On the Road Buenos Aires, Argentina: The Spidey Santa
By: Lindsay Hogg

Finally! Cara, Els and I REUNITED in Buenos Aires! The place where locals wear winter coats and we walk around freakishly in t-shirts and flip flops. Our first lovefested reunion consisted of giant steaks and mucho vino. The second one, a messy pub crawl. The first hour of the pub crawl was spent in the park consuming free beer and pizza… what!? did you say free beer!??

The group running the pub crawl made a few announcements and all I really picked up on was “and there will be free shots at every bar”. I took it upon myself to yell “YAAAY!!”. Everyone in the crowed turned and looked at me.

“What!? Did you hear them? They said FREE SHOTS!” I exclaimed, looking back at them confused.

Els and Steve, Buenos Aires

It didn’t help that 10 minutes prior to this one of my friends accidentally broke a glass. While I was not the one smashing glass, everyone in the crowd looked over and I was the only one standing beside the broken glass. Turns out all my friends had slipped into the crowd before I got a chance to. Thanks guys!

Cara had an apartment in Buenos Aires for a few months, but it was too small for Els and I to crash, so we stayed at the sketchy Clan Hostel – where we came across many people we had met earlier in our travels through La Paz, Bolivia. We also made a new best friend, Steve, who we referred to as ‘Rack” for reasons that will remain confidential. He was quite entertaining, I would keep him in my pocket if I could. There is a good chance he might have become quite annoyed with us on more than one occasion. This may have been due to us trying to pull his bed into the hallway at 4am (with him sleeping in it)… booze makes you do silly things!

Boca, Buenos Aires

On a nice sunny day, Steve, Els and I decided to trot around the Boca area, which is known for its bright coloured houses and dancers tangoing around you while you eat. As per usual, there were vendors of sorts trying to sell us stuff, but one man stood out. We referred to him as the ‘spidey man’ and ‘freaky Santa clause’. He wore a red cape-like outfit that had a skin tight mask which came to a point at the top with little bug antennas. His long grey-ish beard poured out of his mask, topped off with some sweet thick glasses. What did he try and sell us you ask?… magnets. Yes, ‘spidey Santa’ was selling magnets. Damn, I would have payed good money just to get a picture of him.

Following our visit to the Boca area, we attended a Boca Juniors soccer (sorry ‘football’) game, which was insane! The crowd jumped up and down with a new chant every 5 seconds and the fans for the opposing team in the bleachers above us threw everything they could find down at our area (ie. garbage, their clothes, chairs). We had to wait an hour after the game until the opposing team fans left the stadium from the bleachers above us (due to stabbings and such among intense fans). Well, the hot dogs were great!

Naked guys, Boca Juniors Game

A couple of the guys  decided to wait until the police were not around and get their photo taken (in the nude) in front of the playing field. High five to them!

Our last few days were spent staying in the Presidential suite at the Sheraton Hotel, due to the massive amount of Sheraton Points my father had. This place was bigger than my apartment in Toronto and had a jacuzzi, sauna, dining area and even a phone beside the toilet (for those important calls to make while on the can). So clever of you Sheraton Hotel!

Our last night, we had Steve over to our wicked pent house and he let us straighten his hair. But he was quite concerned that it would never go curly again. We reassured him that when he wet it, it would go back to it’s natural form. Although he was skeptic, he allowed us to spruce him up before our last night on the town by making him look like a little girl with shiny straight hair.

Gracias to Lucy for editing.