Updates from Argentina

Leaving Costa Rica is never easy, but the thought of truly beginning our adventure eased the pain of saying "hasta pronto Costa Rica!" We flew through Panama City and the flying time was just over 8 hours!

We arrived weary, but excited to experience Argentina. Although we couldn´t see much as we arrived at 4:30 am. We left our bags with the hotel and waited in the lobby until light then took the 20 mintues cab ride to the Chinese Embassy to secure visas (this was not completed prior to leaving for our trip due to India taking a MONTH to complete the visa process). We were pleased it was possible to secure a visa and disgruntled to know that because we are "Americans" we would pay more than twice as much as Argentinians to receive these precious visas.

Mona and George were delayed but knocked on our door around 1:30 (3 hours late leaving DC). We sat in the room deciding what to do with ourselves then decided to walk to the Teatro Colon (theatre) for a tour, we were able to schedule one for the next day, but not today so we walked to the Congress Building (which was built to resemble ours) and had an interesting hour tour. We ate an early dinner and were in bed around 9! Quite the long day for all of us.

Our second day in Argentina started much like the first because we had to go back to the Embassy to pick up our passports with no problems (although there was some concern when the visa stated Kristin Bynes not Kristin Byrnes Baker; we were told that should not be a problem), We walked around Palmero Viejo and shopped at the little boutiques then braved the Subte (subway) which we found relatively clean, cheap and easy to use. Mona and George took a bus tour around the city and met us for the tour which we learned would not include the teatro so we rescheduled again and walked to Recoleta (wealthy area also where Evita is buried). The cemetary is extraordinary. I have never seen so many lavish musolums. We will include a picture. We had a cafe and dessert around 5:30 (really getting into the culture, uh?) and decided to go to a Tango show that night at Cafe Tortoni one of the oldest in Buenos Aires. The tango show was in Spanish and included live music (piano, base, accordian) and singing. It was a fun way to spend an evening in Argentina.

Today Mona and George took a tour to a ranch and Nate and I went to La Boca (colorful houses, tourist area), San Telmo (cobblerstone street, great restraurant, Via Via) and Retiro (great park and shopping). We have walked a ton and are going back to rest so we can eat dinner when true portenos (people from BA) do around 9:00pm.