Travel blog 2: Return to South America

I am here in Buenos Aires again. It is cold but sunny, an improvement on both Melbourne and Sydney. Sydney was so cold, UniNSW conference rooms so cold, that I came down with a cold. So, I am not in the best spirits for travelling.

I was not able to find a host in Buenos Aires, so I am in a hostel. It is a particularly nice hostel, though, all sort of tango arty, with high ceilings, painted walls, red with murals, tiger-print furniture in the common lounge.

Last night I met with E, who I spent a couple of hours with last year. It was nice to reconnect with this gentlemanly Asian couchsurfer over beer and `Arabic´ food. I ate the smallest falafal sandwich I have ever seen. Sort of large dolmade size! Good thing I had had a large lunch of pizza and empanadas (roquefort and cheese and onion). I was treated to lunch by a young woman I met coming off the plane. We took the bus together to San Telmo, where there are a bunc of hostels. I was very proud to have been able to read the map and know when to get off the bus.

J, the Australian girl who has family in Buenos Aires whom she is visiting, took me to lunch in thanks for lugging one of her big bags around San Telmo in search for hostels. She didn´t end up staying at the hostel with me, though, as a cousin came to pick her up from the suburbs and whisk her away. An interesting young thing, she has a brother whom she lives with in her parents house when they are living in Buenos Aires for 4 months of the year, whom she has an AVO against for domestic violence. She considers herself a feminist and works as an exotic maseusse. Best of luck to her.

I spent a while in the sun in a square in San Telmo today, drinking very nice and expensive hot chocolate. Tango music started to play and tango dancers danced for us, then the woman came around to collect money in a hat. Now I will go to La Boca, the area I loved best last year.