June 15, 2003

After 16 long hours of traveling on plane and sitting in various airports, we finally arrived at 2 a.m. in Buenos Aires, Argentina. As our cab drove along a nicely paved street passing numerous sky-scrapers, we found ourselves questioning whether we were still in South America, or back in San Francisco. These first impressions reaffirmed the rumors that I have always heard of the beautiful city... "Buenos Aires really is the Paris of South America"!

We were able to spend 5 days exploring the enormous city, which still proved to be only enough time to scratch the surface of its immense history. We visited museums, strolled through parks that compete with Golden Gate, and ate ice cream on the street in our flip-flops. I only bring this up since it is winter here in Argentina, and while it is no colder than in San Francisco, you can only imagine the strange looks the 3 Americans got from the Argentines dressed in coats and scarves! We were able to take a tour through what would be Argentina´s White House, actually called La Casa de Rosada, "The Pink House"! We found ourselves looking up in awe at the pink balcony where the beloved Evita made her inspirational speeches that formed much of Argentina's past and present history. Even more interesting was being inside the government buildings at a time of immense political and economic turmoil in Argentina. With the presidential elections no more than a month ago and a suffering economy, we sympathized with the frustrated and helpless sentiments of the Argentine people.

In our exploration of the city, we also found ourselves fascinated by La Recoleta, an enormous and beautiful cemetery where the tombstones were more like small churches. Here under the golden statues and marble structures with stain-glass windows, are buried the most important people of Argentine history, including Evita´s grave which could not even be seen through the piles of roses. After our visit to this legendary cemetery we made our way to La Plaza de Mayo, which is famous for a group of mothers who still today march in remembrance of the 30,000 people who disappeared almost 30 years ago during Argentina's Dirty War. It was a chilling experience to watch the elderly woman walk around the plaza in silence, with pictures of their disappeared children hanging around their necks. This was especially moving for me as I have studied about these women in many of my classes at USF and I was able to speak with a few of them to share my respect for their courage and persistence.

After visiting most of the historical parts of Buenos Aires, we had one last thing to do in order to make our experience complete... Tango Lessons! We headed to La Boca district, a very artistic neighborhood with many similarities to Haight Ashbury, where we attempted to learn the passionate national dance. To put it nicely, Tango is even harder than it looks and we spent more time spinning into walls rather than gracefully dipping in our partner's arms! Nevertheless, the experience was a memorable one and now I certainly have a deeper respect for anyone who can dance Tango!

While their has been no meals of guinea pig here in Argentina, we certainly have had our fair share of meat! I made the mistake one evening of ordering the traditional meal of "parilla", only to sit in shock when they served me literally half on a cow on a steaming grill! Needless to say, I felt a bit wasteful and have stuck with the more basic meals since that disaster!

We said goodbye to the civilized and stylish city of Buenos Aires on Friday and took a 10 hour bus ride to where I sit now, Cordoba, the second largest city in Argentina. Yesterday, we were able to go to what is considered a small soccer game here ( only 10,000 people) and experience the craziness of their love for the game here in Latin America. We bought Argentine jerseys to avoid starting any riots and prepared ourselves for the event that would take place after a goal - 10,000 screaming people rushing forward to surround the fenced field of players. After seeing the energy of a small game, we simply cannot wait to make it to a "big" one!

From here, we will make our way north on bus, visiting little towns along the way until we reach Chile. So far, our experiences in Argentina have been wonderful, yet very different from those in Ecuador. As I continue my travels, I look forward to seeing more of these differences and learning even more about the many cultures here in South America!

-Michelle Duncan