March 25 Colonia, Uruguay

On my last day in South America, Jenny and I took the one hour ferry ride across from Buenos Aires to Uruguay.  

 We spent the day exploring the sleepy, beach town of Colonia. 

 There were lots of stray dogs, but they were all friendly. 

 We explored the city all from the comfort of our sweet golf cart. 

It was an easy, really relaxing day to mark the end of my adventure.

I made the twenty hour commute back to Canada on March 26th and ended up back home on March 27th. My experience with Jenny is one I will forever cherish. xo 

Haunted Condo and Other Creepy Things

This post, although it doesn't have many photos, I thought was interesting enough to write about. 

When we first arrived in our cute condo in Buenos Aires. I noticed a weird scratching that seemed to be coming from inside the wall, above the kitchen sink. 

Keep in mind that our condo was brand new and had never been lived in. There were only two condos per floor and the one beside us wasn't occupied. Also, our condo was a bachelor suite so it was essentially one big room with a small bathroom. There was a dog in the suite above us as we could hear him crying whenever his owner left and we could also hear him moving around. The scratching I heard was not from the dog upstairs. These details are important. 

So one night after a long day of exploring, Jenny and I were in bed early. We were woken up around 12:30am by a loud crash from the bathroom. Startled, we got up, kicked open the bathroom door and were surprised to see that nothing had fallen over or moved in the bathroom. 

We got back in to bed and that's when the scratching started. It was the same scratching sound I had heard when we arrived, except this time it sounded like it was in our condo. We were freaked out! Again, there was a loud crash from inside our condo, but we couldn't see anything that could warrant such a noise. In fact, I have a recording of it on my phone and it's creepy as hell. It eventually stopped and we fell asleep. 

The story doesn't end there. The next day when we were having drinks on a patio, an old gypsy woman approached our table. She was staring at me with a serious expression, and was trying to talk to me in Spanish. Since I don't speak a word of Spanish, I looked to Jenny to translate. All she kept saying to Jenny was "you'll translate, you'll translate" all while staring at me. It started to get uncomfortable when the woman became agitated that she had to tell me something but couldn't communicate with me. This lasted for about ten minutes until the server came to our table and listened in on what the woman was saying. This eventually left the woman frustrated and she marched away with dissatisfaction. 

The server explained that the woman was trying to tell me that she was a psychic and saw something that she wanted to tell me. The whole experience left me feeling creeped the fuck out! After that there weren't anymore weird noises in our condo, but I still felt terrified every night thereafter. 

March 24 Botanical Garden and Cheap Wine

We spent the day shopping and both purchased the coolest leather boots in the entire world. Argentina is known for their leather goods so all the products are reasonably priced. We were both really happy with our purchases. 

After shopping we came across a botanical garden right in the heart of the city. 

 All that shopping and site seeing left us famished. We finished the day with drinks at a local patio in Palermo, Hollywood. 

 The most amazing thing about Argentina is when you think you've ordered a five dollar glass of wine, only to realized that you actually purchased the five dollar BOTTLE of wine. Bonus!  

March 23 La Boca, San Telmo and Insane Soccer

Before the soccer game, we spent the day exploring the colourful neighborhood of La Boca, and the antique market in San Telmo. 

Later that evening we ventured off to the soccer game. 

El Monumental Stadium can hold 75000 soccer crazed portenos, whereas BC Place can hold 59000 ordinary Canucks.  

 Why is there barbed wire holding back all of the soccer fans? Because soccer fans go nuts and kill each other. That's why. 

The highlight was seeing all the police and guard dogs. Not shown was the gang of Harley riding, full riot gear, shotgun carrying cops. Believe it. 

March 22 Soccer Ticket Hell

I basically told Jenny everything I wanted to do in BA, and she pretty much executed all of it. One of those things included attending a soccer game at El Monumental Stadium. We purchased the tickets online, but had to pick them up at the stadium and provide a photocopy of our ID. 

  

Upon arrival we noticed three things. First, the ratio of men to women with 10 to 1. Second, soccer was clearly for locals only as there were absolutely no tourists. Third, the lineup to get the tickets was at least 45 minutes. Once we got to the front of the line we were told that we both needed photocopies, not just the person that purchased the tickets. 

 Thus started our second excursion of trying to find a photocopy for myself, after we had already marched all over town trying to find a photocopy for Jenny. The whole process took about five hours. We had to stop for snacks, as seen in the above photo. 

That evening we attended a Tango show which was geared much more towards tourism. 

March 21 - Flew back to Buenos Aires

After five days in Mendoza, we flew back to Buenos Aires and found our Air BnB studio apartment in the trendy neighborhood of Palermo, Hollywood. 

We did some exploring around the neighborhood and found The Roxy nightclub. Apparently it's universal. 

Cute cafe by our condo. 

March 19 & 20th Spa Day

No photos were taken on March 20th, but the day was spent honoring the two year passing of my Aunty Diane. Jenny and I spent the day getting pampered at the spa in the Park Hyatt. I had a hot stone massage with Guido, hands of silk. 

The photos below are from March 19.

Went for lunch with Flor, a local girl my uncle Paul had met when he was photographing a field hockey tournament in Argentina. 

Saw a Harley convention in the middle of the Plaza Indepencia. There is a universal code that all bikers listen to rock and roll, wear black leather and try to look as bad ass as they possibly can. 

March 18 Argentina Wine Drinkers

Mendoza is the top wine producing city in all of Argentina. The city is world renowned for it's delicious malbec. Since a wine tour was absolutely necessary, we toured four vineyards with a small group of six other travelers, and finished the day with a five course gourmet meal. 

 Overly excited to drink some wine. 

After stuffing my face and drinking to my heart's content, I made a few drunk texts to my mom and Tom. I was just so happy! 

March 17 Biker Babes and Zoologico Explorers

 Jenny standing in front of the Park Hyatt, Mendoza. The hotel overlooks the Plaza Indepencia, a large green space that was built as a safe place for people to take refuge if another earthquake occurred. The city was flattened and had to rebuild after a large earthquake in the 1861. 

Rode bikes through San Martin and found the park zoo. The only animals we saw were a terrifying parrot and a stray puppy. 

 Oh he's so cute! 

 Don't get too close or the parrot will destroy your face! 

Sweaty bike riding cousins.