**rant**
So, 300 pictures at about 2mbs each, takes DAYS to upload. I wish I could just FTP straight, instead of using this JAVA based application my photo hosting service has. It's just too cumbersome.
**done rant**

Belated pics from Buenos Aires, Argentina

Apple Store, Buenos Aires

A Typical Parrilla Dish... LOVE the MEAT!  20pesos for two people. That's $7USD

Unfortunately, the tissue is paper... truly tissuePAPER

The cool keys in Argentina... so much character!

The stairs to our first Hostel, in Buenos Aires

The hallway with the pretty tiles

HSBC is everywhere!

Love the details
I think that's enough for now... 95/99 pictures of my last batch uploaded. Almost done!

Street Vendors

These are our coordinates:

Latitude: -41.1336
Longitude: -71.3117

Google Map
This is our view:

A week into our trip, and we're taking 5 days in this super chill place. More pics to follow when I'm done uploading the pics from BA and El Calafate.

Dear readers, I promise all will be updated.

Friday Feb 15

Novelties:

Keys

Bathroom showers

Refuse Containers

happy Belated Valentine's Day!

Yesterday, we went on a walking tour of Recoleta. It's the upper crust neighborhood of Buneos Aires. We started off with a guided tour of the Recoleta Cemetary, which is a must. It made a big different to take the tour with a guide, who explained who the characters were. Some of the sarcophagi were amazing. Our guide was very funny At about 2:00, the BA sun was beating down, and we snuck off the tour to find food Admittedly, it was a bit eerie when we left the pack and went on our own to find our way out.

Out of the cemetary, we grabbed a bite at a small cafe in the recoleta neighborhood. It was a fancy place, and I didn't understand anything on the menu. Sometimes, you're just so hungry, you're not really able to fully concentrate on what you're ordering.

We left the cafe for a walking tour around Recoleta. We walked by large classically styled buildings and mueseums... and didn't bother going past the lobbies. With the sun beating hot, we found some sprinklers and found it refreshing to run through. Scarecely 15 minutes later, we were all dried off and in need of more refreshment.
Towards the end of walking tour, we stopped by for some yum yum ice cream. I think the best icecream is found in Buenos Aires... it's creamy and flavorful, not just sweet. Spent after spending an entire day in the sun, we start making our way back to our hostel.

Toward the end of the walk, I spotted a Cartier store down a street. JC was impressed that I was able to make out the store sign many meters away. Ha. Across the street was the LV store. we didn't spend much time in the luxe storess since livng in NYC make these stores a little more common. Still, it was cool to just check them out. And, as in NY, I didn't feel the need to spend any money in any of those stores.

We made it back to the Hostel, and all I remember was passing out The nap was well earned, as spending a day in the sun is always draining. After the refresher, we went to see some genuine tango at Bar Sur in San Telmo. On our way to the Subte, we spotted a group of people dancing El Murga... its a dance that resembles capoeira in that it's performed in a circle with someone playing instruments. We we had a camera then. We took the Subte (subway) there and it cost us 90pesos... $0.33USD. The trains are fast, clean, and brightly lit. They're smooth, and JC tells me that they're of the same make as the Japanese trains.

Valentines Day

We payed for our tickets to El Calafate. JC kept referring to the city as El Caliente, much to everyone's confusion. Afterwards, we walked from the MicroCenter to the English Tower and met with our Bike Tour. The street of BA are better than NY! Our guide, Gabriel, was super knowledgable, and this tour has been the highlght of our trip so far. We went through the financial district, through Puerto Madero. We saw a lot of sites, and it was a richer experience having the guide explain the context of our trip.

We biked into the Biological Park and had our first taste of Yerba Mate. I loved it. It tasted like a stronger green tea. It is prepared in a gourd cup with the mate in the vessel. Hot water is poured in, and a filtering straw is used to drink the beverage. The Yerba Mate made me feel a bit energetic and talkative. There is caffeine and some other stimulant in there. Some say it has similar effects as cannibis, only a lot milder.

Then into Boca and San Telmo.

We got home exhasted. Then we freshened up and headed out to La Cabanas Las Lilas where we totally indulged in some Argentine steak and a great Malbec.

Our hostel has so much character, I LOVE IT! It's a bargain, and in the middle of Recoleta. We're settled in and scheduled to stay till the 13th. Tomorrow we're going to be taking more pictures as city trekking is in order.

Love free wifi!

12 Hours into our trip

I'm still on a plane and getting a little restless. In Southern Argentina, Bariloche. It was one of my stops on the way to the Glacier Park, By bus, its 22 hours. I am not quite sure how I can handle that bus ride. I think the best way, when we're ready to get out of BA would be to fly. Luckily, JC feels the same way.
THe plane food is good, but then again, I'm not a picky eater. We keep collecting non-perishable snacks, and we're coming off this plane with more snacks than we boarded with JC started turning down the pretzels because he doesn't want to be stuck carrying them anymore.

I'm running a text editor intead of Open Office to save on battery. I'm not really sure if having a processor intensive application has anything to do with battery life, but I'[m happy so far!

On a deeper level, this trip is still novel and fun. I already miss my family, and the sentiments loom deeper when the realization of 7 months sinks in. I'm very excited, but its a little hard to get out of the melancholy when you've been stuck in a plane for so long. We get off in two hours, BA time:9:30pm.

Mental note: Call the folks!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

5 hours into our trip.
Car service picked us up at 3:00 am I guess the driver knew it was a special occaision for us, and went to go wash the car before he came to our address. We loaded our two backpacks into the trunk and tried to get into the car. Amazingly the temperature dropped to feel like the coldest day all winter. We were desperate to get into the car. I tugged and tugged at the door. Both JC and the driver tell me to pull harder... which I was already doing. JC wasn't able to get it open, and neither was the driver. With the frigid temperatures in New York, the doors were frozen shut. We ended up crawling through the drivers seat into the back passenger seat. Then off we were to the airport.

We had already decided to check my bag, since I didn' want to bother trying to get through baggage check with a swiss army knife and too many bottles of lotion. For whatever reason, the front desk is asking us to pay another $40 for each of us for changing our flights. We assure the front desk that we've already paid the balance. After checking the system repeatedly, we gve up and hand over our credit card. She then has problems tryng to execute the transaction 10 minutes and an additinal representative later, we all reach the same conclusion.
"I'm sorry, there's no balance on your account. You may proceed to the boarding gate"

"... bebir?"
"Manzana, por favor."
He hands me the apple juice... "Senora"

I have never felt so old in my life! Not even when I gave away all the red envelopes for Chinese New Year. Its still sometime hard coming to grips with the fact that I'm grown up.

I hugged my mom, and she woke up to kiss my good-bye.

This is really happening.

Shutting down and unplugging.

Gavin had to say hello before Auntie Paula and JC left for their trip. Little Gavin was a wonderful delivery of joy on Feb 6th. We had the chance to meet the little guy in person. Next time we see him, he's going to be so big!

I miss him already.

Twelves hours way from JFK and saying goodbye to everyone for at least 7 months. We've got a 14 hour flight to Buenos  Aires, Argentina. We'll land at about 9:30 pm and will be checking into our first hostel. JC's Aunt was super cool and gave us Argentine Pesos, so we've got atleast enough to get to our first destination.

For the next few days we'll be getting ourselves oriented and will be going city trekking.
 

Preparations:

Quad band phone - We'll have our Grand Central number point to whatever SIM we have in the phone. We're going to bind JC's number to the traveling SIM, so his number is the one to call.

Voicemail - I get my voiemails through email. Feel free to call my cellie and leave messages on my new number- the number that's on my email signature.

eee PC - My computer is set up and I'm pretty proficient with with typing on this smaller keyboard. Java is installed, and I've tested out uploading and blogging, so we're ready to go.

SPOT GPS Beacon - This is a cool little device that will report our Longitude and Latitude via email. I haven't figured out why the email blog doesn't post to Xanga. The email is being sent to family and friends. The outpout looks like this:

SPOT Check OK. Checking in. We're okay. Wanted to convey our coordinates.
Unit Number: 0-7345235
Latitude: 40.7458
Longitude: -73.8878
Nearest Town from unit Location:  78th St, New York, NY, US
Distance to the nearest town:  0 km(s)
Time in GMT the message was sent: 02/08/2008 17:16:08
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=40.7458,-73.8878&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

Skype - We've tested out our outgoing calls and Skype works like a charm. We don't have an inbound number, since we didn't get the Nokia N810. We're not likely going to be constantly connected to receive calls.

That's it for now!

NYC Taxis come with a GPS Navigation console. There's a novelty in it. Sometimes, though, its accuracy does come into question.

I'm done with the obligatory Chinese
New Year obligation that my husband has bestowed on me. I felt very
uncomfortable with the generosity I felt through his relatives. We
were the married couple, so we shouldn't be getting any more red
envelopes. But the rules for giving seem to be inconsistently applied
at the whim of my new relatives abundant with excuses...

"Its your birthday money... you won't be here."
"It's money for traveling... "

"Mothers can give whenever they want to... "

We gave out lots of envelopes, and this year we bought pretty ones. This is the first and only year we'll be buying envelopes, now that I see that the bank gives them away for free.