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December 12, 2004

And For My Next Act...

So here I am in Buenos Aires. I spent about 75% of my first two days here blogging about Antarctica. I also made a quick stop into the U.S. Embassy to get more pages put into my passport, since it is full, and I stopped into a travel agent to reconfirm my flight out of Buenos Aires. When I got to the travel agency, I found out my ticket had been cancelled, inexplicably. What the heck? I knew I was too lucky leaving Ushuaia not having a kink in my flight plans like most others did. I think it's a blessing in disguise though, because I really wanted to see the Bolivian Salt Flats, which is sort of on the way to Lima (where I need to catch my flight back to the States). Sooo... I'm going to make my own way to Lima and hopefully stop into the salt flats on the way! Yay!

Can I complain for a minute? I have tried, unsuccessfully FOUR times now to mail a package home. It's always something different. Before I left Ushuaia for Antarctica, the post office only accepted cash and the ATMs weren't working. When I got back to Ushuaia, the ATMs were working but the post office was closed because it was a holiday. So I unpacked the box of stuff and put it all back in my backpack to bring to Buenos Aires. When I got to Buenos Aires, I repacked everything back into yet another box, got cash, and then the post office couldn't send a package internationally that was more than 2 kg (why? I don't know). I then went to the the "International Post Office" and found out it is closed on weekends. So I will have to re-unpack it all again, and lug the extra 5 kg with me to Salta. Good thing I bought souvenirs made of STONE in Ushuaia! Ok, my rant is over. Thanks for listening.

I took the ferry to the little town of Colonia, Uruguay for a day trip. It was only a 45 minute ferry ride across the Rio de la Plata from Buenos Aires and a good escape from the maniac pace here. Colonia was much quieter and more my style.The main attraction was to walk around the old Portuguese part of the town, which was founded in 1680, mostly as a port to smuggle items into Buenos Aires. On the ferry over, I sat next to a woman from D.C. that came to Buenos Aires for three weeks SPECIFICALLY to learn how to Tango. It's very common to see street performers doing the tango, which I have watched a few times. She tried to convince me to take a lesson, but was only convincing enough to get me to go to a Tango show at one of the fancy dinner/show venues, not a lesson. It's amazing that the dancers don't constantly kick each other in the shins...


If you enjoyed this entry, please post a comment! I like to know who is e-traveling with me. Thanks!

Posted by msshell on December 12, 2004 12:43 PM
Category: South America
Comments

Greetings from the Buenos Aires Domestic Airport!! It always amazes me where you can find internet. My flight for Salta leaves in about an hour, and then I'll be making my way north back into Bolivia! Ciao!

Posted by: Michelle on December 12, 2004 08:52 AM

this is not a comment on your tango travels, rather let us harken back to the antarctica expedition for a moment...where last we met...just wanted to let you know that juli and i conferred today and agreed that we are most grateful for your chronicles. it greatly relieves us of any work whatsoever as we are referring all our friends to your blog. thank you. thank you very, very much. i hope to have you along for all my future travels.

Posted by: el en on December 13, 2004 12:55 AM

EL EN/JULI: I am thrilled that I could make your lives easier. I aim to please.

Posted by: Michelle on December 13, 2004 07:21 AM

EL EN/JULI: Perhaps a more reasonable request than Lauries morning wisdom... do either of you have our itinerary of things we didn't do from tuesday dec 2nd?

Posted by: Michelle on December 13, 2004 07:25 AM

WOW, you just brought back so many memories... now my brain is overloaded!

No fair, you got to see orcas and a Russian dance show!

Anyway, greetings from Vietnam, where I just got scammed $27... details to come on my Blog...

BA is awesome... start embracing big city culture and you'll like them more... Take a tango lesson, but try and go to a free community center out of the center...

Posted by: Erik in Hanoi on December 14, 2004 09:01 AM

Great updates, Michelle! I've enjoyed finally getting to catch up. Love the Inca Cola shirt!

Posted by: John on December 16, 2004 09:05 PM
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