The wrap up

Me in front of the Casa Rosada. Sorry the pic is so dark here.
For some reason pics are darker here than they really are.

Plaza de Mayo, with its distinctly European flair

Buenos Aires is a magnificent city. Tonight is my 5th and final night (tear drop) here, and I have been absolutely enchanted by it´s dynamism and vibrance. I was a little nervous about returning to the city because my last experience here was so absolutely terrifying and overwhelming, but armed with my newly acquired language skills, cultural understanding, and backpacker´s grit, I have managed to immerse myself in the spectacular carnival of experience that is Buenos Aires.

First of all, this city is absolutely immense. With 13 million people in the metropolitan area, the city has the population of New York, the architecture of Europe, and the lust-for-life of a Latin American capital. The city center, with its marble canyons and packed walkways, stretches for miles in every direction. The city is bursting with innumerable plazas, gigantic parks, thousands of cafes and bars, museums, history, and a palpable buzz of humanity. The first three nights I stayed in San Telmo barrio (neighborhood), which is famous for its tradition, tango, and its cobbled streets. It was a very pleasant and active place to stay, and I met a group of friends there that invited me out on the town with them. (sidenote: this city doesn´t sleep. When you go out, it is for the entire night. We left for the disco at 3 am and danced til the sun came up. It was exhausting!!) They were really fun and we had a great time. Plus, it was a wildly diverse group, with a lot of Colombians, Chileans, Argentines, Israelis, British, Surinamese, Hollanders, a guy from Istanbul, and myself. It was cool to get so many different people together. During the day I did an immense walking tour of the city and saw the Casa Rosada (their White House), the capital building, the theater district, an artisan fair where I bought some gifts, their national cemetary (which was actually awesome, with Evita´s mosaleum), 2 museums, parks, and miles of city boulevards. There is so much to see here, it is astonishing. Buenos Aires has enough for a lifetime.

It was this guy´s birthday. Party!!

Two chicas from Colombia. (Isabel, if you are reading this, the
girl on the left looks just like you!!)

Last night and tonight I am in the Palermo district of the city, which is posh, elegant, and quite beautiful. The hostel I am staying out right now is probably the best of my entire trip, with its quite courtyard, excellent facilities, nice people, and chill dog. I happened to meet two super cool Irish people there last night, and we have made plans to go out tonight for a real Argentine steak and good wine. Yum! And, of course, tomorrow is my last day of vacation. I have been looking forward to returning home to friends and family, but my last couple of days in Buenos Aires are making it tough. I am truly in love with this awesome city, and will be a bit sad to leave it. I think this is my favorite city I have ever been to. No joke.

So, since this is my last post of my South American adventure, I would like to thank you for following along and enduring my bad jokes and rambling. This has been a great experience for me, and like everything else in life, sharing it makes it better. Writing like this has been very enjoyable for me, and I get quite a bit of satisfaction from having a forum to put out there for people to read. So, because I enjoy it so much, I have decided that I will archive my vacation blog here and slightly retool to continue on into the future. As you know, I very much enjoy to read and to share my thoughts on literature with folks, and the new incarnation of my blog will be devoted to what I am reading. Not quite as exciting as travel, but just as valuable I think. Thanks again for taking in interest in my folly and, if it interests you, please visit this blog in the future to share in my passion for literature.

I´ll bid you farewell here with a germane quote from Joseph Conrad´s "Lord Jim", which I am finishing right now.
" Felicity, felicity - how shall I say it? - is quaffed out of a golden cup in every latitude; the flavour is with you - with you alone, and you can make it as intoxicating as you please."