Uruguay, Montevideo......so chill

So Montevideo is really a cool place and it is so different than Buenos Aires. The people are more chill and not as into themselves. The place is surrounded by water, and although the water is not the cleanest the beaches are really beautiful and the people are so friendly. We have come to realize that hostels are cool but not really the place for us. We enjoy our own personal bathroom and the cleaner hotels. Luckily we have been able to find hotels that are cheaper than hostels and much nicer. We like meeting locals that are out on the town and not tourists like us. We have been eating good, in fact we had the best steak of our life today, it literally melted in our mouth. We really love the history of Uruguay, a lot of Italian and Spanish influence. It is interesting that this place is like a mix between Brazil and Argentina because they fought over the territory for so long. The city has been good to us but we are ready for a nice solid ask on the beach which is suppose to be like the Miami of south America. We are getting ready for our own apartment right next to the beach for only 480 bucks. We hope to come back to Montevideo soon and might look into jobs here mañana. So that's it for now. More to come in the next week and we want to here from all of you reading this blog. Leave us a comment if you can with any advice or news about the Us. Oh yeah we saw a great documentary called teenage papparizzi you should check it out, very mind opening. Oh yeah and the book I am reading Confessions of an Economic Hitman is one of the most influntial and important books of my life- please read it!!!!!!! Ciao!

Montevideo, Uruguay

Plaza Independencia in Montevideo

 So here are some pictures, tonight I will talk more. Enjoy!

Our run around Uruguay- it reminds us of OB!

Uruguayian Pesos, que lindo!

Running around, it was so hot!!!!

A plaza in Uruguay, the first working fountian we saw!

A Palace that was once the tallest building is South America

More running, man we were sweaty!

We have learned to always lock our valuables, even if we have our own room with a key.

The local beach is in the far distance.

Local kids playing futbol, on dirt!?!?!?

MMMMMM........Sangria

This is the dinner when the hurricane like weather hit!!! You can see the beautiful theatre in the background.

This tree in one of my favorites down here. It is blooming everywhere and the flowers look like leaves.

Puerto Mercado, carne skewers!!!

Ahhhh, the 80 degree beach in November!!!!

Uruguay

The ferry from Buenos Aires Argentina to Colonia Uruguay

Buenos Aires from the ferry

The Che Lagarto Hostel in Plaza Independencia Montevideo Uruguay

 So now we are in Uruguay in the capital of Montevideo. The city is surrounded by water and it is noticablly smaller than Buenos Aires. Every street you look down you can see the ocean and the weather is a perfect 80 degrees. We are going to visit more of the city right now and go for a run on the beach. Many more pictures to come tonight of the city. We are loving the hot weather- I have not changed out of shorts unless we go to a club or fancy restaurant. Happy Turkey Day and check back tonight for more pictures. Caio!!!

MMMMMMM........sushi and vino

This was one of our fancy dinners where we ate some great sushi and had some excellent wine. All of the wine comes from Mendoza and it is so good. Does anyone know the average alchocol content of red and white wine in the states?

El Centro de Buenos Aires



El Centro de Buenos Aires




A modern bridge in Puerto Madero



San Telmo, the Tango district



San Telmo street fair, this is only a side street!



Amber on our bikeride in Palermo

More of  El Centro

So it has been a while since I have posted and so much has happened. We went on a bike ride around the parks in Palermo Viejo, and everyone came out and rollerbladed! It made me think of me and Cuz in 5th grade, blading everywhere. It was great to see everyone out on a hot and sunny Sunday, and it was pretty funny to see people eat it on the cement :). We moved to our next hostel in El Centro of Buenos Aires and visited the buggest street fair ever. It was in San Telmo, the tango district, and there were hundreds of booths (see pic above). We saw some great music, a traditional tango and Amber bought an awesome ring. We were amazed with the amount of people and the cool artwork of the locals. Then we attended our first professional soccer game between La Boca Juniors (our team) and  La Arsenal. We had the time of our life with some friends we met from LA. We drank some cervezas before the game, because they dont sell any at the stadium. We could not even imagine what the games would be like if they sold beer there!!! It was cool to be a part of the fans for La Boca, we sang and cheered our asses off even though we had no idea which song they were singing. We didnt sit for the entire game and we were stoaked that our team won 2-1!!!! The players are incredibly talented and the fans are so dedicated. There were no announcers, but the live band and La 12 (the name of true La Boca fans) rang throughout the entire game. Before the game, in the area of La Boca, we went to a bar and saw a 9 person band! It made me think of you Duffy. But the coolest part was this guy who was the best soccer juggler that we have ever seen. He literally juggled to the beat of the band and did flips and stuff. It was one of the best days ever- there is so much to do here. Then the next day we slept in and walked around town to see the sites. Our favorite was a cafe founded in 1858 called Cafe Tortoni. We had coffee and dessert on marble and oak tables. The place felt so old and we were amazed that we were doing the same thing that others did a hundred and sixty years ago. The architecture in El Centro of Buenos Aires is beautiful and has a lot of Italian and French influence. That night we ate Sushi in Puerto Madero, which looks a lot like downtown San Diego. We would have had more pictures, but our first nonsense of the trip took place in our hostel. Someone came into our room and stole our camera, a key and my cologne!!! It was like the twilight zone- we have no idea how it happened. But we have moved on and are now in Uruguay! Overall, Buenos Aires was an amazing experience. We got to see all of the areas and do pretty much everything. We liked the city and plan on coming back again to see more of it in a couple of weeks. Now it is time to drink some more vino and play ping pong. Love you all and Happy Thanksgiving. Eat some turkey for us!

The Tango Backpackers Hostel

Our first room is on the right with the red curtains.

Amber discovering a new staircase!

 This is the hostel that we have been staying at for the last four days. Honestly, it feels like I am at Hogwarts and everyday we find a new staircase and a new room. It really is crazy. It is filled with spiral staricases, stainglass, rooftop kitchen and filled with the local beer Quilmes, which I am drinking now!!!! It has been a great first hostel. We have found it to be quite homey, even with the cockaroaches and the bedmites!!!!:) We now have our own loft room for a night and we no longer have to sleep on a bunk bed. Argentinians are the nicest people and we have become accustomed to the late nights out on the town. We dont eat until 10 and we go to sleep at 2 am the earliest. Our Spanish is getting better and the weekends in Buenos Aries are the shit! People everywhere and so much people watching. I will post some pics of our bikeride and the street fair manana. Love you all!!!!! Peace and Salud!

Our sunset view from the rooftop after a game of rummy. Amber is currently winning the game to 4,200 with 400ish points.

The rooftop at the Tango Backpackers Hostel.

Our Fanciet Dinner Yet!

So Dad these are the oysters that I have been talking about. Probably the best that I have ever had. They had parmasean cheese and spinach. They were bomb!!!! We had dinner here for about three hours, and it was pretty good. The margaritas, oysters and the tuna shashimi salad were great. Thanks Crinzia resturante!

Kirshna Restaurant for Lunch

Mom this place totally reminded us of you. The food was Indian and the menu looked like you made it yourself. Little cutouts of flowers and Hindu gods! The food was tasty and we even got fresh carrot juice, yum! We are going to eat at another organic restaurant tonight! We will let you know how it is. Adios!

A great hippie restaurant!

The Japanese Gardens

A reflection of the city

So we went to the Japanese Gardens and had some amazig Sushi that was actually really cheap. We havent paid more than $15 for a bottle of wine. We are loving it! We have been trying to find organic grocery stores (no luck yet). But we have found a couple of organic restaurants and a couple of gluten free foods! But oh man the bread and pasta here is soooooooo good! We saw the new Harry Potter last night. They assign seats here but the theatre was nicer than most in the U.S. Plus everyone was insanely quiet. After any laugh everyone shhhhed everyone. There was no previews!!!! However there was this weird game where the camera was on the audience and a bunch of floating balls with Coca-Cola. We had to hit the balls on the screen to make the word Coca-Cola light up. It was the weirdest thing that we have ever seen. It was a game that the whole audience played- Crazy!!!! Not to ruin it for anyone, but the movie is way different from the book, we were not feeling it. Okay off to see the nightlife tonight, I am sure there will be many more stories to come after tonight! Thanks for following!

The sushi was, wait for it.......... Awesome!

The Botanical Gardens

So today we decided to visit the Botannical Gardens right in the center of Buenos Aires. It was incredibly beautiful with plants from all over the world. Can you believe that we even found a Redwood tree! Check out Amber´s facespace for our first sighting of a mullet! We were amazed at how well kept the gardens were and we even met  a guy who told us about one section that was designed for smelling and touching- it was great. Hope you enjoy the pictures! Caio!

Salvia- crazy smell!!!!

A kiss in the French Garden

Whoa, this cactus was huge!

The Cactus area was my favorite, check out all the flowers.

Plaza Palermo Viejo

This is some of the Buenos Aires skyline near the spot where we are staying. This is from our lunch on a patio which was so good. Palermo is very chic with artsy shops and fantastic restaurants, plus it is pretty cheap. Our Spanish is coming along, they talk really fast though. We had our first empanadas today, man we are hooked! So tonight we are researching where we want to go this week, playing gin rummy, and then passing out in our dorm room at the tango backpackers hostel. The hostel is really odd and cool I will put up some pics tomorrow. We have three other roommates from England. We hope you are all well and call us on skype if you want (jambereg). Talk to you tomorrow. Buenos Noches!

Dinner at the Bo Bo

Our first fancy dinner! My first steak a rib-eye, they were not joking about the carne, amazing! Amber chose an amazing wine, a malbec rose! Nos encanta comida!

Walking around Buenos Aires

We are feeling good and so glad to be visiting South America. Today we ventured out to the park near us- it is huge. We saw a lot of birds and the worlds biggest rodent, capybara, actually pretty cool looking. We found our first hostel today and will be staying there starting tomorrow. We will be there until Sunday. We are thinking of a Tango class this week, visiting the zoo, going to a futbol game and going to the Theater Colon for a tango show. We cant wait to see the local dance!

We made it!

This is a picture of the street we are on. We are about to nap after a long day of traveling. We already have met some awesome people, including Pedro who gave us advice for carnival. Ciao!

The Bo Bo Hotel

So we are still in the states! Just meeting up with all sorts of So Cal friends in Los Angeles, it's so warm here- Crazy! Just wanted to try and see how posting pictures will look. This is our first hotel in Palmero Viejo! When we get here on Monday we will make sure to call the family and put up some other great pics. Take care and PAZ!

Bon Voyage!!

We are starting our travels south tomorrow and want all our friends and family to keep up with our adventures (if they want and if we have stories to tell).  So check-in once in a while and see what we're up to...we'll be thinking of all of you :) Adios!