Buenos Aires, Buenos Noches...

I´m coming home.

Tonight is my final night in South America. And as I sit and type in this internet cafe in Buenos Aires, I find that I could stay longer... much longer. One month at the time I made my decision to extend my trip seemed like an eternity, but I think I could keep at this for a much longer time. 4 months would have been a good length of time.

But my responsibilities at home beckon and I miss my dad, so I am content with ending this trip tomorrow and am looking forward being back to the good ol´ U.S. of A. But not before enjoying a few last indulgences before I go. Pictured to the left is me smoking a fine Cuban cigar at "La Casa del Habano" on Av Reconquista earlier today. I am a cigar enthusiast and this was my very first Cuban. "Casa del Habano" only sells Cubans... Of the experience, all I can say is... believe the hype. It was a consistent, mellow, delicious smoke; one of the best I´ve ever had and it is not simply because it was a forbidden cigar. I am sure to endulge in another tomorrow before I finally board my plane. I don´t care if I stink.

The final leg of my trip began when I arrived in Buenos Aires about 5 days ago. Thats also about when I stopped losing weight. For most of this trip, I have been eating like a bird (like a loon bird as my sister, T. would put it); I haven´t had much of an appetite. That all ended in BA where I discovered "Bonpler," a panini sandwich fast food place that is only in BA and that I am now hooked on.

Unfortunately, it is exclusive to Argentina, so it is not something I can endulge on in the States. And actually, their portions and prices are very reasonable. This small drink and sandwich pictured above is a regular sized meal; so not exactly the super-sized fries you find at home. But... okay I confess.... there was also a McDonald´s that had free wi-fi across the street from my hostel. Curse you Ronald, your free internet and your hot fudge sundaes!

I was also tipped off by fellow travellers along the way that I would be able to find $10.00 USD steak dinners here, and as promised, I did. Here I am pictured right about to "enjoy" it. What I didn´t eat, I used to patch my shoes. It was disgusting. Rest assured, this is not one of the other indulgences I will be enjoying for the remainder of my trip.

Buenos Aires is a festive city, a sort of "Rio de Janiero lite" I imagine. I didn´t make it up to Brazil this time, but from what I have seen in magazines and t.v., it is sort of like Rio without the transvestites. But it is also a very liveable city and a thriving center for international business. Argentina suffered an economic collapse around the first part of this decade, but despite that, Buenos Aires still exudes the air of a major metropolis with its sky scrapers and streets filled with men and women in suits.

It is also a city teeming with culture. On the street corners and walkways, during most hours of the day, you can find painters and performance artists with their crafts displayed for all to see. I have been on a hunt for art for most of my trip and have found very little art that I was compelled to buy, but in BA, on my first day here, I found a piece that I had to have. Meet the artist: Sergio Hernandez.

Sergio´s fierce self reliance despite his disability was inspiring. I asked him first if it would be okay for me to post this video to my blog and offered to email him a link. He happily obliged and offered his email, but he didn´t even think to just say it to me to write myself. His first instinct was to just write it out for me. Carefully, he grabbed my paper bag with his feet, and with a pencil gripped firmly between his toes, he proceeded to write out his email address, @ symbol and all. Having met Sergio, I will never again in good conscience let myself believe that I have any kind of limitation, because he demonstrated to me that no limitation cannot be overcome.

Buenos Aires is also a major center for Tango culture. Tango is everywhere here, from giant stages, to instructional centers, to street corners. I took in a tango demonstration while in downtown. It was beautiful.

I had planned to take some lessons while here, but I quickly realized two things upon seeing this: 1. I would need a partner, and 2. I was not going to be able to learn the steps in the few days I was here. So I decided to just enjoy it as an observer while here. Perhaps I will find a tango school in Seattle; it could be something I can do if I ever want to be back in South America without actually being here.

Buenos Aires has its share of sights to see. I decided to take a Lonely Planet suggested walking tour at one point. The tour began at a cemetary... Cemetario de la Recoleta. Recoleta is probably the wealthiest neighborhood in BA and it is home to the most important cemetary in Buenos Aires. Here, the wealthy and the elite are laid to rest and the rest of us can gawk at their mausoleums. All joking aside, it was really quite nice; each mausoleum was unique and exquisitely ornate. The cemetary was built in the early 1800's, so there were mausoleums dating back as early as the 1810's. I found one of a man born in 1788 and buried in 1888.

He was born just over a decade after the birth of our nation; he was alive during the time of George Washington. And he lived through the American Civil War. He probably had little or no knowledge of these events while he was alive, but still...

My next stop on the walking tour through Recoleta was this building for an engineering school as an example of Gothic architecture.

The next stop was a mall of interior design which was not worth taking any video of. And finally the tour took me to a very nice art museum. The museum was established by a local artist and was built where this artist´s studio and home were once located. It housed art of South American artists, but mostly of European artists. There was some very nice stuff there; the most famous works that were displayed here were some pieces by Eduardo Manet. However, I was not allowed to take video or photos, so unfortunately, I cannot share any of it with you.

In my own exploration of Buenos Aires, I happened upon Plaza de Mayo at the end of the Av de Mayo.

There was a big church here that I had to go into. My church days are behind me, but I still find myself drawn to churches where I see them, especially Catholic cathedrals, each with opulence worthy of God. They are so ornate; transcendent of anything one man could accomplish. And of course it would be so, as a house built for God would necessarily be so. But what I really love about them is they each give you a sense of the omniscience that God might feel. When the cathedral is looked at as a whole, you are overcome by the magnificence of it all; but then you stop and take a look at each detail and you realize that, while its sum is magnificent, there is also magnificence in its details. You look at the pillars and see entire stories from the bible depicted in engravings. You look at the ceiling, and it is an array of frescoes that could fill a metropolitan museum. Then you look at the mosaics that make up the floor and you are overcome all over again when you see the precision and care it took to hand-make each individual tile. It´s what I imagine it must be like to be God and looking at humanity as a sum and then listening to their individual prayers. Cathedrals are all basically the same, but I still enjoy visiting wherever I encounter them. So I suppose South America was the right place for me...

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The rest of my time in BA was spent just trekking around looking for interesting stuff, and I found quite a bit that I´d like to share, but internet here is not great, so I will have to wait until I get home to post the rest. In fact, over the next few days or weeks, I will be sifting through all of my videos and posting more from what I haven´t already posted to my blog. I´ll also have some final thoughts on my trip and life in general, so check back in a few days for some new content!

Thanks again everyone who followed my blog. It was like I had you there at my side each step of the way. :) And now I am off to have one last Cuban! See you all soon!