After a nice cab ride from the airport (the driver might be the only person in all of Argentina who enjoys baseball), I checked into my hostel.  I found a few of my friends there, waiting with a nice chicken salad dinner.  Nice welcome, indeed.  It got nicer, as those friends, along with a large crowd from the hostel went out to a nearby club for some cheap drinks and dancing.  Of course, I was fairly exhausted from my long travel day and made an early(-ish) night of it.

The next morning, I slept in, then relaxed, then took a nap.  It was very productive. Later, we met up with our friends Guillermo and Mariela (a couple that Robby and I had met on our Inca Jungle Trail). That night, they took us out to see the band Dancing Mood play at a place called Konex.  Afterwards, we went back to Guille and Mariela’s place for some pizza and drinks.  Great music and great people is a simple formula for fun.

The next day, Robby, Sara and I took a walk around town, taking in some of the sights around San Telmo (the neighborhood around our hostel) and the beautiful cemetery in Recoleta.  We walked down to a neighborhood with some inexpensive shopping (much of my clothing has been lost, worn out completely, stolen or is just well past the point of usefulness, and I thought I could use a few things).  A few things conspired against a fruitful shopping excursion. The first is  my crippling, all encompassing hatred of shopping.  The second was the flood of biblical proportions that descended upon the city.  We essentially had to swim back to the hostel.

After a shower and change of clothing, Guillermo and Mariela once again took us out, this time to a Tenedor Libre, where 72 pesos (less than $20) gets you free beer, salad bar and unlimited asado.  Tons of amazing cuts of meat, as well as a few more -shall we say?- exotic choices.  Any time you get a chance to eat thymus, you take that chance. We walked off our giant meals around the ritzy, new neighborhood of Puerto Madero.

The next day, Robby and I took our final bus journey together, off to the amazing site of Iguazu falls.