Day 9-10: Buenos Aires, Argentina

the plane ride from La Paz to Asuncion (layover) involved painful popping in my ears i hadn´t felt since i was 5. a few other gringoes felt it too, and every single 100ml bottle i had exploded. mmmmmm minty backpack!

i like Argentina for several reasons: my shitty vodafone mobile works here, the electrical sockets are the same as Australia, Glee is dubbed (not the songs unfortunately), and the weather is finally, that of the southern hemisphere. they also sound different, like italian. the double LL is not a y sound but a shhhhh noise (quesadisha anyone?)

guide was another awesome chica. like the others so far she doesn´t mince words. and like the others she´s also some PhD grad who says things like, ¨we killed all the natives, so everybody here is white,¨ without that feeling of personal guilt that John Howard pretends to carry. they use their hands to gesture and kiss on both cheeks

my hotel is in San Telmo, the bohemian part. to be honest, as left wing as i am, almost every bohemian town looks similar to me. they have poodles, cafes, thai and vegan restaurants, stoned guys with dreads, and narrow cobblestone streets plastered with Buddhist motifs. i feel like i travelled 14,000km to see Newtown. on the plus side, the hotel is run by a man named Javier and is designed like next season´s Ikea catalogue, infused with the scent of daffodils. once at ikea my mother followed this young gay couple, "look, they like those cushions. let´s get them too. hey now they´re looking at those curtains, oh you see how they match?" (ugh, do not get me started on the cost of curtains) and i can´t help but think she would have wanted to copy everything inside the rooms. for instance instead of bedside tables, the aged wood panel reveals a little draw-string bridge to act as a table, it´s so fracking cute i could eat it. the place is so stylish and hip i feel like i stink it up. it´s also operated by the prettiest boys (me thinks they are of the Ikea pigeon-hole though, i mean i don´t want to be homoist and assume all gay men are pretty with taste, imagine Eddie´s nerdy son from Ab Fab. it is possible they are straight men who time-travelled from the 18th century).

i had steak from a place recommended by all the guidebooks, and even though it was awesome (medium rare sirloin, juicy as can be) i can´t help but notice the place was full of tourists. the deep fried mozzarella balls made up for it.

next night had parradillada (buffet meats) but at lunch because i couldn´t wait for 10pm, had some pomelo (grape) gelato, very yummy. saw a tango show and NEED to go to south korea to get my muscular calves shaved.