Beginning of the End!

Hola todos...estoy en Argentina ahora!!

Sorry for being MIA! The last week in Brazil was crazy...we had to work on our projects that we procrastinated until the end to do...woops! I cant believe its over! Liz and I left Curitiba at 11 pm on wednesday, we took a 7 hour bus ride to Sao Paulo and sat at the airport until 3 pm thursday before finally getting on the flight to Buenos Aires!

Ok, before I talk about BA (which I loooooooove!!!) I will fill you i n on what I did the final days in Brazil. Oh and by the way i wont be able to post any fotos until i get back to los estados unidos...sorry! First of all it was freeeeeezing in Curitiba! I mean it was -1 degrees celsius! And Liz and I did not have heat that worked so being inside wasnt very much difference! We went to a cute German restaurant one night, walked around the pedestrian street, went to the Pinhairo Fair...basically explored Curitiba which was nice. One afternoon Renata, who is our TA on the trip, took us to an archeological dig in the center of the city where they are redeveloping the main square. They are in the process of uncovering the original paths and street networks which was really cool to see. They are going to put glass cases over them so everyone can see when they are done with the construction. I will put up pictures as soon as i can! We went out a couple of nights as well.. to Jon Bull Pub on a Tuesday before Erin left and to some Brazilian country music club on Friday. We had a few bottles of cachaça so it was a pretty good night! Over the weekend we worked on our presentations and on sunday we went to the street fair where I picked up a few souvenirs. The presentations went well. I ended up changing my topic last minute and presented an analysis of the sustainability of the Green Line in Curitiba. On Wednesday everyone left...but at different times so it was very anticlimatic. I was sad but all good things must come to an end! This trip has definately been an amazing experience. I met some really cool people, got to see some AMAZING places and actually learned a lot about planning!

So now we are in Argentina. Liz, Jess, Kevin, Eric and myself are staying at Hostel El Firulete Downtown. Liz didnt run into any problems with the whole entry/exit card issue thank god!! My first experience here, however, wasnt so nice. Liz and I came on a different flight than the other three so we got a cab to meet them at the hostel. Long story short the cab driver stole 100 pesos from me! It was a very clever scam but I was pissed! Jess, Kevin and Eric also had a problem with their cab driver...so be careful with taxis in BA!!! To look at the bright side, the exchange rate is 3 to 1 so in reality he only took about 35 american dollars from me...but still!!!

Besides that minor incident, I love this city! I really wish I could post pictures for you all to see! Plus I love the fact that I can speak spanish!!! Portuguese was the biggest barrier to getting around in Brazil! I tried to learn it but to be honest I am not much better at speaking it than I was 6 weeks ago!

Last night we went to a super cute restaurant and drank wine and ate delicious food! Then we hung out at the hostel after our long day of traveling. We walked around the city this morning..went to a few shops and Jess and I found our way to a bar of course! While we are here we plan to go to Recoletta Cemetary, Casa Rosada, to La Boca and to Bombonera stadium to see the last football game played there before they knock it down to build a new one!! I will keep you all updated on the final stretch of my South American journey. Thanks to everyone for staying tuned!! See you all very very soon!!!

Love,
Maud