One Night in Buenos Aires

Of course with the pleasures of traveling also comes the pains of travels - cancelled flights and airport delays. Our much anticipated trip to Buenos Aires was cut short by close to 24 hours due to heavy fog in Ushuaia. We were scheduled to fly out at 2:30pm on the 7th and make it to Buenos Aires in time for the Saturday night life. Unfortunately, a dense fog rolled into Ushuaia and after a 3 hour delay at the airport, our flight was cancelled until the following day. The airline sent us to a hotel outside of the city (and actually high up in the mountains so we were above the fog line) for the night and included dinner. After getting over our disappointment of not making it to Buenos Aires, we were happy to stay in our very own double room with a bathroom and cable - a luxury at this point. As the luck would have it for the day though, the cable went out right in the middle of a movie so we were back to playing cards and fighting other guests for internet time. We had dinner on the airline at the hotel and settled in for another night´s sleep in Ushuaia. We were told to be at the airport the next morning by 8am so after rushing around, we arrived at the airport to find long lines and more delays. Our flight that was supposed to take off at 10:45am, finally departed for Buenos Aires at 1pm.

Our hostel in Buenos Aires is in the cultural district, San Telmo and every Sunday they have a street market with antiques, music and tango in the streets. We were really looking forward to this part but with the flight delays, it wasn´t looking promising that we would make it! We had more complications after finally landing at 4pm with exchanging money and then missing our bus. The exchange rate at the airport was HORRIBLE and we decided against it, figuring we would just use credit card for the night. Then we missed the bus to the San Telmo district, but we were still smiling. Once we made it to the hostel, we dropped our things and headed out for a quick tour of the area. We caught the tail end of the street fair but they were packing up. At least we got a taste of what we missed. There were old couples dancing the tango on the streets and live music. We struggled to find a place that took credit cards and finally found a cafe for beers and empanadas. The best empanadas yet! Filled with prime steak and chicken! We set out on foot again for dinner and found the last bit of the Sunday activities - a street square with locals dancing the tango. We sat down at a table and enjoyed a porterhouse steak dinner and beers while taking in the scene. It was such an experience and we were disappointed to have missed the entire day!

Today has been a rush as we are still trying to find a place to change our traveler´s checks. We had an unplanned tour of Buenos Aires and finally found a place to exchange our money, at the Plaza de Mayo. We are leaving on a 2:40pm bus ride (18 hours) to Mendoza. Our time in Buenos Aires was so short, but we enjoyed it for what it was. We definitely intend to come back here some day and truly take in this great city.