Buenos Aires

This is La Casa Rosada, one of the many sights that I visited during my 4 days in Buenos Aires. It houses the presidential offices and is the building where the famed Juan and Eva Peròn (Evita) spoke from the balconies. One of the theories of why it is pink is that it is painted with bovine blood- a common practice in the late 19th Century! There was a period when they didn´t have the funds to repaint the whole building so it now remains two-toned as a symbol of the country´s volatile economy.





We went to a wonderful tango show at Cafe Tortoni, the oldest club in Buenos Aires. I don´t have pictures of them dancing because you coudn´t use flash and they are extremely blurry!! I´ve learned some tango songs... I´m looking around for some dancing classes!





Although I never thought I could do it, I did as the Argentines do (and for those who have asked, I have been asking around and the consensus seems to be that you can use "Argentines" or "Argentinians" ...) and stayed out until the sun came up. We went to a dance club called Opera Bay that is designed after the Sydney Opera House. A clock that we passed on the way to the club read 2:32 am! Surprisingly I probably could´ve kept dancing!

I nearly jumped off the sidewalk into the street when I passed this stuffed cow. (I´m not sure if I actually thought there would be a live cow on the busy steets of Buenos Aires...) How fitting to get to take a picture with an animal that I will be eating so frequently for the next year! Although I´m not a big meat eater, I must say that the beef here is fantastic and very cheap.

I enjoyed the few days in the big city, especially because my next destination was so drastically different! All the girls in my program arrived in Buenos Aires and we headed off to our orientation in the country. There were 11 of us- all girls and all with a lot of luggage. The van driver did not seem pleased when he picked us up at the hostel and had to play Tetris with our luggage in order to get us all on board!!