From Bmore to BA

I just got back to Buenos Aires this morning, after spending an excruciating 24 hours undertaking the task of renewing my Argentine visa. With my visa set to expire on Tuesday (tommorow), and with a German friend I met in Montevideo staying with me Saturday night, I planned to take the standard day trip to Colonia, Uruguay – the beautiful colonial town just across the river from BA – on Sunday. That´s about all I had ¨planned¨…and with this time of year being peak vacation season, did I ever my learn my lesson.

 

 

The ferry to Colonia was completely booked on Sunday, so the only other option was to take the ferry to Montevideo (which is much more expensive – 1 way it´s about 200 pesos, as opposed to the 100 peso roundtrip fare to Colonia), or take this other ferry from Tigre, which is a small town on the water 45 minutes north of Buenos Aires, to Carmelo, Uruguay. The thing is, I couldn´t get on the early boat from Tigre as it was completely booked, so the only option was to take the later boat at 4:00 and stay the night in Carmelo. But, throwing yet another wrench into the great machine (I believe that´s the correct metapor) was the fact that I couldn´t reserve my spot on this later ferry over the phone, I had to buy it in person. And so, after arriving home at 6 am Sunday morning after the obligatory night-out-on-the-town-because-you-have-a-guest, I woke up at 11 and set out for Tigre – even though the boat didn´t leave at 4 – because I wanted to get to the ticket counter early enough; I just couldn´t miss this boat.

Why couldn´t I miss it? Because I didn´t want to screw up my residency status in Argentina. You have 90 days on a tourist visa, and I was on day 88, or possibly 89. Sure, I´ve heard from alot of people if you overstay it´s no big deal, you just pay a fine when you leave, while others have remarked that ¨it´s just Argentina and there´s nothing a little something something ($$) won´t settle…¨ but truth be told, I plan on coming back here some day, and I just don´t want to get denied from entering the country 5 years down the road, even if ¨it´s just Argentina, man.¨

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I gotta vent for a second here.

As anyone who knows me will tell you, I´ve been known to enjoy a hearty political discussion…in fact, you may even say I love it – probably I talk about politics alot more than I should, and for too long, often having the unintentional effect of pissing off my roommates or whoever may be around. I apologize. But, it´s like what they say – be careful what you wish for, you just may get it. By mere virtue of being a yanqui, I just can´t escape the nightly barrage of anti-Bush rhetoric and holier-than-thou indoctrination…Yeh, yeh, I don´t like the President much either, and it´d be my pleasure to talk to you all about this, but for G-d´s sake it´s 5:30 in the morning and a playa´s just trying to get his drink on! As the sun was coming up last night I found myself at the receiving end of a 10 minute diatribe on how the U.S. government knew about Sept. 11th beforehand – 4 or 5 drinks into the night, no less. Amigo…I´d love to discuss conspiracy theories with you all day (other notable ones include: the U.S. government created AIDS, and McDonald´s is really a front for the CIA – nah just kidding about that one, but it´d be pretty funny, right? I mean, they got the world covered…), but there´s a time and place for everything. At this very moment, as we sit at the bar, knocking a few down, can´t we all just be equal citizens of the world community, united in our quest to chat it up with the beautiful Argentine ladies? That´s the only kind of ¨international relations¨ I have any interest in at this point…I mean…sheeesh…

Also – the above pic has absolutely nothing to do with my rant. I just liked it. It´s from La Boca, the oldest barrio in the city, and the home of the Tango.

Sometimes in your life - and while it doesn´t occur often, it happens with enough frequency to intrigue you time and time again - you step back, pause, and look around, only to find yourself in an utterly ... [Continue reading this entry]