My 24th birthday was memorable. Through out the day, I was able to smile and take in my surroundings. By my own choice, it was quiet and a bit self indulgent. The Los Angeles native, Katrina, who was is in my Spanish class brought a package of birthday baked goods. After class, I rushed home to meet Susana. She had promised to take me to La Boca. The trip was not what I expected.The scale of Buenos Aires downtown is impressive. It is not due high buildings or business districts, to me it is the expansive area of urban neighborhoods. They sprawl out in every direction without a break.
When in La Boca, I expected that Susanna and I would walk around discreetly, have a coffee and leave. Instead, we hurried through a very touristy area, then she informed me that she needed to work.
I knew where to catch the bus and she left me. The final directions were to not stray from the 6 block area we had walked.
I didn't feel safe walking around and had no intention of staying in that area. So I bought a coffee on the street, obtained change for the bus with an embarrassing amount of confusion and prepared to leave. Once on the bus, it dawned on me that I am much happier silent on public transport than to walk through a bubble of a tourist destination and photo opportunity.
For the evening, little occurred until friends came over at 11:30. We drank and relaxed until far to late until the evening.
Tomorrow I am headed to Uruguay with the complete intention of surfing as long as I can. I will take a 3 hour ferry from Buenos Aires and I will be there. The country is small and I will travel along the coast. The first stop (after the capital Montevideo) is a surfing area called La Palamo. After this, the tiny Punta de Diablos, with 700 people which I heard about from avid Uruguayan traveler.
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