day 16, buenos aires

since our last update, we have settled into buenos aires nicely. yesterday, we got a bit of a late start adjusting to schedules and everyones morning routine. we had braekfast, then finally left the hostel at around 11. we spent about an hour searching for a tourist information office, and when we did find it, there was a sign that said "be right back" - 5 minutes later, we decided that a south american be right back might not be as immediate as we suspected. so, we walked back to the hostel, then walked over to the cemetary in recoleta.

people say that this cemetary is the main tourist attraction in buenos aires - kind of makes you wonder if a cemetary is the best thing to see in a city! it is similar to ones i have seen before in spanish colonies where the formerly rich and famous are buried with their families - lots of glass, marble and stone. one modern gravesite looked like the entrance to a club! very strange choice.

we went to find evita perons grave site, which took about half an hour. it was in a very nondescript location but was covered in tons and tons of flowers. this cemetary also had a lot of cobwebs and stray cats taking in the afternoon sun. some were a little bit creepy.

we had dinner at another cafe, and ate much better food than the night before. kavitha had a hamburgeusa, i had an arroz con pollo (my favourite latin american dish), cheryl and bossmat had an academica sandwich (bossmat{s without ham), and arti had her first empenadas (filled with creamed corn). after that meal, we rolled back to the hostel to get ready for the football match later on that evening.

the football match was the semifinal match for the south american cup (we think), featuring river plate and san lorenzo. it was insanely rowdy walking in, and i was shoved more than once. eeeesh. safety first? when we did get our seats, we did not leave them once - i had my first coke in ages, and they had some awesome candied peanuts. in terms of the game, the team we were cheering for (river plate) started off very strong and scored two goals almost immediately. however the reigning team (so we think) came back strong with two goals and tied the game. river plate played very sloppily in the second half. oy.

in addition to this, was the abundance of fireworks/sparkler launchers that people had! there were firemen all over the field with hoses ready to go in case a fire occurred. similarly, all the cheering was INSANE. in the upper decks, fans were jumping up and down and sitting in the lower deck, we could see that the upper deck was literally vibrating. (vibrating cement = interesting.) after the game finished, we realized that it was customary for the fans of the visiting team to leave first in order to avoid riots and fighting, so we had to wait for about 30 to 45 minutes before we could take off. the drive back to the hostel was much faster than it was to get there!

because we were craving churros and ice cream before we got to the venue, after the game we ended up at mcdonald{s (GASP!) and had some soft serve ice cream. delish! totally hit the spot! i was also impressed at how much mcdonalds has progressed with its mccafe venture. holy schmoly!

today we are going on a bus tour and doing some tango lessons. cant wait to flail!

more residual questions:

1) who is bartolome mitre?
2) where does one cut their hair in buenos aires?