Two Great Weeks With The Girl Of My Dreams (And how It Wasn't Long Enough...)

Well friends, true to my word, I've returned after a 2 week sojourn (actually, extended travels with the one and truly only Laura North, my wonderful girlfriend). To detail our travels and experiences would take a lot more space than you guys want to read, so I'll try to put up the highlights! (Although every moment w/ Laura was a highlight..)

Colonia del Sacramento and Montevideo, Uruguay - Laura and I headed out on Thursday afternoon to Uruguay via Colonia Express (a ferry that went between BsAs and Colonia). It was a quick hour trip there, and upon arriving we were ready to see if all the excitement surrounding this city was merited. Yeah, it definitely was! The historical district is truly stunning; it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage City in 1995 and is the only one in Uruguay. You can see the picture to get an idea, but only a trip can capture the beauty...

We arrived to Montevideo Saturday afternoon. We spent the day in the city, having a nice picnic, and getting to our Couch Surfing host's house. It happened to be about an hour away, but well worth it (the sunrise the next day was beautiful). We went to Mercado del Puerto on Sunday (a parilla, or steakhouse) and enjoyed some lovely food! We spent half of Monday there before heading back to Colonia for our boat that took us back to Buenos Aires..

Big Times (and a Birthday) in Buenos Aires! - Tuesday and Wednesday Laura and I spent in the beautiful city of Buenos Aires. We enjoyed a lot of good food and exciting places to see. My birthday (Wednesday) was a wonderful day full of great food (Siga la Vaca -- all you can eat steakhouse) and a skype-with-my-parents Birthday party!! Thursday we headed to the third country on tour, Santiago de Chile..

Santiago, Chile and Mendoza, Argentina - We took the 19 hour bus trip from Buenos Aires to Santiago

Chile (sounds daunting, but TRUST me, it's really fun--I prefer it to flying) in the afternoon. Laura was a little worried about the length of the trip, but she now affirms she too loves the terrestrial travel! We got to Santiago on a bleak looking Friday, but we didn't mind! After some showers the day turned out really nice! We had a nice evening in Bellavista, or the bohemian district of the city. We stayed with Cristian, my good CS friend, that evening. Saturday we got up, had breakfast and visited a huge Catholic church with Cristian and Andre (a CS guy living w/ Cristian) and hit up the city!

We visited a lot of cool sites, including Santa Lucia, the local artisan market, and Cerro San Cristóbal + some great sea food at Donde Augustin's! We took the 10:30 bus to Mendoza, Argentina, which arrived at 5:30. When we got to our CS host's house we realized she didn't leave us an apartment number, so we had to find a phone and call. Thankfully she had just returned from a club and was awake and happy to greet us :) We rested and were greeted by 80 degree sunshine!! After lots of exploring and fun (and a poor Belgian guy who got robbed :/) we headed back to the apartment! Monday was a relaxed day with nice restaurants (good food was a staple on this trip!) and Parque San Martín. Some photos help :p

Bye Bye Buenos Aires - We returned to Buenos Aires at 9 a.m. Tuesday (after taking the Mendoza bus, a 14 hour trip) just in time for us to return home and me leave to take my oral exam in Iberoamerican Literature. Needless to say, I passed with flying colors (there you go mom :p) because I read on the bus! We then spent t

he whole afternoon in 75 degree sunshine exploring more sites! (In a city of 12 million you can't seem them all, but can certainly try :p). We made it to Cafe Tortoni, the first and most famous cafe in BA! Laura decided to shop while I went to class (I'm a dedicated student ya know!) and afterwards we met up and headed to dinner at Petutti. Wednesday was, sadly our last :( We got up and explored around some more sites and sounds, and at 5 left to take Laura to the airport. Farewells were said and tears were shed (I cried, Laura was strong) and back home Laura went!

Laura is home safe in PA now, and I am preparing for another journey tomorrow morning (to the tune of 4 a.m.). I am going to spend 4 days in Ushuaia, the "Southernmost City in the World" Friday-Tuesday. Expect another post coming up next week! It's hard to believe I have only 2 weeks left before I leave Buenos Aires and, oh yeah, travel some more! As always, thanks for reading, and ESPECIALLY for commenting :p ~~ Benjamín