Buenos Aires is too lengthy for some people to say

Trip Start Aug 31, 2008
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35
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Trip End Feb 02, 2009


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Flag of Argentina  ,
Tuesday, November 4, 2008

...so they just abbreviate it to B.A. This practice seems a bit ridiculous to me, especially considering that many cities we´ve been to have in excess of five syllables, and are pronounced in their entirety, but then again, I don´t live here. Buenos Aires offers so many engrossing activities that I was either too lazy or felt it silly to spend my time on the internet, so as a result I´ve fallen grossly behind on entries. I think I´ll write you guys a more in-depth critique of Argentina´s capital city when we return there in February. I´ll try to boil this one down to a few choice factoids (or wildly biased opinions):

1. Amazingly, Buenos Aires is hotter than Atlanta. All the local people assured us we had made the right decision in visiting before the hot season (in February). We had to take mid-day showers in order to be presentable for the evening. None of the locals broke a sweat, of course.

2. B.A. (hah!) has more boroughs (barrios, down here) than New York, all sprawling neighborhoods. We had time to explore a third of them during our 4 day stay.

3. Buenos Aires´ inhabitants are called porteños. In related news, the city has a dock/port, but lacks a beach.

4. Porteños don´t mind at all having pizza for lunch and dinner, day in, day out. While it´s the best pizza we´ve had in South America, by now I´m a bit sick of it. It´s impossible to eat on a budget in the city unless you eat pizza (or at the grocery store cafeteria, as we found on our last day.)

5. According to a crazy German lady I was crammed next to on the bus to Carlos Pellegrini, people tango in one place or another all day and all night. The signature dance of Buenos Aires apparently spawns some addicts who need a tango fix before breakfast, so sessions begin around ten AM.

I hope you enjoyed the Buenos Aires top 5. Here are some pictures, look out for the zoo, the botanical gardens, the cemetary, and a few representative street life shots (one of Nathan´s fortés).also, bonus rodent
Update, November 16: I added a few more pictures to the album...
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