Buenos Aires was worth a return trip, as was Siga La Vaca and a few other quality spots within the city. I stayed in a different hostel than last time, in the restaurant and bar heavy district of San Telmo. Unfortunately, the glamour didn’t carry over to the hostel, which was loud and without air conditioning during the 35 degree days. I managed to make friends with the Brazilian contingent as there were a few English speakers and, for the most part, they understood my Spanish. In any language, it was basically unanimous; with a lousy hostel in a beautiful city, why sleep?
That plan worked out very well the next three days. We had steak, sushi, milanesa and finally, a few good salads. I met a hilarious Russian named Sergey Fedorov, like the former Red Wing, and we won this trivia challenge at a bar for the service of some high class champagne. There was dancing in the streets on Sunday as local performers took advantage of the street market and fair in San Telmo. We followed marching bands, watched protests at the Pink House, and got lost on the bus system at 3 am after discovering one of the city’s biggest gay clubs.
It’s now Thursday in Cordoba, running on empty. There’s always these points when you travel when you wake up exhausted, realize you and all of your clothes smell terrible, and you’re facing yet another 12 hour bus ride that you think ‘enough of this’. I have only been on the road for less than a month. These people who backpack for 6 months or a year have some incredible stamina. Every once in a while you need to step back, downshift a few gears and remember how far you have come. While one of the good things about travelling is endless invitations to live in the moment, it can be easy to get caught up.
I’ll only have two days in Cordoba because of difficult bus scheduling on the way to final destination, Valparaiso. I do plan on continuing this blog in Chile, although posts will probably continue to slow down a bit. I think sacrificing my initial goal of a post a day for a little better writing was probably worth it. If I got kicked out of college, I think I would seriously make it my goal to be a travel writer for a while. Not forever, but maybe for a few years. Matador, my favorite travel site, has an online 12 week university-level travel writing program for $350 that I might take as a summer project sometime.
Side note: Any budding entrepreneurs out there with a handle on South America looking for an opportunity? Somebody seriously, seriously needs to create an Orbitz for SA bus travel. It’s a pain in the can to have to go to the bus station and go through an endless line of vendors to ask for ticket availability. There are a hundred different bus companies, shopping for the best value is next to impossible, and you can’t even figure out routes until you ask. A lot of companies don’t have websites, and the ones that do suck and you can’t buy online. South America is online. Somebody fill the obvious need!
PS to side note: Any html programmers out there looking for an exciting opportunity? Do you have friends in the venture capital game? Leave a comment with your contact information, and we’ll set up an exploratory meeting.
Quote of the Day: ‘In reality, most Brazilians don’t have much pride. There’s only one thing that unites the country. Ask them - Is Brazil the best country in the world? Não. Are Brazilians the best people? Não, but we will kick your ass on the futbol pitch!
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