First impressions of Buenos Aires....!!
ssoooo - after I've been here for a week now I should really write some stuff about Buenos Aires....!!I had heard soooooo many great things about this city before I came here that maybe I had set my expectations a bit too high... hhmm....with Lima it was exactly the other way round... !!first of all - I don't really feel like I am in South America here.... it feels more like a mix of Barcelona, New Jersey, maybe a bit of Paris too... and yes - they do have RED LONDON mailboxes and public telephones here.... :) funny...and true - it is a nice city and has a lot of beautiful places, things to see and things to do.... I've already been to many of the major touristy places and attractions here - San Telmo Antiques fair, Puerto Madero, Plaza de Mayo with Evita's balcony, Avenida 9 de Julio, el Obelisco, Plaza Constitucion, La Boca, Avenida FLORIDA, Recoleta y Palermo, Plaza Francia, Plaza Alemania, Plaza San Martin, Parque 3 de Febrero (VERY, VERY nice park.... like Central Park or Hyde Park, but with palmtrees), el Hipodromo, etc. etc.and since last WED I'm staying in an apartment next to Plaza y Palacio del Congreso.... pretty nice there too.... and close to many places that I need to go to regularly, i.e. my office here, La SUDACA (one of the good salsa places here), Avenida 9 Julio, 2 SUBTE stations (that's the Subway network here - SUBTE for Subterraneo).The first few nights I stayed with some local couch-surfers and their friends and met some really nice people.... Thanks muchas to Kristin, Martin, Gaby and Ezequiel for making my first weekend in Buenos Aires so much fun...!!and now I'm living with an Argentine girl called Maria Eugenia.... she seems very nice nice too, but neither one of us is at home very much so we haven't spent that much time together yet....and yes - I found some places to dance salsa here too (of course) and met some nice dancers here as well... ;) the salsa scene here is actually a lot more developed and better than in Peru...the people in my office here are really nice and funny too and it's fun working and spending time with them.....even though Ney just left us to return back to Rio... :(but still - at the moment I still miss all my friends in Lima a lot.... !! I also miss my life there, living so close to the beach, the nice relaxed atmosphere in Miraflores and then little things, like the Vivanda supermarket for example and my favorite Lucuma Yogurt Bebible.... oh well.... I'm sure I'll settle into my life here in Buenos Aires as well and I'll be fine here in a few days / weeks, but this city is big and busy.... loads of traffic.... loads of people rushing around.... and that's all a bit tiring for me at the moment.....even after all the time that I've spent in huge cities like London and New York.... hhmmm, a ver....I think it's also mainly that people here are not as friendly, open, amable y ayudable as in Lima.... pero, I'm doing okay.... and will try to write again soon and put some pics on here too...besos from Argentina... :)
Adios LIMA..... Hello BUENOS AIRES....!!!
aaahhh - and now my 3 months in LIMA are already over.... in 8 hours I'll be on a plane to BUENOS AIRES.... and somehow I feel a little bit sad.... cause I had a really, really great time here in Peru - much nicer than I ever expected..... and it's just sad to have to say Bye and leave some good friends here behind... oh well....
but I have heard sooooo many great things about Buenos Aires from loads of people already that I'm actually looking forward to my next 3 months there as well.... :)
and I can always come back to Lima at some point.... :)
anyway - apart from a few disasters and catastrophies last Monday - i.e. my flooded apartment, a burned finger, my landlord who disappeared to Cusco and was unreachable until today, and the non-functioning keyboard in my office that no-one knew how to fix for a day - my last week here in LIMA was really great and I had a number of very, very nice Goodbye-Parties.... !!
last Sunday, 9th April, were the elections for the next Peruvian president and the "LEY SECA" (the "Dry Law", "Trockenes Gesetz") verbietet Ausschank von Alkohol in oeffentlichen Lokalitaeten 48 hours before the elections..... so FRI and SAT night pretty much all bars / clubs here were closed, or at the least very, very quiet as people could not drink there.....
but FRI night we had a little social and birthday party for Jose and Monica en la casa de mi gran amigo Veto Oneto.... one of the many, many great parties and good times we've spent at his place....!!!
Muchisimas gracias otra vez, Veto, for all your hospitality, your friendship and the good times we spent here together.... :)
on Saturday I went to LA PUNTA en el Callao con Pedro..... we'd been planning to go there for quite a while but never really found time to do it..... pero now, al final, we made it eventually...!!
and it was really worth it - very nice part of Lima too..... and even though it was dark already by the time we got there we saw some of the beautiful houses and walked along the beach promenade there.... ahhh - and we had some great Peruvian food - Anticuchos y Picarones.... yeah - muy rica la comida Peruana.... de verdad... !!
on the way back we stopped at Juan's house to visit his sister for her baby-shower, but unfortunately we were a little bit late for that already.... :(
oh well - thanks for the cake and peach-cocktail anyway.... ;)
SUN was actually the best of all my Goodbye-Parties (Fiesta de la despedida de Astrid)...!! I met Veto and Carmen in Miraflores and we went to one of Veto's friends houses in my neighbourhood here for some Tea and Toast.... yeah, I know - seems very British, no....?? ;)
Really interesting guy though.... he runs the Peruvian version of the AAA, ADAC, AA or whatever you call it in your country.... the Automobile Association.... and it was really interesting to talk to him and hear about the story how he got into this business and how he set it up here..... spent a nice time with him and his family and saw parts of the elections on TV before we finally went to MARKANO....!!!
aaahh - I'm gonna miss this place...!!! and my last SUN there was so so so so good.... all my Salsa-friends from Lima were there to say Bye to me..... and for one more last dance.... :(
had a super-great time there....!! music, was great as well - as usual.... and the owner of the place also gave me a CD of the MARKANO orchesta as un recuerdo de los buenos tiempos que pasamos por alla.....!!! :)
and I just wanted to say - Gracias to Veto, Carmen, Cesar, Viviana, Salserin, Luis Cachanga, Chupete, Raul, JoseLuis, Manolo, Carlos B., Karen, Joel, Luis, Jose de Washington DC, Edison, Andrea, Anaya, Marcello, Cesar (con el pelon), La China, Angela, Carlos C., Carmen, Jackie, Fernando, Juan and everyone else whose name I don't remember right now..... Thanks so much for being there and making it such a fun night...!!!
and thanks also to Miguel and Yanet, Flor and Rolando, Walter y Ruth, Jonatan, Martin, Miguel and Daniel.... thanks for calling me.... and sorry you couldn't be there that night....
I hope I'll be back some time soon....!!! :)
then on MON another little Goodbye from LOS BOTES..... TUE con mis amigos Nestor, Omar and Melroy en el SON DE CUBA....
WED - my Goodbye-social en la casa de Veto.... where else.... ;) too bad that this meant I couldn't go to Huacho con Pamela, JoseLuis, Arturo and their friends..... would have really liked to go there too.....pero asi pasan las cosas..... and you can't always have everything.... (I already learned that...) hhmmm....
and last night - mi ultima noche en Lima - pasamos bastante bien aqui en Miraflores y despues en La Calle 8 with some old and some new friends.... ;)
sssoo - and now I should really start packing the rest of my stuff here to make sure that I'm ready to go to the airport in a few hours....
besos y abrazos from Lima.... I hope I'll get a chance to come back here soon....!!
xxx
Bailando con JoseLuis, en Brena, Lima....
What a great Last but One weekend in Lima...!!!
hhmmm yeah.... so I don't have much time left here in Lima.... 10 days in TOTAL...!! and time flying by....as always....but... my last but one weekend here was really, really great....!! and I need to take at least 15mins to write something about it on my blog.... after all this silence here....WED - Oscar's birthday party in Salamanca.... not much dancing there, but his Mum had cooked some great Peruvian food and really spoiled us... :)THU - Magaly's birthday party en LA CALLE 8 with lots of friends.... and Salsa... ;)FRI night - went dancing with JoseLuis at SON Y CUERO en San Isidro.... very nice place, great wooden dance floor (yes, for everyone who hasn't heard / read this from me before - we don't have VERY MANY of those here in Lima... ;) ), musica bastante bien, company very nice..... :)then we went over to one of his neighours house in Brena later for her baby-shower and also met his cousin there.... more salsa, more dancing, more nice people.... very much fun...!!SAT por la manana - un pocito mas Salsa (what else...?? ;) stupid question...hahha...), teaching some of his friends / neighbours / students.... despues fuimos a la playa de Costa Verde aqui en Miraflores.... nos pelamos un pocito ;) - not as sunny anymore as it used to be here the last few weeks.... autumn is coming to Lima.... but still very nice and relaxing afternoon on the beach.... :)SAT night I went to SON Y CUERO otra vez with loads of other friends.... La orchestra de VETO BILLENA was playing there.... very good music.... lots of dancing till 4.30am..... aaahhh - I'm gonna miss this place and all those nice people here.....!!!SUN.... sleep, sleep, sleep till Nona's phone call woke me up at 12.00noon.... but nice reason to get up.... :) lunch and shopping afterwards....later, around 5.30pm, I met Carmen, Veto and Pedro at the TANGO EN EL MALECON.... yes, yes - I need to get some basic Tango steps down before I moce to Buenos Aires... ;)very nice there too....then the traditional SUN coffee and toast at CAFE HAITI aqui en Miraflores.... :) despues we went over to my apartment to pick up some stuff, then to Veto's house..... watched some videos there before driving over to MARKANO...!! :)yyaaaiii - still one of my favorites places to dance here in LIMA....!!! had a really great time there dancing with Chupete y Edison y otros amigos... and luckily this place will be open next weekend as well, and not closed like most places here por las elecciones del Peru... :(so at least one good location where I can have one of my Goodbye-parties....!! :)yesterday I had the day-off (from working SAT 2 weeks ago) y entonces mas tiempo to go to LOS BOTES mas temprano.... very fun there too dancing with Cesar, Edison y el Salserin....bueno... entonces, 10 dias mas aqui.... not much time unfortunately.... but I'll try to write again before I leave Peru... :)besos y abrazos,xxxx
