Buenos Aires was one of the cities we were most excited to come to but after staying a while we both decided that we hated big cities and wanted to get out. We had a lot to get done though, one of which was a Brazilian visa. We thought we would be smart and head to BA on a Monday giving us the entire work week to get our Visas taken care of so we could carry onto Brazil. It might have been a good idea for us to check the calendar before going with this plan as upon arrival to the embassy on Monday AM we realized that both Monday and Tuesday were state holidays!! Perfect!! That left us with only 3 days to get our Visas, a process which in Canada takes 3 weeks. Much to our surprise the process only took 1 day and it was half the price that it would have cost in Canada. Sure happy we got it done here! One thing that cheered us up on Monday was that we were able to catch up with our English travelling companions one last time. Knowing it would likely be the last time we’d meet up we decided to head out for a big dinner which landed us at an all you can eat Asado (BBQ) restaurant called “Siga la Vaca” or follow the cow! It was pretty great to catch up with them one last time and the food was pretty good too!!
During the week we thought we might as well spend some time visiting the sights and with Tuesday another holiday, traffic was pretty light so we decided to rent bikes to see the city. We started in La Boca which is one of the poorer parts of the city. We actually met a guy who went off of the tourist street and came back to the hostel with two black eyes! Having David as the map reader we definitely spent a ton of time off of the touristy streets and were really lucky that we didn’t come back with a few shiners of our own! We saw one of the Boca Juniors soccer stadium (home to Maradona) in this area and tons of colourful buildings, tango dancers, artwork and lovely outdoor restaurants situated along the famous “Caminito” walking street. We biked around for a few more hours visiting a pile of the city’s main attractions like the ritzy neighbourhood of Recoleta, the lush green parks in Palermo, as well as the “Floralis Generica” (a giant metal flower, which closes at night like a real flower!! Wow, huh?) and the incredible buildings of the faculty of law and engineering before heading back to the hostel to get geared up for the Tango show we were planning to see. 
The Tango show was pretty pectacular as well. It was a combination of a dinner, tango lesson and show in much the same setting as a dinner theater back home. The lesson was David’s favourite part seeing as there we 3 times more girls than guys there, so the rule was that guys had to switch partners every few minutes to involve those girls that didn’t have partners!!! The dancing in the show was great to see, but both of us were just as intrigued (if not more) by the member of the instrumental group playing a type of accordion every so enthusiastically. All in all it was a wonderful evening.
After the first few days in BA we were ready to move on from the big city and hit the quiet beaches of Uruguay. We had our Brazilian Visas in hand but there was still one thing holding us back… taking in a soccer match, which we held on the weekends. We ruled in favour of spending a couple of extra days waiting for the big game on Sunday. We spent some time back on the subway (where David was the victim of 2 pickpocket attempts within 5 mintutes, once for the wallet, the other for the camera!!) revisiting some of the neighborhoods. Dawne had a great time shopping at the trendy independent designer clothing shops in Palermo and along the busy street of Avenida Florida (where we were both suckered into buying new leather jackets!!). 
We also stopped in at the Cemetario de la Recoleta , which the final resting place of many of Argentina’s most prominent people, including Evita. The place is a city of giant tombs and marble statues with walking streets allowing the people to weave their way through the sarcophagi. Beunos Aires really has a ton to do and wasting time is not really much of an issue. In addition to the city, we stayed in a massive hostel with plenty of activities and lots of tons of other travellers. One of those travellers who happened to be a university friend of David’s from back home, Katheryn Christopher. They were both pretty surprised to run into each other in BA!! Seriously, what are the chances??The last night out in BA we took in a Futbol game. Unfortunately the city’s most well know team Boca Juniors were out of town, so we had to settle for their city rivals “River Plate”. For our safety and simplicity of getting tickets we decided to go with a tour group from the hostel and Kate came along as well. The stadium was pretty massive and the atmosphere was amazing. The crowd sang songs and waved banners, flags and flares all game. It was especially wild when River Plate scored on a penalty shot, giving the crowd something to actually go wild about. Unfortunately River Plate lost 3-1, mostly thanks to their goaltender completely missing the ball as he attempted to kick it, and the opposing striker tapping it towards the empty goal. Oooops! Hopefully no crazy fans track him down later on!!
Monday rolled around and we were happy to be back on the move. We’ve certainly got into the travelling groove where staying in one place for too long just doesn’t do it !!
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