Had cereal and bread with Dulce de lecheh (which is a kind of very sweet jam) breakfast at the hostel this morning. Since today is options expiration week, I gotta log in to my IB account to adjust some positions so I won´t get stuck with some stocks next week. The stock market went up again, what an incredible rally since March. IMHO I still think there will be a leg down for the stock market but who knows..hmm.

Uruguayans really like music from the 80s such as Madonna and MJ. Everywhere I heard songs from the 80s but not many people speak english though.

Walked to Mercado De Puerto with Emily and Jamila. The market is famous for Parilla (BBQ and steak).

Walked around the old city

which is just a few blocks from the Atlantic Ocean.

Visited Theater Solis and joined a short tour in Spanish.

Emily and Jamila who are quite fluent in Spanish helped explaining to me what the tour guide says.

Walked around and have lunch (chicken with fries) at a small deli. Again, I helped Emily finished her food but I am no Kobayashi.

With the crew

Deciding whether to take the overnight bus to Tigre then to BA to save money (save $10 for the bus and $10 for hostel) or just take the Colonia Express back to BA. Finally decided to pick the later option and managed to catch the 5.10 bus/ferry back to Buenos Aires. I was just in time 10 mins before the bus leaves. The funny thing is after I sat down, Michelle and Heather (from Berkeley) which I met at the free BA tour few days ago got on the bus too. What a small world..

Arrived at Porto Mendoza at around 10pm. Since the theme of my trip is budget travel, so I was pretty proud of myself in finding a local bus no. 130 to Calle Corientes then walked 6 blocks to my hostel without taking a cab. Even though I only save a few dollars but the journey was more exciting.

Took a public bus this morning to Plaza De Toros (a bull fighting ring)

Bumped into William who I met at the Hostel Florida. Then took the 1pm bus from Colonia to Montevideo. It’s 2.5 hours ride and cost (185 Uruguayan pesos, around $8.5)

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Took a bus to to El Viajero-Ciudad Vieja Hostel which is the same one I stayed in Colonia. Since there’re only a few hours before the sky gets dark (sky gets dark at 6pm since it’s still winter), spent some time walking around the city with 2 Americans (Emily and Jamila) I just met at the hostel.

Statue of Artigas At Plaza Independenzia (Artigas is a national hero of Uruguay, sometimes called “the father of Uruguayan independence)

Ate at the hostel for dinner, 2 hamburgers for 60 pesos
At the hostel

Tangoing

After spending a week in Buenos Aires, next stop will be Uruguay. There is a ferry to Colonia from Buenos Aires. It’s an hour ride and the fast ferry cost 129 pesos (around $35).

Decided to save money and took a public bus (1.20peso) to the port but went the wrong way and then ended up taking a taxi instead which cost 20 pesos which is around $5 because I was late.

The ferry is super fast and felt like the boat was jumping on the wave all the way to Colonia.

Colonia is consider a UNESCO world heritage site because of the many old colonial building in the town.

An intro copied from wikitravel..

Colonia del Sacramento (Nova Colonia do Santissimo Sacramento) was founded in 1680 by the Portuguese (Manuel Lobo), sandwiched in between the Portuguese colony of Brazil and the Spanish Vice Royalty of the River Plate (later Argentina, Uruguay and Southern Brazil). Its strategic position and use as a smuggling port meant that its sovereignty was hotly contested and the city changed hands several times between Spain and Portugal.

Met a Belgian at the hostel and went to a restaurant close by. I have Cazuela again but it’s slightly from the Cazuela in Santiago. This has pig stomache in it. (90 pesos, around $4.5)

Joined the BA free tour this afternoon. I just thought about the free tour since I did the free tour once in Berlin and figured that there must be similar tours in big cities. There are around 10 people joining the tour and everyone is from US. After the Argentinean pesos weakens, many Americans move to BA since things are cheaper and at the same time BA offers everything a big city has, good food, nightlife and entertainmets.

Statue of San Martin

Clock Tower

Memorial of the falkland war

Laura and Alle again brought me out to try BA local food.
Milanesa for dinner

Flan for dessert

Today is a public holiday in Argentine, it’s San Martin Day. San Martin is regarded as one of the Liberators of Spanish South America and is the national hero of Argentina.

Since it’s a public holiday, Laura and Alle decided to make a short trip to Tigre which is around an hour away from the city. It’s a nice day to go out plus the weather is warm. However there are so many cars so we have to turn back and went to a park instead.

Parque Presidente Sarmiento

Like always, Argentineans love BBQ (Parilla)

Tango Dance at Calle Florida

Attended an event called BA Pub Crawl at night. Interestingly enough, I met an American (Carlos) who works on the same floor as me in 55 water st in downtown New York and he was here for a short vacation. Small world.. I told him not to tell my previous boss that we met..lol..

Decided to move to a different hostel (Hostel Florida) since the place I am staying is a party hostel and after partying for few nights, I will need to find some place quieter. Heard about some good reviews about the Hostel Florida from travelers too.

True enough, this is one of the nicest hostel I have seen so far, with room cleaning service, nice lockers and own bathroom in the room for 36 pesos ($10).

Room

Lobby

Laura and Alle again showed me around the city. At River Plate stadium (River Plate is a huge rival of Boca Junior’s, however River Plate is situated at a wealthier neighborhood and Boca Junior’s s at a poorer neighborhood)

Then on Sunday, Laura bought me to visit her church. It’s a taiwanese church but everyone speaks in Spanish, mandarin and taiwanese is a second language here.

Church

Went to a local argentinean restaurant to try out the local food.
On the left is Tamales and the right is a kind of argentinean soup with beans and beef.

Dinner at a Parilla (BBQ)place

Dinner with Laura and her friends. It’s pretty interesting to see Asians speaking spanish with local Porteno accent.

Spent today walking from City Center to San Telmo, then to La Boca. It’s around 2 hours walk.

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A tango show at a square in San Telmo

Boca Junior’s Stadium

La Boca neighborhood

Got off at Juramente subway station, walked 6 blocks east and arrived at Buenos Aires Chinatown.

There are many Chinese in Buenos Aires. More than 80% of the Supermercado (Supermarket or mini market) in Buenos Aires are owned by Chinese. It’s easy to spot a Chinese supermercado since it looks like this one. Since I can’t speak Spanish, so whenever I got lost I can just go to a supermercado and ask for directions in Chinese since there’s one at the corner of every 2-3 streets.

Went to a CrowBar which is a techno club with some friends in the hostel. Argentineans party late, the party here usually starts after 2.30am and goes until the morning. There is a cover of 60 pesos for the club.

Arrived in Buenos Aires at around 8am after a 13 hours bus ride, the ride was pretty comfortable and I slept pretty well on the bus.

Food on the bus

Got to Milhouse Hostel by subway. The hostel is located at the city center. Took a short tour organized by the hostel to Recoleta which is a historical site and the richest place in Buenos Aires. We visited a few museums and a famous cemetery in Recoleta for the rich and famous Cementerio de Recoleta. Evita was burried at this place.

Floralis Generica (the metal flower will close its petals at night)

Met up with Laura and her family for dinner. Haven’t seen Laura since college and it’s wonderful to see her and her family since they just have a new 5 months old baby boy. They brought me to an Argentinean/Chinese place for dinner.

Argentineans usually have dinner around 9.30pm-10pm so at 8pm, the restaurant is still empty.

Had trouble withdrawing money from HSBC ATM using my HSBC debit card. Tried a couple of branches and finally went to the main branch and spoke with a manager but she just asked me to call the US HSBC. Instead, I tried my HSBC card at a Citi ATM next door and have no problem taking out cash. I went back to the manager showed her the receipt but she acted like she does’t understand english. But at least I know the problem is not with my card.

Walked around Once area which is a diverse neighborhood with people from other parts of south america. Buenos Aires is one of the richer country in South America so people from other areas come here to make a better living.

Just spent the next few days walking around the city. Buenos Aires province has a population of around 14 millions and the city has around 3 millions people. It’s around 12 miles from north south and 11 miles from east to west so the city is not very big. There are a few famous neighborhood such as San Telmo (with some colonial houses), La Boca(a working class neighborhood with some colorful buildings, Boca Junior’s stadium is located here, Palemo (hip residential neighborhood with some restaurants and shops) and the city center.
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Florida street (a popular street to go shopping)

Pink House which is located at Plaza de Mayo

has been the center of political upheaval, vehement protests, and national celebrations over the years and there are protest in front of Casa Rosada (Pink house) almost daily. The pink house is the official seat of the executive branch of the Government of Argentina and it’s at the balcony of the pink house where Evita rallied the Argentinean people)
Casa Rosada

There are a lot of fake money in Buenos Aires and I heard someone withdrew fake money from the ATM. There is a sign at the hostel on how to identify fake money.

Laura and Alle brought me to a ShangDong restaurant for dinner the next day.

Mendoza is full of extreme sports, such as water rafting, skiing, snowboarding…There are many shops selling all kinds of equipments for extreme sports.

Whitney (a snowboard instructor from Cali) from my hostel talked me into trying out paragliding and she managed to get us a good price for 195 Argentinean pesos, around $50.

We took a jeep up to the hills.

View from the window

Argentinean kid in the trunk

Getting ready

Then Jump!

In the air..

Paragliding clip
Paragliding short clip

Then took a 13 hours bus ($250 pesos, $65) to Buenos Aires at 7.15pm. The bus ride is pretty comfy, with wine, food and the chair can even go all the way down, just like a bed.

Mendoza produces around 70% of Argentine wine. Took a local bus to the suburb of Mendoza where the wineries are located.

Met 2 other asians (Dan and Davy) on the street and surprisingly they are from New York too. Haven’t seen a lot of asians so far and we went to rent a bike at Mr. Hugo ($25 argentine pesos,around $7) for the day and biked for around 18km.

We stopped by 3 wineries, did a little wine tour and tasting. Dan which is a wine enthusiast mentioned that argentine wine for the same price (15-80pesos, $4-$20) is in better quality over the french and grabbed a few bottles back.