whole was one of the most impressive things I’ve seen in my life.

We also did a boat trip down into the falls, where we were drenched. It would have felt alot better on a super hot sunny day, but meh, take what you can get I guess…

We got back around 5 p.m. I was initially going to stay one more night at my hostel (Bambu hostel by the way, a nice option with good accomodation/relatively cheap) but made a spontaneous decision to travel to Buenos Aires by bus. The ride wasn’t that bad and I slept well.

Not sure how long I’ll stay in Buenos Aires for…I have a little over three weeks left of this trip, and I think I’ll have enough time to do everything. Everything includes going a short bit into Chile and then hopefully up north into Arrequippa, Peru, which I missed last time. Looking forward to comparing Argentine Barbeque to some of the great BBQ I’ve had in the states. I’m also regretting not staying in Brazil longer…but the weather forecast just wasn’t good. I saw how bad Rio shut down when it was raining (seemed like the life of the city just died) and I didn’t want to have to do that in Florionapolis or somewhere else. Oh well…

Alright, sorry I’m posting again but I decided to go to Iguazu Falls (Brazil side) today. Here is a wiki link

I got to Foz de Iguacu (insert weird symbol that I don’t have for the ‘c’) around 4:00 p.m…I had a few hours of sunlight and decided to hustle my ass to my hostel and then the park shortly after.

It cost R$37.50 to get in, so like $19 or so…Really awesome and really worth it. Very convenient as well…This is the last thing to do on my check list of South America (officially).

Anyways, it was obviously very pretty/cool to look at. I only spent about 2 hours here but I felt that was enough time. I would have been a bit upset if I had dedicated an entire day doing this. Tomorrow I plan on doing the Argentine side, which takes all day long. The following day I’ll probably head on to Buenos Aires.

So today is my last day in Rio…it’s been a really fun ride, and I’m somewhat sad (and happy) to leave. I’m ready to move on with my trip…Iguazu falls is my next journey. It’s south of here, along the border of Argentina. I would have liked to stay one more week in Brazil (or two), but the weather really has been sucking lately…the weather forecasts for various cities is also fairly poor. When I saw that, I pretty much just decided to head south and continue…It feels somewhat wasteful to be in Brazil only for ~2.5 weeks, but meh, I had an excellent time here.

Rio really is a fantastic city…I would love to live here. What I like most is how much stuff there is to do here…If I were to live here, I’d try to take some jujitsu, maybe try to learn to surf, and continue rock climbing. The beach is so great, and I’m not sure if I’ll have a chance to do it anytime else on this trip…hopefully I can scuba dive but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to.

So yeah…I’m going to hustle the rest of my trip. I plan on hitting up Chile and hopefully trying to go to Buenos Aires, then northern Argentina (and hit a city or two there), head west into Chile and then back up north to Peru.

I hope to get back to Rio one day…awesome city.