Adios Buenos Aires, Hola Ushuaia!

It's terrible to visit a new city in a new country and leave before you are ready. Of course I am ecstatic to have been here in Buenos Aires for even a day, but this is nowhere near long enough to be here---- I shouldn't be allowed to come and leave so soon. I wanted to have the girls take a Tango lesson but time was just too short, and tomorrow morning we rise staggeringly early to catch our plane to Ushuaia, from which our ship departs for Cape Horn.

Today began with breakfast on the roof of our hotel, the Hotel Moreno. It is a wonderful place. A boutique hotel with wonderful old wrought metal elevators, gorgeous wood floors and a huge cowskin rug in each room. ("You would not want to be a cow in Argentina," said our Chilean student guide Francisca to me today.) After breakfast, I attempted to make contact with the Girl Guides of Argentina, but was told that the group is currently on break, and will not become active again until next month. So we took another tack, venturing out into the rainy city (Ava, Sofie, Jay Sheehan and myself) to explore some parks and just take a look around.

I happened upon a woman who instantly became my new fashion icon of Buenos Aires: she was wearing beautiful oxblood colored Doc Martens (what other color here?), black leggings, an undone plaid shirt with a Guns and Roses pullover, a fantastic straw hat, and she had a messenger bag slung all the way down to her knees, walking along the Ponte de la Madre. Fantastic.

We wandered all over the city, admiring palm trees and monuments and beautiful architecture and the Pink Palace. Then back to the hotel for a rest and some food. Finally, it was off again to Ricoleta Cemetery with our student guide, Francisca from Chile. The cemetery is just astoundingly beautiful, and I honestly could take a room nearby and just wander around inside with my cameras and a notebook for a week or more. The mausoleums and statuary is just completely overwhelming, and the juxtaposition of all of that beauty in various states of repair and decay with the presence of dozens and dozens of cats is a beautiful thing that I am happy to say I wil never, ever forget. Yet it's already colored with sadness because I could only stay such a painfully short time.

We then wandered around in a mall in search of some piece of camera equipment, ending up treating the girls to watermelon juice (jugo de sandia sounds so much better) and fries at a McDonalds which has a balcony overlooking the Ricoleta Cemetery. I don't like to go to McDonald's, but I am grateful to have had that view of the cemetery from above.

We wandered back to the hotel, regrouped yet again, and headed out for a late dinner. Now sleep is paramount, as we have another long day of travel tomorrow. Could it be that we have nearly 1,000 miles farther south to fly tomorrow? After a ten hour flight the day before yesterday? Impossible!

Buenas noches!
I remain,

Jen