The Aires really are Buenos

My lack of recent posting reflects the prioritization I have given to having fun in Buenos Aires, rather than sitting in front of a computer as I often fit into my schedule in Ecuador. There is so much to do to immerse myself in the city - explore the different neighborhoods to get the feel and look of each place, eat, drink, and nap!

And I sadly wasted half an entire day dealing with the mysterious disappearance of my ATM card. I realistically probably lost it, maybe by leaving it in the last ATM machine used - despite my diligence given how many times I have heard fellow travellers relay their own annoying mistake of having done that - but it could have somehow been stolen. Bottom line is that it will be an inconvenience to get money some other way until the card reaches Seattle and someone there is able to send it to me in Peru to get to me when I am there (please send happy thoughts to the Wells Fargo, fed ex, and Peruvian postal gods for me). I at least got even more of a walking tour of Buenos Aires trying to find a bank that would let me withdraw money from my credit card because I am a bad traveller and never thought I would need a PIN number to withdraw cash from my credit card, which comes when you open the account. I visited 5 banks in 3 neighborhoods before closing time came (at 3pm!) on Friday, still with empty wallet. My backup plan is to buy beer with a credit card and sell it on the streets - for a profit - in cash. Wish me luck.

I am off to take a quick siesta before dinner, to rest my mind and legs from walking around street markets and a local fiesta. Our hostel owner clued us into a local street fair and music festival at the planetarium park in Palermo, where we hung out with the locals perusing clothes, goods, and rocking music (though I felt like was surrounded by a bunch of Capitol Hill hipsters at some point, then there were more hippies than hipsters). And I thoroughly enjoyed exploring the street market in Recoleta, which sells many different artisan goods - jewelery, clothes, leather goods, and of course cheap, yummy food! My personal food theme for today was empañada day, so it worked well having people selling them for 2 pesos (previous themes have been general BEEF, churro con chocolate consumption; tomorrow will be chorizo specifically). The other great thing about this market was that all the crafts were different - very creative items and styles, rather than a bunch of places selling basic variants of the same thing. And despite some very good prices, I have to continually remind myself not to accumulate things that will just have to be carried around in my already heavy backpack for the next several weeks! It also helps not having cold, hard cash... sigh...