Thursday, February 23, 2006

Buenos Aires by Day.. El Calafate by Night

Buenos Dias! Well, we are now somewhat rested after about 12 hours of sleep. Oddly enough, I (Kristine) am still sleepy.

Yesterday afternoon we walked around the city center to do a little sight seeing. We saw the Casa Rosada where Evita rallied Argentinians in the 1940s. The building was a very pretty pinkish red color and I could actually visulize her standing on the balcony speaking to the crowds. The building was really quite beautiful. We then walked into to Churches, the Basilica de San Francisco and I can´t remember the name of the second church. They were both impressively large and were quite beautiful. The second church is trying to gather funds to manage the upkeep. It is unfortunate to see, but it appears as though all the ceiling murels and wall murels were painted over and now they are just trying to fix all the chipping concrete on the ceilings. They had a netting that caught everything that was falling from the ceilings. The bare concrete was showing and I can only hope that one day they´ll be able to put the murels back up. Overall, Buenos Aires is definitely a busy crowded city. It certainly isn´t clean, but there are parts of it that are quite beautiful. Several people add beauty to their window balconies with beautiful plants and flowers.

Our first meal in Argentina, sadly enough, was italian food! We had spaghetti and ravioli. Hey, it was one of the few specials for $1 per meal. My orange juice was more than the meal I had. It was good food though! Speaking of which, we haven´t eaten yet today.. so my tummy awaits!

Oh yes! We will fly to El Calafate this evening so we will be one step closer to the trailhead for te Torres del Paine trek. I am really looking forward to it. I´m also hoping that it is a little bit cooler down there. With all this humidity, I feel like I´m in Wisconsin during the summer. My hair is BIG! May have to do something about that!

Cheers!

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