Feb 18 - Buenos Aires, Argentina (beg of 2nd Leg)

SANDY SHORE : Exhausted, we drag ourselves out of bed after a 4:30am crash and we head back into town in one last effort to see the city and stock up on some goods and provisions. I needed some blank CDs for production. Donna needed some beer. I needed some pens. Donna needed some beer. I needed some souvenirs and Donna needed a few more beers to bring back to the cabin.

Honestly, the beer here is quite good! Quilmes makes a stout that rivals Guinness and Brahma is a golden honey ale. In this heat, let me just say that it all goes down very easily. Those who know me well, know that I really don’t drink much in my current demographic – I often like to say that I consumed my entire life’s ration of alcohol in my twenties. However, ‘South America Sandy’ loves to drink.

There is a hustle-bustle to Buenos Aires, but not like the same busyness you find in the United States. People seem to take more time for visiting and gather to enjoy a cerveza or maté tea. I always think that warmer climes slow people down, or, it could just be that Americans are tightly wound and we don’t know how to relax. Either way, I like the glide of this city… it just feels good to me.

Only 200 years independent (next year they celebrate their Bicentennial), Buenos Aires is located at the mouth of the Rio de la Plata… the water looks like an iced café latte with a mocha tan color. They have extreme architectural diversity; from glistening modern new buildings for companies like Microsoft to European influenced structures to makeshift structures of tin and cardboard in poorer parts of town. 11,000,000 people live in Argentina’s largest city, so there would have to be poverty and yet, they all walk together as one. For the past two days, we walked with them. ~ss

DONNA KAY PHILLIPS : Today was a late start. The 4:30pm "back on board" time was one of the main motivaters to get our asses off of the ship and back into another $5 taxi to downtown. We had two hours left in Buenos Aires and this time we were on a mission for more supplies, artwork and of course, more Maté and Cerveza - muy importanté.

Brazil was such a linguistic wake up call, that we are both so happy to be dusting off our bag of Spanish nouns, which work pretty well here in Argentina. We find that if you string enough nouns together with the appropriate facial expressions and hand gestures, much progress can be made :-)

We glided through the central park area witnessing how the locals relax and hang out in the gorgeous environment in the mid-day heat - why can't more of our towns and cities have parks like these?

We found all of our remaining supplies on Florida Street which is anchored by the most architecturally attractive shopping mall I have every seen. Then it was back to the Super Mercado for another box of Quilmes Stout and grande bottles of Brahma, another local Pilsner style beer - very tasty.

We made it back just in time to set sail on the chai tea colored waters of the bay. The Rio de la Platas empties is grand self here, hence the light creamy brown color of the waters throughout the entire bay. It's a very strange sight to see tankers anchored out on the muddy water as if they are sitting the desert floor.

As if two days in Buenos Aires wasn't exciting enough, we're arriving in Montevideo, Uraguay tomorrow morning. God be with us and help up get our tired butts out to sweat another day. -dkp