Buenos Dias, Buenos Aires

Banking left out of the Santiago airport en route to Buenos Aires, in front of the sunrise and above the clouds, there is a breathtaking view of the Andes. It's nearly impossible to tell where the mountains stop and the clouds begin. That was how this day started.

We got into BA just fine, easily secured our bags, and made our way to the hostel via public bus. It took more than two hours, but only cost ARS$2, or about $0.80. We got to see a wide range of outside areas along the way, including what appeared to be impoverished farming areas, upscale residential neighborhoods, and everything in between. We were moderately proud of ourselves for finding the initial bus stop and managing to get off at the right stop. It has given us a sense of confidence that the city is do-able.

After settling in and taking a much-needed shower, we walked off to La Plaza de Mayo (May Square), which houses some of BA's most recognizable landmarks, including La Casa Rosada. After some brief people-watching, we walked off in the general direction of Avenida Corrientes and Calle Florida. Calle Florida is a very long, completely pedestrian street that is home to everything from run-of-the-mill trinket peddlers to large upscale shopping malls. We stopped at a dime-a-dozen cafe in what seemed to be BA's financial district and ordered what might be some of the most delicious margherita pizza in the world along with our first bottle of malbec. (Dylan thinks that you can't eat pizza with your hands in this country. Not wanting to embarrass myself, I went along with it for the moment. We're still awaiting confirmation.)

We then walked over to El Obelisco and took in the amazing sight that is Avenida 9 de Julio, which is - according to Dylan - the widest non-highway road in the world. After returning to the hostel for a much needed siesta and a drink with some of our fellow mochileros (backpackers), Dylan and I went in search of our first Argentine steak.

We decided to go to the barrio (neighborhood) of San Telmo, where one of our hostel hosts had identified a few good restaurants. Walking through what seemed like an endless series of semi-deserted, very residential streets, we finally got to San Telmo, which was itself most deserted at 10:00pm. Dylan and I assumed we were a little early for dinner, but were hungry enough to not care. We chose a place on the corner of Calles Chile y Defensa, right in the heart of the barrio. Really cool looking bar called Bar Seddon, which advertised all the right food outside at decent prices. Another bottle of malbec, and we both ordered bife de chorizo, which is your standard BA sirloin steak, con papas.

I'm sorry to report that this first steak was a bit of a letdown. The gristle in the first bite took about 10 minutes to chew through. The flavor would charitably be described as "interesting". We concluded that we will simply disregard this meal in our evaluation of Argentine steak. Tomorrow night, we'll look to go to a legit steakhouse and give it a fresh start. What was amazing was the postre (dessert) I ordered afterwards. BA-style Dutch apple pie. Unreal.

We were further disappointed when our plans to stay out late to enjoy the nightlife were foiled by a complete lack of attendance in the area we were in. By 1am, almost the entire area was fully deserted. We think it's possible that everyone was hiding and waiting to come out later, although nothing about the situation indicated that any sort of activity was pending. I'm now back at the hostel, heading to bed in a few. We'll meet up with Alex in the morning and really get into gear.

Major upside to the day is that my Spanish is already getting better, mostly through increased confidence in using it. I ordered at all the restaurants we went to and managed to get us through just fine.