sweet home Carolina

We're back in NC, after a few more delicious days in Buenos Aires. After we left Brazil, we planned to spend our last few days in Uruguay before heading back to BsAs to fly out. We took exceedingly comfy night buses to Colonia, which was founded by the Portuguese to smuggle goods into Spanish-colonized Buenos Aires. It still has its cobbled streets and loads of lovely old colonial buildings, and we had a good time wandering around. The siren song of Buenos Aires' coffee and delicious food called us back early, though. We could smell the goodness as soon as we stepped off the ferry. Luckily, we arrived back on the right day for the famous antique market in Plaza Dorrego, in the San Telmo neighbourhood, just a few steps away from our favorite hostel, Residencial Carly (highly recommended).

The square was packed with antique vendors selling everything from 150-year old lace, pocketwatches, glass seltzer bottles (we got a green one), working Victrolas, amazing huge old padlocks that you would expect to see on the back of a 1800's paddywagon, piles and piles of family silver, art nouveau tiles, and everything in between. There was also lots of art - our favorite was the figures made out of silver forks - you could get guitar players (playing a spoon), court stenographers, marathon runners, bike riders, you name it. The square was packed with vendors and people, and the stalls spilled out onto the pedestrian streets north of the square. The crowds extended for 20 blocks - there were people filling the street for as far as we could see. It was like a Grateful Dead concert meets the Antique Roadshow - there were marionettes, art, street performers, kaleidoscopes, 10-piece orchestras (including a piano!!), hippy jewelery, and handmade shoes. We wandered up and down the streets for hours, had delicious ravioli and pizza in a streetside cafe, and ended the night watching tango shows in the square. First there were the professionals, all in black and tophats. When dusk fell, they were done, but they left the dancefloor and music equipment set up, and the square filled with local tango enthusiasts. Their outfits were great - from stripey track pants, to swishy tango dresses. One tall woman with short platinum blonde hair was wearing glittery green shoes with brown legwarmers. Picture the Breakfast Club all grown up and dancing tango. It was fantastic.

The trip back was long but totally uneventful. We were a little worried that the US immigration folks wouldn't let me back in the country as a visitor, but the official only asked us one question and waved us on through. We didn't even have trouble bringing back our yummy Argentine salami. The customs guy asked us whether or not we had any meat, and we said we did. He asked us whether we'd bought it at a deli, or killed and skinned it ourselves. We said 'er, deli' and he waved us on through.

Now we just have to reorganize our stuff (it was all packed and organized for Ireland...), visit all of our friends and family, get the car, and head to Vancouver!