Weekend

Great weekend. Got to feel like a rich guy on Friday when Miguel (our driver) picked us up, drove us around in his blacked out ride and gave us a tour of the city. I have a driver, how weird is that. Then he dropped us off at dinner where Jose ordered a meat platter. Not any meat platter, this one had: entrails, liver, ribs, blood sausage, and some other stuff. I tried it all. Most of it was gross. Then we went out for drinks.

Saturday we got up early and took a ferry to Colonia, Uruguay. It was a beautiful river town. Lots of history and all that.

Went on a tour, bought some stuff, and drank some cafe on the river front. I noticed there were a lot of stray dogs hangin out around town. The tour guide told us that in Colonia there are a lot of neighborhood dogs. The whole town takes care of them, get them shots, gives them food, gives them nicknames. What an awesome town. How do they deal with a stray dog problem... they take care of all of them.

Today we took a tour of the pink house, its like the white house... but pink.



Then Miguel took us over to Tigre. A city on the mouth of the rio de la plata. We took a boat tour, ate a cheese burger from a street vendor, and bought some more stuff. There were tons of people and tons of shops. It was very cool.




Tomorrow it is back to work. Then Wednesday night back home!

observations

There are no fat people in Argentina. Its weird.
Also there are a hand full of gingers here. The bright red hair startles me.
Couples make out in public a lot. Like, trying to eat each others faces make out. And a healthy amount of butt grabbing.
Servers don't seat you. You can't tip on credit card, cash only tips.
Everyone eats meat at every meal. And no one eats breakfast.
They say goodbye like we are in Italy 'chow', but say hello like we are in Spain.
The coffee is really good.

La Plata

So I'm staying in Buenos Aires city, and independent federal state. Which is physically located in Buenos Aires Province, but not part of it. Claro?

Its the Provential capital. On our way in every morning we see at least a dozen horses being walked over to the race track or pulling carts around town. We hire a driver to take us to work because, well they told us its the only safe way. I thought traveling down here would be a lot like Europe. And it is in a lot of ways, but Argentina still isn't a 1st world country and there is a lot of poverty and corruption in government.

We were told not to take taxi's because there is a taxi mafia that rips people off, even locals. We took one anyway, but Motorola will pay for our driver so we usually just call up Miguel. He's a pretty awesome dude, and he definitely appreciates the business. He gave us his personal cell and said to call him anytime, anywhere.

Boca Juniors game

We bought tickets to the boca Jrs football match. Their stadium is called, La Bombonera, and is in??? you guessed it, la boca neighborhood. We got a ride over to the game, ate some chorizo, took a tour of the stadium's museum, then sat down in our seats.

Seats which made me feel fat cause they were soooo tiny. Also no beer! When we asked about it one of the people next to us said, "cervesa? No. Do you know how crazy it would get if they served beer." true. People go nuts enough as it is. Boca wins 2-0.

The crowd is going crazy and its time to leave. Except we can't. They literally give the away fans a 40 minute head start so no one gets killed after the match. The fans 'son loco' down here. On the way back to the hotel we passed a street that looked straight outta Baghdad. Buildings with missing walls or roofs and a burned out car on the street.

Oh one more thing. There were like 20 kuwaities sitting right behind us who were super pumped to be at the game. They knew all the chants and everything. Apparently Boca Jrs are super popular in the Mideast.

Me and Riquelme!

Journey to the obolisque or where the hell am i?

I started off on a trip to see the obolisque. A massive fallic object akin to the Washington monument. Walk west to Julio 9 then south... ok got it. Besides, its a giant F'n stone monolith. Who can miss it? Well its been over an hour and I still haven't seen it. But I did run into a bigass parade. I think it is a parade celebrating the indiginous Argentinians. There's not a light skinned spanish or italian looking person in it.

Also I don't speak Spanish soooo its kind of hard to ask. I stopped in for a beer because, like I said, its a giant ass parade and I dont know where it ends and I'm pretty sure I need to cross it.

" Un cerveza perfavor!" (actually what I said was 'one beer please?' then made a drinking motion with my hand. Because well... I'm a fool and for how to say 'beer' in spanish... so awkward.



anyways, he motions for me to sit down. Then brings out a two liter of Stella. No shit. Its the biggest beer Ive ever seen. I ask for something "mas pequeno" because by this time I realize I took 4 years of Spanish in high school and should at least try. So he brings back a 650cm^3 monster of a beer called "Quilmes Cristal" that's right, drinking Crystal! I'm too embarrassed to ask for an even smaller beer so I drink it.



Lil boozy now. Wait, I think they are doing a second lap. I swear I saw that man dragon two-steppin with that pink senorita a half-mile back. "Uno Mas por favor!" the obolisque will have to wait.

Through the looking glass into first class OR I'm one of the pod people

First class pod





First class TV





First Class Post-Dinner Fruit and Cheese

Rise and shine

Waking up early today for a running tour of Buesnos Aires. Running 11k around the city with a tour guide.

Heres a pic of the city.


And a ham sandwich.


Thats right. Salsa golf. what is salsa golf? Maybe salsa.... nope, its a pink looking mayo. Crazy Argentines.

Also I forgot to bring my camera cable. So I might not be able to post any camera photos until I get back. :(