Once we were at our bed and breakfast and settled in, we headed out to see the city. We started at Plaza Durrango, then we made our way up until we found our place again. We saw several plazas and cobblestone streets and old buildings. And we took a tour of an old tower that has a lighthouse from which you can see the whole city.
With a better layout of our location and the city in general, the next day - Friday - was pretty easy. Although it didn't go as planned the whole time, we still enjoyed it. We started at a market, but it wasn't open yet. Fortunately, there was a lovely cafe right where we were that had a pride flag in the window. Argentina was the first country in South America to legalize same-sex marriage in 2010 (or thereabouts). For this reason, Buenos Aires has become a favorite travel destination for the LGBT community, though that's not why we came. Anyway, we're in the first country that recognizes our marriage. That's not nothing. But I digress. We did the market, then we headed to the museum in the oldest part of the city. It was really interesting. The guy bought the property in the 1980's to make the building into a restaurant, but during excavation he found all these old tunnels that used to be diverted rivers. There are parts of the structure that are from the 1700's. It was later remodeled and used in 1830 as a mansion for a wealthy family. When the cholera epidemic came, and then the yellow fever epidemic hit, rich families fled the city, and the building was abandoned. It was purchased and used, then, as a tenement house for immigrants. After it was abandoned again, it was forgotten. Really interesting history.
Our next goal was the post office. We did make it before it closed, but unfortunately they stop accepting people into the line an hour before it closes. So we made the decision to buy an extra bag and just carry our stuff with us back home instead of mailing it, to save a little money and also to save time we would have spent at the post office again later.
After getting all that figured out, we ate a crepe for snack, then headed back to the B&B to get ready for our evening activity. The tango show! We dressed up in the best clothes we had (not saying a lot, but we did our best), they picked us up from our hotel, and we were dropped at the door of a fancy theater. The meal was included in the price of the ticket, so all we had to do was order. The food was delicious. Tanya's steak was super tender. Unfortunately Karis's was tough, but it was still tasty. And the dessert was awesome. The show itself - amazing. They had a small live band of strings and accordions, some singing, and some really incredible and talented dancers. It was really fun!
It was a long evening, however, so we were glad to get home to bed.
The next morning, we got up early to go catch a ferry to Uruguay. We arrived at 745AM, just as they said. We waited for them to open, got checked in, then went to the security line. They were having trouble getting the scanner to turn on, so we had to wait a while. Finally, it started and the line was moving. The next line was to get checked out of Argentina and into Uruguay. Although both countries were easier than the previous three, the wait was horrendous. Still with electrical troubles, we probably waited close to another 45 minutes before they got two stations working well enough to start the line moving. Our ferry left 2 hours after its scheduled departure time, which was frustrating because we only had limited time in Uruguay.
But we did make it. More about this stop in the next blog!
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