Week 33: Buenos Aires, Argentina; Montevideo, Uruguay

Monday, 8/29 

We finally get to Buenos Aires and took the Metro to our newest hostel. The reception of this hostel was amazing! We were told about all kinds of tours, things to do, where to go, what to eat, pretty much everything we needed to know! 

It was colder there so we had to bundle up. This first day, we spent some time hanging out in the lobby and then tried matte, which is a South American green tea drink, for the very first time. It was difficult to choke down to say the least. 

Later, after wandering the city a little bit, we ended up meeting a few different people from around the world! We decided to go that night to a suggested drum show so we got our group together, headed towards the show, and spent the whole night watching this amazing band and wandering the streets of Buenos Aires with an outside band and our new friends.

Unfortunately, we didn’t stay out too late because most of us had arrived that morning or afternoon from travelling and we were all tired. 

We headed back, stayed up a little bit more hanging out with more people at the hostel, drank some wine together, then went to bed.

Tuesday, 8/30

Today our little group decided to go on a walking tour at 10:30 in the morning. The tour was slow, but good! We got to see a good chunk of the city and we ended up with our favorite part of the tour at the famous cemetary, Recoletta.

It was our friend Martin’s birthday so after picking up some sushi and pizza for lunch, we separated and decided to meet up that night. I had an urge to make cookies and had the perfect excuse to finally bake! We also had to pick up a battery for my phone since it was constantly dying.

That night, we had a BBQ with the whole hostel. We sat at a family style table, ate soooo many different types of delicious meats, drank wine, and spent the night talking, drinking, and hanging out in our little family room!

After presenting my disastrous cookies and a cake that the girls at the hostel had made, we sang Happy Birthday to our new friend, hung out some more and then went to bed!

Wednesday, 8/31

We woke up pretty late this morning! In the afternoon, some of the group got together and wandered some more around the city.

We went to the MALBA art museum, saw the famous metal flower which is way more beautiful than it sounds (and even opens and closes every morning and night!), had a picnic in the park, then went to the free arts museum – one of my best museum experiences so far! We were shocked to see a flock of parakeets in the park with the pigeons. Apparently they can be found living wild in most countries in the world, even the UK. 

We didn’t get back until it got dark. Luke wasn’t feeling well, but it was the last night of the opera Tosca at the famous theatre.

Luke crashed while my friend Eyþos and I pretty much sprinted to the opera house hoping to snag some last minute tickets.

The seats weren’t the greatest (we had to lean over the rail to see anything) BUT it was perfect because they posted subtitles at the top of the stage showing the lyrics.

The show was AMAZING! Mario’s character gave me chills and he had one of the longest standing ovations I’ve ever seen after a song he sang during the show. Ah-mazing.

Afterwards, since we had skipped dinner, we tried to find a restaurant that was open but had no luck.

We finally got back to the hostel, I checked on Luke who had a temperature, and ate left over mac and cheese (homemade this time!), and went to bed. 

Thursday, 9/1

Again, we had a slow start to the morning, enjoying breakfast and each other’s company before some of us decided we wanted to go see the famous yet touristy old town of Buenos Aires (Boca, where the soccer stadium is) – the one you always see pictures of.

We wandered around the area for a little while and visited a really small but neat wax museum. We met up with everyone a few minutes later and then headed back to the hostel.

That night, we hung out, went to a bar together, and spent the entire night playing games and hanging out with our friends.

Friday, 9/2

Luke was up way earlier than I was. We made chicken soup for lunch since I was feeling a bit under the weather.

He wandered around town and we spent a lot of the day and evening at the hostel.

*sarahi was in bed most of the day so I wandered the city! First I stopped at an old church with a double layered organ on the back wall. Someone was playing and it was eery but amazing. Next I went to Puerto Madura, a revitalized old warehouse area along the river. I saw the iconic bridge and went to an old navy boat turned museum. Then I wandered past the sky scrapers to the ecological reserve. It’s not that impressive but I actually saw several new species of birds, animals, and plants. After that I returned to the hostel to check on Sarahi. I went grocery shopping, took all our dirty clothes to the laundromat and then we cooked dinner. Spaghetti I believe. -Luke

Saturday, 9/3

This morning, we checked out and thought to catch the ferry over to Uruguay. Unfortunately, we were way too late for it and had to find another hostel to stay that night since our favorite didn’t have room.

We Ubered out of there and our driver told us that Uber was technically illegal there because of all the taxi drivers. He told us to not mention Uber if we were around taxis since they could fine him like $80,000 pesos and attack him or his car.

It was a warmer day than a lot of the other ones, so Luke and I decided to try and see the Japanese garden, the planetarium and a few other things.

We spent some time at the Japanese garden then headed to the planetarium! Luke got a candy that looked dangerous and we hung out at the park for a bit before heading to the planetarium. Unfortunately, we didn’t go inside the planetarium since it was extremely busy and the movie wasn’t until two hours later.

We wandered the city a little more, visited the Palacio de Congresso which was beautiful! 

It was really cold and getting dark so we headed back to the hostel, cooked leftover dinner, and then went to sleep.

Sunday, 9/4

We were up around 6:00 the next morning, spent some time trying to get our taxi to the port, and then finally boarded after waiting a while.

We spent a majority of the morning taking the ferry over and taking a bus the rest of the way to Montevideo. We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening around Montevideo, but it was really cold! We took our wanderings in short bursts giving each other time to warm up. We visited the fair that happens on Sundays where I finally bought a sweater and then we spent a few more hours wandering the city and going out to eat.

We went to bed pretty early listening to the other people jam out to music on the first floor.