So, we got lazy for a couple of days here. Sorry. On Monday, we went to Retiro to buy a bus ticket for a trip back to Santiago. We wandered around the area, and went to a weaponry museum. I don’t think I have ever seen so many killing machines in one spot. It was insane. An interesting museum, nonetheless. Then we basked in a beautiful park for a long time. Finally, we went to the bus station, and got our ticket out of town.
Afterwards, we wandered a little more, and finally headed home. We spent a little time hanging out and resting. Then we headed to a Parilla, in hopes of finding some decent Argentine beef for The Doc. It turns out, I didn’t understand that he was looking for filet mignon. We headed back to the hostel and played cards and finished our bottle of Syrah.
Tuesday, we went to the Buenos Aires Zoo. It had a lot of depressing exhibits, but it was also totally neat because they seem to have accepted that they can’t get Argentines to stop feeding the animals, so they sell animal food at booths. You can go crazy feeding the animals. Essentially, the whole zoo is a petting zoo. Except, the goats and stuff which are actually behind gates. Not that it matters, because they are goats, and goats get out. We saw anteaters, capybara, and these weird little things that were kind of between an otter and a beaver and a capybara that swim around and wandered all over the zoo. I touched one of those things. We also witnessed a hippo family, and it was so cute because the baby hippo was such a pest and mom was kind of playing with him, and daddy hippo was tolerating baby hippo’s shenanigans, but when mommy played too he got quite grumpy with her. We spent like 5 or 6 hours in the zoo and, it was like no time had passed. It was an experience. I almost forgot to mention the elephants! Well, just this one:
That evening, we went to a ridiculously fancy restaurant that The Doc’s parents had recommended to us. We had a great time, and I realized that filet mignon actually tastes pretty good. I am still going to call myself a vegetarian, because it helps me to avoid eating meat that isn’t quite such a delicacy. Our check probably would have been over 300 dollars in the states, but in Argentina it was just under 100. We blew the bank on dinner there, but heck, it was totally well worth it. Just to let you know how fancy the place was we put ourselves on the waiting list, and while we were hanging out with our little pager they gave us complementary champagne, and it was actually pretty good champagne. When we sat down at the table, it already had appetizers on it (like an antipasto dish) we got to choose which type of bread we wanted from the bread man who walked around constantly, and the wine list was a book as thick as some dictionaries. We had a great time! And the wait-staff seemed to like us, even if we were the only folks with the gaul to show up in jeans and T-shirts.
The Proof:
We walked around a tiny bit by the waterside after dinner, checking out a very bizarre bridge in the process, and finally catching a cab back to the hostel. By the time we got into bed, where we slept very well, it was quite late. We had to check out the next morning. We were irresponsible so we had to wake up extra early to be all packed and fed by 10am. Yuck.
Then we wanted to go to a weird religious theme-park, but we discovered that it is only open weekends. I guess that is another thing we will have to do next time we’re in town. We went for a walk instead, and tried in vain to gain access to a tall building’s top floor for a view of the city. No dice. Finally, after a bit of ice cream, we headed to the hostel to reclaim our bags. We ended up watching Austin Powers until it was time to leave for the bus station.
Our last meal in Buenos Aires was the best Thai ever served by a gay ex-pat from New Jersey. I just needed to mention that. I wish I could remember the name of the place.
Then the bus!
The bus steward guy was possibly the meanest Spanish Speaking person since ___ fill in any heinous Latin American dictator here___. If you go by M. Scott Peck’s definition that evil is "a malignant form of narcissism that seems insatiable" you could say that this guy was truly evil. Sadistic even. He did his steward tasks, but lacked any finesse in doing them, and generally did not actually give a crap about anyone else, even though his job is kind of to give a crap about people. I could complain about this more, but I don’t want you to confuse my amusement for actual contempt.
We are back in Santiago. It is great. Not so hot anymore, too. This isn’t such a bad city, as long as you stay away all summer.
