Dec. 1: Checking out Buenos Aires by myself

Robert Taylor traveled through South America from Nov. 24- Dec. 29. While there, he kept a journal. Each blog entry is an entry from that journal, posted daily (excluding weekends and a few other days), as it was written while he traveled.

I just go back from walking around BA my myself. Tara wanted to go shopping to replace some of the stuff she lost yesterday. More importantly, I think she just wanted to spend some time alone since spending so much time with the same person can drive anyone crazy.

I've been able to avoid this problem because I stay up after she goes to bed and wake up before her.

Since she was going shopping, I decided to find something else to do. I found a guide book in the hostel that talked about the de Mayo.

It said it was just a few blocks away from this tango club we went to last night and while we were there, I thought I saw something that could be "The Pink House."

The guy at the front desk was able to tell me how to get to the subway and how to get there from the hostel using very limited Spanish.

I had no trouble getting there, which I found exciting because I love taking the subway in big cities. Once there, I saw the Pink House, or the Casa Rosada, their version of the White House and where Madona sung, "Don't cry for me Argentina." Or more accurately, where the lady Modana portrayed in the movie sung it.

I also went to this old cathedral, called Catedral Metropolitana. The place was breathtaking, everything was so big and grand. There was lots of gold, no expenses were spared. It seems wried churches build such extravagant buildings with money collected from its members.

As I walked around, I thought of my tour though the Mormon Temple and how no expenses had been spared there either. The biggest difference I noticed was I had only been allowed into the temple because it hadn't been dedicated yet. Once the temple is dedicated, only members can enter it. There was a mass service being performed as I, and other guest, walked around the building as quiet as possible.

I saw the massive tomb of Don Jose de San Martin. This guy there told me he was a famous liberator. I recognized his name from street signs and plazas here and in Mendoza. His tomb was at least three times my height and sat in the middle of its on corinthian column.

I ran into this man again outside and he pointed out this building, the Cabilado, where he explained the country's independence had first been declared and the government met when it was working on its and independence and after it was formed. It sounded a lot like our Continental Congress. It was really cool to be standing there listening to someone from Argentina tell me about the country's history.

It reminded me of standing in Boston listening to someone tell me about the Old State House.

I also saw this building with what looked like old-school guards in front of it. I'm not sure why or what they were doing, but I took pictures anyways.

There's a huge statue in the middle of the city that looks a lot like the Washington Monument in D.C. I spent sometime online last night and could neither confirm nor deny it was built to resemble the one in D.C. Having seen both, and given the fact that Washington's was built first, I believe this one was inspired by the one in D.C.

Anyways, I could see the statue from where I was and decided to head in that direction. A few blocks later, I came across the street we're staying on and headed down it.

A few blocks later, I came across Florida Street, which I recognized from the tour guide. There are tons of stores on the street and I read more than a million people shop there a day.

I saw these ladies in red handing out product samples and I grabbed a couple to give to Tara because I thought they were perfume samples or something since girls were handing them out (they turned out to be German condoms, with accessories none the less. They are still in my coat pocket. The other night I wore the jacket out to get a drink and stuck my hand in my pocket and was like, "what's this?" and pulled out a rubber-studded ring. I need to clean out my pockets more.). Right behind where they were handing out product samples, more young women were dressed in red, and one in white, and were dancing.

The concept of gorilla marketing isn't lost down here. I noticed a lady giving out 7UP sample in the subway and some other sort of product being giving away on the other side of the tracks. All the street signs here have a company name on them, mostly technology companies like Sony or Nokia.

Last night Tara and i went to this tango show. It was pretty cool, it was a pretty big production in an interment club setting. The singing was done in Spanish, it didn't bother me because people go to the opera and that's not in English.

I'm not sure of the exact story line, but it seemed to focus on the fact there were four guys and only three girls. It was really cool to see different aspects of tango presented in an entertaining matter.

The coolest part of the show was this guy who had what appeared to be a yard of string with a rock tied to the end. He had two of them and he swung them around and the sound came from when the rock-like object hit the ground. He was able to do so in a rhythm he created for about ten minutes or so while the audience watched captively .