Hammy Treats and Hostel Suites?

To travel from Mendoza to Buenos Aires, you either fly or take an overnight bus. Meika and I elected to endure the 14 hours bus ride, and very wisely chose to purchase executivo (first class) tickets. The cost was several pesos more than the turista class, but when we converted it to dollars, the difference wasn't more than a few bucks. This ended up being one of the highlights of the trip. Our seats were on the top level of a double decker bus, and I was thrilled to discover they reclined to a nearly flat position with a foot rest. Our journey began with a game of BINGO! Our attendant, Andres- who we became fast friends with, called numbers over the microphone as we eagerly punched out our numbers. Not wanting to be the stupid American calling out a false "bingo", I was sure to double check my numbers with Meika after each one was called out. I would like to say that we won, but the lucky card belonged to the lady in front us, who received a bottle of wine. Shortly after the game, our movie and dinner service began. We dined on hammy treats and alfahores (a cookie layered with dulce de leche and covered in chocolate... they are everywhere) and accompanied by packets of mayo and salt. Wine was complementary and so we made the best of our meal while we watched Leathal Weapon... to our surprise and delight a second course of turkey, potato fritters, and overcooked veggies came, as well as refills on the vino. We giggled and munched our dinners while strapped up in our Andesmar issued dining bibs. By now your thinking, it cant get much better, but it does. With the start of our second feature film, Twilight (these were all in English with Spanish subtitles... Meika was brave and snuck over to the electronics area while Andres was away to turn up the volume for us) we were served champagne- I let Andres know this was Meika's favorite, and he kept it coming! With a swollen full moon out the window, and bellies full of beverages we snoozed and cruised all the way to Buenos Aires. We bid our new friend, Andres, farewell and tipped him for his great service.

Upon arriving at the Florida Suites Hostel downtown, we realized this was NOT what we were looking for. We immediately nicknamed it 'the dorms' because of its sterility, lack of character, haunting smell, and abundance of drunk high school graduates. Everything was clean and nice, but it was lacking the charm we were looking for. There was no common kitchen area, but in its place was a cafeteria type set up on the bottom floor. We made the best of it, and decided to change accommodations after our upcoming trip to Uruguay.

Buenos Aires is definitely a big city, and we were right in the heart of the hustle and bustle. Street vendors, performers, McDonalds, tourists cars and cabs were everywhere. We set off to soak up some serenity at the Botanical and Japanese gardens while the winter sun still hung in the sky. Just down the street from there, we visited MELBA, the modern art museum. It housed some intriguing pieces, including a self portrait by Frida Kahlo, and a portrait by Diego Rivera, among other things. However, most of it was a little arts and crafts for my taste. The following day we took a train to Tigre, a popular get away about 35 km north of BA. There was plenty of shopping and views of the delta, which has a rich latte color due to its high content of iron from the jungle streams of South America that feed into it. It was an all day trip, and we spent as little time as possible in 'the dorms', aside from sleeping, using the Internet, and having few beverages in the basement bar.