Well, my luggage finally arrived and met up with me in the beautiful, fashionable city of Buenos Aires. Having not fully appreciated the fact that July is winter in Argentina and that the people here care a great deal about fashion, i quickly found that the majority of the contents of my long-awaited luggage (i.e. shorts, t-shirts, red Crocs, etc) were not particularly helpful here and that my stream of bad-luck related to clothing requirements was still not over...
Fashion deficiencies aside, I was all ready to break out my shorts and favorite, clean t-shirts (i mean, its latin America afterall. How cold can it be?), when... i was suprised to find that it was snowing in Buenos Aires. Yes, SNOWING. It snowed in Buenos Aires for the first time in over 100 years on the day after i arrived, resulting in joyful partying in the streets, but forcing me to stick to my all too familiar clothing ensemble of faded blue Yankees cap, Peruvian wool hat and gloves, my blue sweater (now at Day 14), polartec fleece, US military cargo pants and Eagle Creek backpack. Although lacking high-fashion items, my luggage did include my trusty (but alas, not-so-fashionable) red North Face jacket and a replacement pair of cargo pants (in camo color scheme well suited for desert combat, but alas, well-below Buenos Aires fashion standards), importantly, with a functional zipper.
With these marginal clothing reinforcements, I have been attempting, albeit unsuccessfully, to fit in with local Buenos Aires folks (who, incidentally, are not involved in any form of desert combat). Logically, I have tried to make up for my fashion short-comings by consuming obscene quantities of excellent and reasonably priced Argentinian red meat and red wine (current count: 6 steaks and 6 bottles of red since arrival 4 days ago). I make regular pit-stops at "Parillas" (restaurants so dedicated to the consumption of meat products that they list blood sausage and pork sausage, and little else, as "salads"). Shockingly, this strategy of excessive consumption of Argentinian beef and wine to win the favor of the local populace has not been successful, but has had some upside (e.g. excessive consumption of Argentinian beef and wine). Moreover, i dont plan to drop this bold and logical American strategy quite yet, and, in the footsteps of our steadfast leader Mr. Bush, I plan to re-double efforts with a "surge strategy" and see if i can sneak in additional steaks for breakfast (naturally, while wearing camoflague pants)...
The momentous occassion to write about, though, arrived today. If the snow in July in Buenos Aires wasn´t divine intervention, then today´s episode certainly was... I am in the town of Iguazu, Argentina, near the magnificent Igauzu falls. The majesty of the falls, indeed, is all that it is cracked up to be and perhaps worth the hassle and cost of flying all the way up here (near Brazilian and Paraguay border). The real magic for me, though, came immediately after seeing the falls, when i was lucky to spot one of nature´s true miracles... the largest mullet i have ever seen. I thought Iguazu Falls had unparalleled waves cascading down to earth, but then i saw this guy´s mullete hair. Not only did i get to see this miracle in person, but i was able to capture it on film for eternity.
With this mullet omen as proof, it seems lady luck is certainly smiling on me again. Lots to say about Argentina which will have to wait for the days ahead, as I´m signing off now to go buy a lottery ticket.
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1 comment:
laughing out loud!! Glad to hear you got your luggage back. :)
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