Leaving BA

~Buenos Aires

A place to live and to enjoy, to spend money, to party, to drink, hedonism, food, wine, seduction, tango and chic.

Buenos Aires is not a city to fall in love, this is not a city of romance. It’s a city to lose your inhibitions, a backdrop for hedonism, over indulgence and excess. You can’t come here on a budget and you cannot just pass through it taking in the touristic sites. Many travellers discover this and end up living here. It sucks you in. Buenos Aires is not a city to visit it’s a city to devour.~

My last day in Buenos Aires

As I said goodbye to Max my bag felt lighter which was puzzling because I had spent the day in San Telmo buying last minute gifts and purchases including a heavy antique door knocker. Maybe buying these gifts lightened me of my emotional baggage. I was buying gifts to take home, I was going back in two and a half months to start a new life.

Maybe this trip was wrapping Latin America up, saying goodbye to past lovers, making amends and realizing Colombia was an infatuation. I will always travel it’s in my blood but even this gypsy needs a home.

My last day in Buenos Aires I came to love the city and see why so many foreigners stay. I felt comfortable on the streets and in the subte. I knew my way around and when someone asked me for directions I gave them with confidence. I gave up eating out and eating when the Argentineans did. I bought food in a grocery store and made lunch to go. I wandered the market in San Telmo which meandered almost to La Boca where I translated for some American tourists. I made my way back to Luis Guillon without getting lost. As I read a book about Evita on the train an elderly lady in front of me asked if I liked reading things about the Perons. I said I did and she said she is a Peronista, it was odd like someone from my book had jumped out in front of me. She told me things were better back then, things were cheaper and then she rambled on the whole way to Guillon but I couldn't hear her for the wind of the train blowing hard at me.

It is sad leaving any place you have been for a while and I really don’t know when I will be back. I may need to conquer another continent but first there is Iguaçu and Brazil!!