Nov 7th - My First day in BA

So, after flying for 17 hours and taking a short siesta, it was time to head out!

My first Argentine experience was to be leg waxing. We went to what looked like a hole in the wall beauty salon, but what turned out to be a 3 story beauty factory! Every nook and cranny was filled with some sort of beauty treatment. My destination was the top floor. Nicole did the translations for me. I thought I was in for the pain of leg waxing, but due to a misunderstanding, I got so much more! I need to learn the Spanish word for “bikini”!

Then we met up with Nicole’s roommate, Melissa, and another friend, Gabby. We went to the local ice cream store. The Argentine ice cream is similar to ours but softer and stronger in flavors. A nice treat on a warm Argentine day! Luckily for me, November 7th is the anniversary of the Argentina Gay Parade, AND Nicole and her friends wanted to take me there. An unbelievable crowd of people attended the celebration. The most unique experience of the event was the numerous “male” attendees that had received implants. Apparently it’s okay to be topless if you’re a “man”. I have photos, but I better save them for a different time! There were several floats getting ready for the parade. The floats were a truck towing a large flatbed with rails with very LOUD sound systems. The idea of the flatbed was to allow people to stand on them, dance, wave to the crowds, etc. Well, what better idea than for us to climb on board?? We truly experienced the excitement of the gay parade. This was so much more than I had hoped for on my first day. After the parade we visited the apartment of another friend of Nicole’s, Inuk from Greenland. Then, since it was around 10 pm, we figured it was time to find a place to eat dinner. We walked to a local diner. I had an amazingly good and large steak sandwich, a glass of wine, and shared fries. The cost? $3.50. Now that dinner was over and it was closing in on midnight, we decided to head to San Telmo and the bar district. We found an outside café with live music and flamenco dancers. Once the music stopped, we went inside and upstairs to a reggae bar. After one or two songs, Nicole and I realized that we were exhausted. We rode the bus home (40 minutes) and collapsed. Made it to bed around 3 am.

I hope I survive this trip!