Days 15-17: Back to Buenos Aires

Now I got to take the ferry back to Buenos Aires, this time at night:

I was accompanied by the lovely Rocio, Naty, & Gaby, we had mate (of course), and I tried my first alfajores. They said that you're supposed to have a sweet snack before dinner, so of course I was happy to oblige, the alfajor was amazing, it is a layer of dulce de leche sandwiched by two cookies, and then the whole thing covered in chocolate. Delicious! Havanna is supposed to be the best brand.

The hand signal they are doing there is Argentinian for "copado," which means "cool."

Buenos Aires from the ferry at night:

There was a ridiculous musical act on the ship of one guy singing to pre-recorded background music. The passengers politely clapped and some children danced a little:

Next I would spend a couple days waiting to take the plane to Iguazu. I pretty much took it easy and took so time to do laundry etc.
On my first night back I was in San Telmo and went to a huge bar which was a lot of fun. It had just opened, and every night they highlighted the music of a 90's artist and played their music and videos all night. This night's highlights were Pearl Jam and Stone Temple Pilots, and it was fun to see all their old videos and music again, and also to see the Portenos rocking out to 90's music.
I also took some long walks and saw the Buenos Aires Museum of Fine Arts and the Buenos Aires Museum of Decorative arts:

Buenos Aires Botanical Garden:

Next day, off to Iguazu!

The ferry to Uruguay

The ferry from Buenos Aires to Colonia, Uruguay, was very cool. The ferry crosses the Rio de la Plata. Boarding it felt like getting on an airplane since there was a border crossing involved. The ship is huge and is like a floating city with food, bars, shopping, mini-arcade, and other features. It takes a couple of hours to get to Colonia. I spent most of the trip with two Argentinians who at one point shared some ma-te with me. My guidebook says that you should feel honored if people share ma-te with you, but I think that statement is overblown because they drink it constantly. 

Pictures:

Pictures from the ride:

Days 4-6: Buenos Aires; Days & nights in Palermo

This is the hotel that I'm staying at in Palermo:

My legs are so tired from walking so much! I've really covered a lot of geography in this city, both on foot and using public transport. 

Since I am Buenos Aires, the home of the tango, I figured I should take a tango class. A work associate of my father's from Buenos Aires recommended a school, which oddly enough is housed in the Armenian Cultural building, but is a separate operation. The class was probably about half Porteño (people from Buenos Aires) so I figured I was in a good place. Tango is fun! It turned out that with the $6 entry I also got to take salsa classes for free, although after coming right out of a tango class I did have a little bit of tango in my salsa. Here are a couple pictures of the classes:

Here's an excellent meat dinner I had, and the place that served it:

I took a walk to the sub-neighborhood of Palermo Hollywood and had this excellent pumpkin and pork casserole-type dish, they call it a cake, no matter what you call it, it was amazing:

Since one word means both "squash" and "pumpkin" in Spanish, I assumed the sandwich I had on day 2 was squash, but this time I asked the waiter to clarify and he said it was pumpkin in this dish, so I'm thinking the sandwich I had on day 2 was actually a pumpkin sandwich and not a squash sandwich. It was pumpkin-colored.

There is some great nightlife in Palermo, it is very safe to walk around in and I never felt threatened in any way, no matter how late it is there are always other people around. It is a little tough to meet people because Buenos Aires is one of those cities where people don't usually stand at bars, they sit at tables. I have no shame though, so it was easy for me to approach people. Plaza Serrano is a popular place, filled with "yanquis" (Americans) as well as Porteños, so I looked for people who didn't look American. Plaza Serrano kind of is horrible, but there are a lot of people there so its a good place to start the night. There are people who go around the tables performing magic tricks asking for money. At one point a mute magician who had finished his shift sat down at our table, and had fallen in love with one of the girls. He intimated that he wanted to buy a liter of beer for the table (primarily for the girl), and after she coldly agreed to only let him buy her a beer if it was the most expensive possible option (a little complicated to explain), the manager saw what was going on and came out and wouldn't let him buy it because of a "previous incident", but he refused to elaborate any further.

When I was packing for my trip I found my old "wrist-compass" (like a watch, but a compass). I thought I wouldn't use it but packed it anyway, and within the first day I realized it would be very helpful and put it on. It also acts as a metaphor for my state of mind while backpacking, the location is more important than the time. Since I don't carry my iPhone on me at night (I did buy a clock today), I have no idea of what time it is when I'm out, and end up carrying on until 5 in the morning or so, and there are still bars open then.

These are some pictures from around the neighborhood of Palermo:

The following three pictures are from the "Japanese Garden":

Its been a lot of fun hanging out in this town, but tomorrow morning I am getting on a boat to go to Uruguay!