Argentina and Peru

The main characters:

Cat (Catherine) = great friend from CA, roommate, traveling buddy, google guru extraordinaire

Amy = well traveled, care free co-worker/friend of Cat’s

Malik = co-worker, friend, traveling buddy that photographs like it’s nobody’s business

Bill = friend of Malik’s and ex pat of beautiful Buenos Aires

And the story begins….

Cat and I decided several months back that we’d go somewhere…just not sure where the where was until about a month before the trip. We decided on Buenos Aires, which worked out great since Malik was planning to visit his friend Bill. We coordinated our schedules and started planning our travels.

I took Copa Airlines, a Panamanian airline, down to Lima, Peru where I’d eventually end my trip. I had about an 8 hour layover so I decided to go to a district called Mira Flores. It’s in the fancier part of Lima. I organized a round trip to and from Lima airport from a taxi driver by the name of Segundo. He dropped me off and we agreed on a time to meet so he could take me back to the airport.

There, I walked around till I was tired, shopped till I was tired and then ate my first (one of many) delicious meals. It was fish/shrimp sauteed in a cream sauce, Peruvian style. While I ate, I overlooked the sea with the sunset in the background and watched paragliders letting the wind take them to wherever the heart desired.

When my time was up, I went back to our meeting place but no Segundo…. I waited for a good twenty minutes before I needed to take another taxi so I wouldn’t miss my flight. I felt TERRIBLE since I didn’t even pay him for the portion of my ride coming from the airport. Thoughts of him needing to feed his family made me feel even worse. I figured at best, he’d have good karma with his next ride. I checked my bags in and was on my way to the gate when I heard my name… “Susana! Susana!!!”! I look to the left and see Segundo! He claimed that he was at the meeting spot and that I wasn’t there. Either way, I was really impressed that he found me. I quickly paid him the last of my US dollars and was on my way.

At the airport, I met Malik and we started our journey down south on an overnight flight. Landing into Buenos Aires, I felt a sense of relief that I was finally there and an excitement because I had never been to South America and it already felt really different. Overall, I spent 24 hours traveling, so when I got to a bed I crashed out. Soon thereafter Amy and Cat arrived and we were off for the day. We met Malik and Bill for brunch in an area called Las Canitas. It’s a super cute neighborhood with lots of great bars and restaurants. Bill, who had been living there for about 7 months, seemed to have a lot of ex-pat friends there. It was like Cheers, except in BA.

Afterwards we caught a futbol game and this was an interesting experience. The fans were going loco; making music with their cheers and a beat with anything that was in smacking distance. In the evening we went and had some Argentine carne. Now that’s what I’m talking about. We had about 5 different cuts of meat, papas, vino, ensalada and dulce de leche for dessert and all for about $10 per person. Life was really good at this point.

We continued to eat really, really well the next couple of days. In between all of the eating we also went to visit Evita’s cemetery, visited the place where Evita’s house stood (at one point in time, it’s now only a statue), visited Evita’s famed balcony where she spoke to her people, drove down Avenida 9 de Julio: claimed to be the widest street in world (it was pretty wide, but apparently NOT the widest said our tour guide). In addition, Cat, Amy and I took a tango lesson and watched a tango show afterwards. The lesson was awesome – our teacher was this little man that had some serious skills. Either way, I have a new appreciation for the art of tango.

Mid-way through the trip, us gals took a trip to Iguazu Falls. The falls are an UNESCO World Heritage site and for good reason. The 275 waterfalls make for a unique experience. Niagara Falls? Hmmm, you ain’t seen nothing yet till you visit Iguazu! What makes the falls really special is the surroundings since it’s in the tropics. It was so lush and incredibly warm. Although it rained in BA everyday, I still managed to get a little tan from being out at the falls for a day.

In my pictures you’ll notice butterflies….there were LOTS of them. Do you see butterflies and think ‘how pretty’? After this trip, I will never look at them in the same way. They were ALL over the place! They would try to fly in my ear, would land anywhere they could on me and their favorite place to land appeared to be on hats. At some point in our hike around the fall when there were so many, I would run through sections in order to avoid dozens that were waiting to inadvertently tickle me and gross me out. Back to the falls….we visited both the Argentine and Brazilian side. Every view of the falls provided a unique one. We took a jungle tour – which really turned out to be a plant tour. Our guide was so passionate about the plants that he made it interesting, but boy, were there a lot of bugs around. I’d definitely recommend checking it out the falls and the jungle tour, but only if you like plants :)

Cat, Amy and I were scheduled to go back to BA on a 5:30pm flight – which would have been perfect so we could get back to eating more steak. Unfortunately our flight was cancelled and we ended up getting sent to a nearby hotel to wait and chill out for about 10 hours till the plane arrived. The hotel was a pretty nice one….we had a buffet (though the food wasn’t as good as in BA), played ping pong and danced under the stars to live music. It was surprisingly a fun, unexpected night.

Back in BA we did some shopping, which was excellent! The day after we were supposed to go to Colonia, Uruguay but the ferry was sold out! Apparently it was a long holiday weekend and the Argentine’s go to their summer homes in Uruguay. Instead we went to check out the MALBA museum nearby – it’s a modern art museum. Really cool inside and it was the perfect amount of content…not too little and not too much. For lunch we met some of Bill’s friends. What was for lunch you might ask? Vino, carne, huevos con papas and of course for dessert, dulce de leche ice cream. This is also the lunch I tried blood sausage and kidney for the first time. The blood sausage was actually pretty good – it had a lot of flavor and the texture wasn’t too weird. The kidney, on the other hand, was not a winner in my book. In the evening Cat and Amy headed back to CA and Malik and I went to a Mediterranean restaurant where we watched belly dancers and a male belly dancer that was not very good at balancing stuff on his head.

Afterwards we met up with Bill and his Argentine friends and went to the poonchie poonchie. What is poonchie poonchie? It’s the sound techno music makes and is what the local peeps use to describe clubs. Anywho, we went to the poonchie poonchie and danced till about 6 in the morning. What I really liked about clubbing is that people were getting their groove on, not necessarily in a ‘I’m trying to mack on you’ way. If you don’t understand, I guess you just have to go see for yourself. It was a refreshing environment.

My final day in BA was spent shopping, eating some dang good empanadas and departing for the airport to Lima. We decided we’d sleep in the airport since our flight to Cusco was at 5:30 in the morning and we arrived into Lima at 11:30pm. I don’t remember the last time I slept in the airport but it worked out ok. We found some really comfy benches right next to our gate so we wouldn’t miss our boarding call. Malik woke me when it was time and we proceeded to board our flight. One of the ticket checkers ran out to the plane as we were about to board and asked if we were Malik and Suzzy to which we answered ‘yes’. He said that we were on the wrong flight to Cusco and that our plane had already left!!! So much for being alert! Luckily we were put on a flight not too long after our original flight and we left for Cusco.

There I stayed at a place called Ninos Hotel very close to Plaza de Armas, the main square. The first day there was really just about acclimating to the altitude (11,500 feet above sea level) and catching up on sleep. Between poonchie poonchie and sleeping at the airport, I was a little sleep deprived. That evening Malik tried the alpaca – it’s one of the typical dishes in the area. I tried a bite and thought it was OK. It tasted like beef and had a really chewy consistency that I didn’t really like.

We left for Macchu Picchu early the next day. We took a taxi, to a bus, to a train, to another bus and were at the trail after five hours of travel. Our tour guide took us through all of the major sections of the lost city of the Incas and we got to spend a lot of time taking pictures. The pictures just don’t do justice to the beauty of Macchu Picchu. I want to go again at some point to do the trail – one day was just not enough. Upon returning to Cusco, we went out to dinner and then I proceeded to pass out J

The following day was all about doing touristy stuff in Cusco. Saw the cathedral, the Inca museum and the temple of the sun. All of it was good, but I will say that I won’t need to do more touristy type trips, especially involving cathedrals, for a while. Also, Malik tried the guinea pig – another specialty dish for lunch. I have a picture of it….it literally came out the way it’d look like running around in a pet store. Nonetheless, he bravely tried it but it didn’t really work out because it was disgusting. I tried a piece and it tasted extremely floral, like it was masking something gross. Also it was really chewy and the meat was thready. I give it a thumbs down. The evening was better though. We met up with my friend Lyde, who also lives in NYC and her brother and another friend and had a great dinner outdoors.

The day after Malik left and I did a self guided tour around Cusco. The city is built on a hill so I went walking all around the hills and got to see how the other half live. No wonder the people are in shape! I did some serious power stairs that day….can’t imagine doing it everyday! In the afternoon I did some shopping and went to my favorite hole in the wall restaurant. There, I ate with the locals and had some of the best soup in my life and a typical Peruvian plate, all for $.80. I could eat like that everyday….

Early in the morning I left for the airport and began my arduous travel back home from Cusco to Lima, Lima to Panama and Panama to NYC. One of my BIGGEST pet peeves about flying is when I specifically request a window seat, which the ticketing agent acknowledges but still gives me a middle seat. On my last leg home, I was looking forward to getting into my book that I had been reading on my trip, “Under the Banner of Heaven”. I got to my row, only to realize that I was in a middle seat – not to mention it was between an old granny with man hands and a chubby kid that had the arm rest up and was spilling into my space. I asked the stewardess if I could move seats but there wasn’t a chance. I ended up spending part of the trip perfectly angling myself so that I could use part of the arm rest the granny had put down and not be touching skin with the big boy. Eventually I pulled down the arm rest and had my space but I just wasn’t in the mood after a long day.

That was my trip! I feel like I got to do so much in two weeks and that some down time was much needed to think about those things I put off in my normal, everyday life.