One week in Buenos Aires

It's been a week since my arrival in Buenos Aires and I kept quite busy visiting around this immense city. While Argentina's population is around 40 million habbitants almost half of it (15 million) is concentrated in and around the capital. This means a lot of traffic and - since there are no tight regulations against car emissions - almost constant smog. Add to that dust, smoke from burning garbage and an invisible cloud of volcanic ash arriving daily from the west and you have a perfect coctail of throat irritating air mixture. On the other hand, I was also treated to some excursion outside of city and found the air and nature awesomely pure.

They say adventure begins when something doesn't go as planned. This almost happened before we even got the bikes. I just called Travis to wish him a good flight and found out we had miscommunicated about his arrival day. All was planned for both Travis and Charlie to arrive on Sunday. This was actually a little complicated as we had to arrange a second car to be able to haul all the baggage and everyone back to the house. As it turns out only Charlie arrives on Sunday. We will get Travis on Monday and go straight for the bikes. The itinerary did not say +1 day on the arrival, and since he's leaving on Sunday I assumed he's arriving on Sunday too!

So with that sorted out we should be able to start rolling this coming Monday. Since it's beginning of the summer here it's super hot and the days are longer. It doesn't get dark till about 8pm. This gives us extra riding time as we plan to never travel in the dark. Nothing can stop us now, well maybe a spontaneous erruption of the Hudson or Puyehue volcanos (which are active now). Then there is also the rapidly inflating Uturunca volcano in Bolivia!

Below are a few snapshots from my running about the city. This is my first time on this side of the equator and I had a few interesting revelations. Like seeing a different side of the moon (it looks different) or realizing that the sun points north during midday. Ah, and the toilet water spins in the clockwise direction :)

This is a meat shop sign. I wonder why the dogs sleep here...

A common sight in Argentina, a bottle on top of a car. It means the car is for sale.

An amazing looking library (old theater).

Testing out the rental.

Now I leave you with this quote I have recently read and liked :)

"Security is almost a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoidance of danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing."