The wheels on the bus go round and round

My week is up. Matu was a lovely hostess and Lula was a sweet dog. It was an interesting experience to stay in a 'homestay'. Not only was it the cheaper option but it also gave me further insight into the daily life of Argentinians. I said goodbye to Matu and Lula this morning when the taxi showed up to drive me to my new hotel, the Babel Hotel, as recommended by my friend Steve.

The hotel is a brilliant lavender colour - hilarious. It is a funky boutiquey hotel and very 'gezellig'! Here's the view from my room:

Mariano is the name of the concierge and my check-in probably took an hour! We talked about this and that mostly in Spanish - I did good. Now that school is done I just have to push myself to try speaking more and more. Mariano's a very sweet kid and I hope to chat with him more tomorrow. Apparently he tango dances and heaven knows I need a partner with a sense of humour!

I walked past the city tour bus stop around 13h and decided I needed to fuel up. The lines were terrible (those bloody tourists are everywhere!!!) and I was feeling a bit hungry. I wandered through the cobbled streets of San Telmo and happened upon several markets. Apparently Defenisa street is THE place to be on a Sunday. Very cute. After this morning's workout (aka packing attempts) however, I forbade myself from buying anything!

The Sunday market on Defensia:

Many major cities I've been to have the hop-on-hop-off buses. Megan and I did one in Barcelona most recently. They're a good way to get around. I mainly use them for reconnaissance work - to check out the sites and decide where I want to go back to.

When I went back to the bus stop after lunch there wasn't a line. The bus came shortly afterwards and when I got on to buy a ticket the guy said he didn't have any more tickets to sell me. Sorry.

I went back to the hotel, which is fortunately very close by. Mariano printed my ticket for me and back I went. I couldn't believe the lineup that had materialized in the fifteen minutes I was gone. Frig. Two busses went by, took on a small handful of those in the line and drove off with me still in line. In the end it took fifty minutes to get on and I was trying oh so hard not to be cranky about it. It's mid-February and that's the middle of summer here. There are tons of tourists around, (mostly from Brazil it seems); it's busy! At least it wasn't stinking hot...

When I got on, I happened to choose a seat whose audio wasn't working so I spent the first 50 minutes looking out the window asking myself what I had done to anger Karma recently.

In the end It all worked out and I saw some very varied parts of the city. We went from rundown slums to areas of colonial grandeur to shiny new buildings and neighbourhoods. I had been mostly seeing grey concrete but there are several beautiful parks that I intend to go back and check out. Thumbs up on BA from this reporter! ;o)

South America's first skyscraper:

The multicoloured buildings near the Boca district: