Friday, August 17, 2007: Last day in Argentina: Go big, then Go home!

Friday, August 17, 2007

Once again, we rolled out of bed around 12:30 pm, got ready, and took a cab to the (in)famous neighborhood La Boca (The Mouth). La Boca is known for being dangerous at night, but a must see during the day for all visitors to BA. After the night before which was one potential-disaster-narrowly-turned-amazing-experience after another, we were a little on edge and exhausted, yet hopeful that today would run smoother. We got to La Boca and I immediately fell in love. It reminds me so much of the French Quarter with its quirky buildings and interesting characters shadowed by tourist traps and overpriced shopping. But as we walked around, I learned to appreciate these tourist traps and knew that once in a while its ok to fall for them. La Boca is famous for its Tango, which was something we all wanted to see before we left. We found a restaurant that had Tango two dancers inside and we decided to fall for the trap. We ate lunch, watched the dancers and even got to dance with them for about 45 seconds, which was just enough to realize how hard it was but fall in love! It ended up being a great experience and I totally didn’t mind the gimics!
After lunch we continued walking around and admiring the leather shops that La Boca is also known for. Calli wanted to buy a leather belt and randomly ducked into a store that looked less touristy. While she was looking for a belt, Samantha found a bright green leather jacket that was her favorite color and happened to fit her perfectly. Than Calli found an amazing dark brown, funky leather jacket that fit her perfectly. We left the store and continued walking around, I bought a $10 red leather purse, and they deliberated. After much internal (and external) struggling, they both decided to buy them! Sam’s was only about $100 US$ and Calli’s was about $150, but for the quality and amount they loved them, I think it was worth it. The owner of the store had designed all the jackets and was a really nice lady. They both got amazing deals and I think they are super happy. If I didn’t have 2 leather coats already, I probably would have had my own internal struggle. They were that beautiful and that good a deal!

After our their big splurges, I bought a dozen alfajores a famous Argentine sweet consisting of dulce de leche between two cookie type pastries with various accessories (imagine doughnut varieties) for us to share. We decided to be adventurous since so far the day was going amazingly and jumped on a bus that a taxi driver told us would take us to the Botanical Gardens. It ended up being a one hour trip, but it was amazing because we got to see other parts of the city from a different perspective.

We walked around the botanical gardens admiring the beautiful statues and plants. We got kicked out at 6, before we could eat our alfajores, so we headed to Niki’s friends B&B which was actually close this time! We hung out for a while before heading back to the hostel to get ready to go to dinner. We took another bus back and again enjoyed the adventure. For dinner, we met up with another friend of Niki and Sam’s from high school named Kat. We went to a really popular restaurant called Siga la vaca (Follow the Cow) that everyone we talked to told us we HAD to go. We got there at 10:30 pm and had a 45 minute wait. But it was totally worth it: All you can eat AMAZING salad bar, All you can eat meat (and I’m talking Argentine meat: steak, ribs, steak, sausage, pork, steak, kabobs, chicken, steak…), dessert, bottled water, and a liter of either soda, beer, or wine. All for about $15 US$. No joke. It was amazing. We didn’t leave until after 2 am. The 5 of us finished 4.5 bottles of wine and I don’t know how many plates of food. It’s a good thing I didn’t study in BA.

After our monumental dining extravaganza, we jumped in some cabs and went to a popular disco tech and danced Dane Cook style: girls dancing in a tight circle and if boys tried to dance with us, we gave them death stares and shooshed them away. Around 5 am, the wine wore off and the exhaustion set in, so we headed back to our new home away from home away from home.