Classes were scheduled to start on August the 31st. I had 2 weeks to spare. I wasn't doing anything in Delaware anyways as it's pretty much dead during the summer. This was the perfect time to head back to my favourite continent: South America. Yes, it's winter over there, but who cares? 10 degrees Celsius is decent, and would be a welcome change from the burning temperature on the East Coast in July. Initially, I was meant to go to Brazil with a friend next January, but we decided to pre-pone our trip.
Off we were. First stop on the continent was Buenos Aires, Argentina. We arrived there on a Sunday morning, the day of the Parliamentary Elections. Alcohol was banned in public places in order for voters not to be influenced. Buenos Aires is a fantastic city! The "good" nieghbourhoods are full of restaurants with cafe terraces, as well as public places with a lot of shopping malls. In short, you have the feeling of being in France or Italy. The "bad" neighbourhoods are places to avoid, but there's a lot of charm to such areas. You can really see how some people are still suffering from the economic meltdown in the early 2000's. While the situation is much better now, inflation still persists and keeps on increasing. Back in 2008, the first time I was in Argentina, $1=2.90 pesos. Three years later, $1=4.20 pesos. You'd tend to think this is good, as you now get more pesos, however the inflation is so high that you end up losing.
We stayed in Argentina for 3 nights. Monday night was brilliant. Who goes out on a Monday night anyways? Well that's what most of you would say, but Buenos Aires never sleeps. It's much more active than NYC! To begin with, people only have their dinner at 11pm and end up going to the bars from 1.30 am to 5/6/7/8 or even 9am! After having some good local Argentine food (Pork BBQ), we headed to the Irish Pub 5 blocks away from the hotel. Met a lot of different people that night, and that's where the fun began! For the french speakers, let's just say ouverture du score a l'exterieur. We ended up going to bed at 10am, slept throughout the day, got up at 8pm and ended up going to different bars. The Heskey was having a field day!
The next day, I was off to Montevideo in Uruguay for few days, while my friend was on his way to Rio De Janeiro in Brazil. Uruguay is a small country where 1/2 of the Uruguayans live in the capital city (approx. 1.5m inhabitants). Crossed the River Plate and within three hours, I was there. Spent some time with my uncle and his family, visited the city, and ended up doing what I loved the most from this tour : go for local football games! Montevideo is a primitive but beautiful city. It has a lot of European heritage, just like Buenos Aires. I ended up spending 4-5 days in Uruguay. I still had a week to go before I returned back to the States. This was the perfect time to go visit Brazil.
More to follow....
Here are some pics from Argentina and Uruguay:
