The buses that travel to other provinces (or long distances) are called micros. They are double decker buses with bathrooms, t.v.'s and reclining seats. Basically, this is the means of travel here. In reality, they are like airplanes. The bus station is just like an airport: you buy a ticket to wherever you need to go (it could be within Argentina or to Uruguay, Chile, Brasil.. etc.) and you find you bus in the maze. Fernando and Heiner ended up on the same bus as me, but they got off after 5 hours. I stayed on for another 5 hours until Retiro. I slept most of the way, waking up every so often because my coat (a.k.a. my pillow) kept slipping from underneath my head.
I arrived in Retiro pretty late, I think it was around 10:30am. Patty was waiting for me, and we met with another friend of hers who just flew in from Tennesee. We wanted to walk around the capital city of BA for a few hours, so we decided to pay 10 pesos for a locker so we could leave our things. That way, we could walk without worrying about people stealing. Oh yea, Buenos Aires is known for theft. I never had my backpack on my back. You are supposed to swing it around so it's in front of you. That was cumbersome, but the best way to walk through the streets. Pick-pocketers are quicker than lightening, and you never know. And in all honesty, they are incredibly talented... they can steal something right infront of your face without you noticing. One of the biggest problems, is leaving stuff on the table if you sit down and eat somewhere, or even get a cup of coffee. We don't put our cells phones on the table, or anything for that matter. Everything stays in our bags.
Anyway, we toured the capital, and most of the pictures you see are from there. The buildings were amazing; the architecture telling you stories from years passed. Patty's friend said there are two Argentinas 1: Argentina 2: Buenos Aires. It's so true. When you walk around the capital of Buenos Aires there are thousands of people. Some in suits, some in rags. You see travelers, you see musicians playing in the streets. When you walk through the labyrinth of shops there are people trying to lure you into their stores. They stand on the outside in the street, basically calling you from a distance.. "Senora! Senora!" We got asked to buy suits, to look at merchandise or try on shoes. It got pretty annoying to be honest. The WORST is the swarms of people that stand in the streets and hand you flyers or information cards. You have flyers shoved in your face until you enter a store. But it doesn't stop there. Shopping in BA is like shopping in a prison (or it felt that way to me.) EVERY single store had a guard, or security officer. If it didn't, the employees would literally follow you around, watching your every move. Do you know how incredibly uncomfortable and obscene it is to be followed by an employee, with her eyes glued on me in suspicion while I was looking at KEY CHAINS. Hahah, it was too much. But maybe it makes sense, since prices are absurdly inflated in the capital, and the surrounding cities are impoverish ones. There ARE things about Argentina that are cheap.. like fruits and vegetables and taxi rides (well for the U.S. dollar anyway.) I can buy a bag of potatoes, two onions and some carrots for 3 pesos. That's less than 88cents US dollar. However, there are things here that are so incredibly inflated it makes so sense to me. Some examples: makeup- maybelline or covergirl blush is 80-90 pesos. We can get that in the states for 5 bucks! Clothes: clothes here are so expensive and they are the worst quality. They are cheaply made, and the threads usually start unravelling after a few washes. I saw a pair of Levi's jeans for over 350 pesos. That's almost 90 dollars U.S. Again, I can find Levi's in the US for 30 bucks.
We then walked to the capital building after exploring the mall (which was the fanciest mall I've ever seen in my life.) It was extremely foggy that day, so some of the buildings were hard to make out. But it was awesome to get to see their "White House." They call it the "Pink House" but that's where the president and her husband lives. But, Argentina hates their president. She and her husband are a corruption team I guess. Who knows.
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From there, Patty and I traveled a few hours by bus to her town, Canuelas. She lives above a church, in a very small room with a bathroom and a bunk bed. I slept on the top bunk, and spent most of my time in there. I cooked dinner one night on the small oven, and that was comical since I needed three pots and we only had two. I had to make mashed potatoes for three people, but I had to use a GIGANTIC soup pot, big enough for 30 helpings. I was very humbled in the ways of cooking though. We only had a few forks, spoons, and cutting knives. I peeled carrots and potatoes with a regular dinner knife, and cut onions on the counter. The kitchen sink decided to take a time out, and the water wouldn't drain anymore. So, we had to wash dishes in the bathroom sink (wich wasn't even big enough to wash a cup.)
Saturday night, Patty and two friends invited me to walk around the town of Canuelas and eat dinner. We ended up eating hamburgers with ham, cheese, tomatoes and hard boiled eggs. It was YUMMY. From there we walked around the park and I asked why all of the trees has no branches. Apparently, they cut all the branches from the trees along the streets since birds perch and poop everywhere. How hysterical!
The next few days I got to watch Patty teach singing lessons. I heard some very talented kids sing, and was very moved by a young boy's song he wrote for his father who died of cancer last month.
I was supposed to leave Sunday, but those are Patty's busiest days, so I had to wait until Monday. I wasnt about to travel alone in a place I didn't know. I would have ended up in Chile haha. So we left Patty's house around 8am yesterday morning (Mon) and walked to the bus stop. Bus #88 never came, so we walked farther to catch another one. From there, we rode a a few hours to San Justo. San Justo didn't have any micros to Cordoba until 8pm, so we took another city bus to Retiro. We got off the bus in Retiro and headed out on foot. After walking awhile through the city, we ran to the underground subways. After two subways, we were finally in the town Retiro where I could buy my ticket home. 150 pesos later, I got on the mico at 2:30pm. It drove.. and drove.. and drove.. and I finally got home at 2am. It was so exhausting, and boring since I had nobody to talk to! It took me about 24 hours to get from one province to another! haha!
Funny side note: while we were traveling on the city buses, some people have decided to make it their office. Men will hop on the bus with c.d.'s a a boom box and try to sell their c.d.'s by blasting the radio in your ear. As soon as the bus stops, they hop off and wait for the next one hahahah
