Weekend in Buenos Aires

We are back from our adventure-packed weekend in Buenos Aires. It all started innocently enough. The cab picked us up on time, everything was on schedule. Halfway to the airport, I don’t know how, I realized OH MY GOSH, I forgot the passports! So we turn around and drive back to the apt like madmen and grab the passports. Somehow we made it to the airport on time 🙂

Then we went through security and before we boarded the plane I felt like something was missing. I looked around and realized OH NO, where’s my suitcase? It turns out I left my entire suitcase (I didn’t check it) in the security area. Fortunately they had it there and I picked it up and everything as okay.

We made it to BA and everything went great for a little while. My cousin Claudia picked us up at the airport and we went straight to her house. Then she had to leave to go to a class so Nathan and I stayed at her house with my little cousin Matias, her 6 year old son. Nathan and Matias hit it off instantly. Matias is a super active, funny, cool little boy and Nathan went gaga. Everything Matias did made him laugh. So after a little while of hanging out, I decided to take both boys out for a walk. After about 30 min’s walking I figured it was enough and time to go back. Well of course this wasn’t to be 🙂 We got back to her house and in Buenos Aires doors have these really old, really weird keys. So after about 20 min’s of fidgeting with the keys I gave up. So there I was with the 2 boys, without a cent to my name, in the outskirts of Buenos Aires. I decided to try and find a cab only to find out that there are no cabs in the suburbs of Buenos Aires. A lady in the street told me about a mall with a movie theater so I figured, why not. We walked about 12 blocks to the mall and things went well from there. We had some dinner, watched a movie, and called my cousin from a pay phone (thank God her son knew the phone number by heart!!). We went home tired but happy.

Saturday we had planned to sleep in and go out a bit later but then last minute we decided to go into BA early with my cousin. She had a surgery to perform so we hitched a ride in to BA with her (about 30 min’s away). And then everything went wrong. She was later for her surgery. Her cell phone died. I had no way of contacting her or a good friend that I was supposed to meet later that morning. My cousin couldn’t deal with it because she had to go to surgery so there I was, again, in the middle of BA, with a few pennies to my name, incommunicado, and a bit lost in time and space. I jumped in a cab, shed a few tears, and went to a local mall, where I was supposed to meet my friend. The mall was HUGE so I didn’t expect to find her if I didn’t have a way of calling her, but I figured, I’d try. We asked the people with the loudspeaker to call her, we waited at the front, and after about 20 min’s, decided it was time to move on. As we’re riding up the escalator to find something to do, I hear my name – MARCELA! She found us! Fortunately we connected with my friends and were able to hang out in the mall for a little while.

After about an hour we decided it was time to explore the city. We walked outside to find….RAIN. It was POURING. We waited for a while at the mall to see if the rain would subside – nothing. So after some time we just went to my friend’s apartment and chilled. There we were in BA for the first time for a short 2 day stay – unable to go out and explore! But we made the best of it and had a great time. Matias played and Nathan laughed at Matias and all was good.

My cousin found a way to communicate with me through my friends cell phone and picked us up and took us to an AWESOME Italian restaurant for lunch. I have to say it was the best Italian food I’ve ever had – even better than in Italy! Delicious! After the exciting events of the previous 24 hours, we decided to call it a day after lunch and went back to the house in the pouring rain. At the house we hung out, watched a movie, snacked, danced, and spent a quiet, costume-less halloween.

Sunday we slept in as, you guessed it, it was still raining. Since both Nathan and I had been so sick I didn’t want to push it and go out in the rain so we just stayed home. We had a lovely morning and then left when it stopped raining around noon. Then we went to a port area and had lunch at a typical Argentinian restaurant – a parrillada – and had some steak and salad. Yum! It was so good!

And after that it was pretty much time to head to the airport so we drove around a little bit so we could see a couple of other areas of the city, and off to the airport we went. Everything went smoothly on the way home and we are safely and happily back at our temporary home in Santiago.

It was a different halloween from what I’d expected, but wonderful nonetheless! And did I mention Mr. Nathan was an absolute superstar? He cried once since noon on Fri (because he got scared of something) and the rest of the time he was happy, laughing, cooing, and just shining his beautiful light on everyone. He is such a FUN child to hang out with! I’ll post some pictures later when I’m not so tired! Thanks for stopping by!