We hopped in a small van with about 8 other people at the Tupiza bus terminal. Taking a “taxi van” to the dusty border town of Villanoza was about an hour faster than taking the bus and they depart about every 5 minutes which meant that we could sleep in and leave when we were ready. The cab dropped us off about 15 minutes away from the Argentinian border so we walked the remaining distance. We were expecting a massive lineup of people entering Argentina from all the stories we had heard of the border being incredibly slow and crowded but instead we were pretty much the only gringos crossing over with a few locals so it only took about 20 minutes in total to get through! From La Quaica, the bordering city in Argentina we hopped the first bus to San Salvador de Jujuy…or just Jujuy for short. We were hoping to make a direct connection to Buenos Aires from Jujuy but unfortunately all the buses were sold out and we had to wait until the following day. Being in Argentina was such a culture shock after spending the past three months in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. Jujuy was a very developed and modern city, and the prices reflected that. One thing that was finally cheap and delicious however was the wine! Courtney and I ordered a glass of wine each at a restaurant and paid less than $2 Canadian for it! I knew we were going to like Argentina…a lot! After a long bus ride we arrived in Buenos Aires in good spirits with high hopes for the city we had been anticipating so much. We had no idea how to get from the bus station to downtown and so we asked a couple young people who were working at baggage security in the bus terminal for directions and they were so helpful. One of the guys even walked us to the Subte (subway), which was about 10 minutes away so that we wouldn’t have to pay an outrageous cab fare! We lucked out by finding a hostel (Downtown Mate) that gave us a private room at the dorm rate and it even had a balcony overlooking the street! One of the first things we came across was the 14 lane road 9 de Julio that runs through the center of El Centro. It’s absolutely massive and takes two lights to cross! We spent the majority of our time in BA seeing a bunch of different sights and preparing to fly down to the end of the world! On one of the days in the city we took the Subte to the Palermo area and got off near the zoo. We didn't go in but walked along the side and crossed into the beautiful gardens. The area reminded us of Toronto Island due to the multiple parks, rollerblading lanes, ponds, and different fitness clubs. We had a nice picnic in a rose garden and then continued back in the direction of our hostel. We ended up walking for over 5 hours through different areas of the city. The city is very pretty with every type of neighborhood; ranging from the trendy downtown core to pedestrian ruled avenues packed with all stores to posh upscale areas where everyone is walking around in elegant attire or soccer uniforms. We really enjoyed our day sight seeing and can't wait to return to check our the other areas!
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