Buenos Aires!

Last weekend I took an extended weekend to Buenos Aires. (I feel so old-money, Upper East Side saying that..."We went to Buenos Aires for the weekend...) I went with some friends from the program, Elliott, Kate and Beckie, although Beckie headed off to the coast once we got there. It was an incredible trip, filled with laughs, lots of exploring, crazy stories and some Argentinian wine!
When we landed in the airport we had to walk through a machine that measured our body temperature, to make sure we weren't bringing Swine Flu in from Chile. (Chile and Argentina have a long embittered history, and generally don't like each other at all. I think this had something to do with the whole screening thing...) Once I was medically cleared by some of the most highly-acclaimed medical experts (one of whom was smoking a cigarette, in the airport, as we walked through the machine) we were off to the hostel! We stayed in a great place very centrally located for about $10 a night.
We hit every major tourist spot in BA: Recoleta Cemetary, where Eva Peron is burried ("Don't cry for me Argentina....) along with other dignitaries and Argentinian presidents. A burrial plot alone at Recoleta costs more than my college education, and that doesn't include the massive, marble and bronze mausoleum adorned with stained glass and statues. I wonder how many African countries could be fed with the money spent on extra statues or grotesque marble tombs...
We also walked through Palermo and the beautiful outdoor park, Puerto Madero and La Boca. La Boca is the area where immigrants first landed in Buenos Aires, and they built whatever type of shelter they could. They painted these shelters really bright colors to try to make the area look less poor, and that's why all the buildings in La Boca are so beautifully bright. I will post pictures soon. It was incredible! La Boca is also the Tango Capital, and I was lucky enough to get a piece of that action. I was asked to dance by my new 84 year old boyfriend Fernando. He pulled me up on stage and led me in a tango dance to music performed by a live band. I haven't the foggiest idea how to dance tango, but luckily enough for me Fernando pretty much just shuffled me across the stage. I can literally say he swept me off my feet at one point. El amor...
We also hit up some of the great ferias, or outdoor artisan markets. Argentina is famous for leather goods, so I did my fair share to stimulate the economy.
Our last day in Buenos Aires proved to be one of the most exciting...albeit for an odd reason. This is one reason I'm glad I speak the language here...
My friend Elliott wanted to buy a thermos for his mate, an Argentinian tea. He found a street vendor with many thermoses for sale, and bought one for $40 Argentinan pesos (about $12). He paid with a $100 peso note, got his change and we walked away. As we were admiring the thermos with its leather carrying case, the street vendor started screaming, ran up to us and tried to rip the thermos from his hands. She claimed he paid with a fake bill and demanded both the thermos and her change back. This is a really popular scam in which the street vendors take the real bill, quickly switch it for a fake in their pocket, and claim that the patron paid with a fake bill. Well, we knew better, so we suggested that we call the police. Obviously she didn't want the police to come because she had counterfeit money, so while she was supposedly calling the police, we went searching. All the while this woman is screaming, causing a scene, rounding up all the other street vendors to try to get us to simply give up and walk away. Too bad for her she was Peruvian in a crowd of Bolivian street vendors, and the two groups do not trust each other. Peruvians get a really bad rap down here for being tricksters and ripping people off, which is a huge generalization. After waited for an hour for the police to come, we were finally able to find some and explained the situation. Imagine this: a screaming street vendor, two gringos trying to explain how the street vendor cheated them, and a huge crowd forming around the plaza to hear what all the ruckus was about. At one point I just errupted into laughter at how comical the whole thing was becoming. At one point, when the police told her to be quiet for a moment so he could hear our side of the story, the street vendor burst into tears. I looked at her and said (in Spanish), "Really? Are you seriously crying right now? Just stop, how ugly, just stop." The police thought my Chilean insults were hilarious and laughed at the stunned look on the vendor's face. After about 20 minutes of haggling the police made Elliott return the thermos and made the vendor give half of what he paid back. He said he believed us but because he couldn't prove it he could only make her give back half. Oh well, he paid $6 for a great story. The best part of the whole thing was at the end, the police offered the counterfeit bill back to the street vendor!! She said she didn't want it (obviously trying to prove that she didn't use it, althought I'm sure it would have come in handy for her next scheme) so Elliott asked to take it for his scrap book. It was kind of cool because it proved I knew enough Spanish to get out of going to jail. Big thanks to all my Spanish teachers over the years!
All in all, Buenos Aires is a beautiful city. The architecture is very European, with beautful ornate buildings and lovely parks and plazas. The air is much cleaner than Santiago (Buenos Aires means good air in Spanish) and the people are really friendly. I already want to go back...