Our favorite place was, by far, Confiteria Ideal. People actually go there to learn, meet new partners, make new friends, and generally have a good time.

We're sure there are other places to tango dance in Buenos Aires. In fact, there are probably hundreds of other places to dance tango, and learn tango, in the city - we just didn't visit those places.

Meat Eaters' Paradise

Now I'm not 100% vegetarian. I still eat meat, just very occasionally. I do eat cheese and eggs on a regular basis though. Because I don't consider myself super strict when it comes to meat consumption, I can generally find a few vegetarian options (3 or more) on every menu, at least in the United States.

Here in Argentina, it's a different story. About 90% of the restaurants here do have an option for vegetarians. The challenge lies in that there is only ONE choice. (Even a majority of the salads here contain some form of meat.) So, if you're not feeling like spaghetti for the 3rd night in a row, then you're out of luck. For example, three of the last four restaurants we ate in offered only one vegetarian option. All of them were a variant of pasta. (Pumpkin ravioli is the most popular option.) I'm not a huge pasta eater. I like it occasionally, and usually for lunch. However, down here, I have eaten more pasta than probably anything else.

The land that was once used for cattle to graze is apparently now being used for Soybean production, so they need to have more land available for use.

Not really sure how all that works, or who controls what happens in the provinces outside of Buenos Aires. There is a 400 year old history of the provinces not really getting along with the city/province of Buenos Aires, so the provinces may not care that much if their smoke is engulfing Buenos Aires. Difficult to say really.

One thing is for sure. Carrie and I don't smoke, but our apartment smells like someone smokes, and the visibility here is pretty poor at the moment. The smoke got REALLY thick last night, and has done some clearing today, and hopefully the fires will die down so that we can be without smoke once again.

(More interesting news is coming soon from the variety of things we've been doing over the past few days, but just thought we'd update you on the latest in Buenos Aires.)

Puerto Iguazu, the town closest to the falls, is the kind of place Carrie and I could live for a while. While a bit touristy, kind of like Estes Park in Colorado, it has a small-town feel and a welcoming atmosphere.

One thing we were surprised about is that Puerto Iguazu doesn't seem to have much fresh produce, which we thought it would, since it's in the middle of the jungle where lots of natural produce should grow easily.

When we got to our hotel, Hotel Esturion, we thought that it was going to be about $60/night cheaper than what they had listed online. We had thought, based on what we saw online, that we were going to have to spend $130/night. After requesting reservations online, we arrived at Hotel Esturion to discover that they did not have our reservation. But at check-in, they wrote down on a sticky that we would be paying $200 (pesos) per night. That equates to about $65/night for a room that sleeps three, and a pretty good breakfast (by Argentinian standards). Hotel Esturion is a nice place for sure.

We had a three person room, because we were traveling with Carrie's sister, Michelle, who came to Argentina for a week to stay with us and see what Argentina was like. We really enjoyed the time we got to spend with her!

I suppose this comes with living in a big city.

But it was actually rather comical. I was sitting at the table in the main room, and Carrie was in the bedroom with the twin beds.

Suddenly I hear this "Whoa! Whoa! Yuck!"

Followed by a couple of swats with what sounded like a flip flop.

Jonathan: "You okay?"

Carrie: "Yep. Cockroach."

Jonathan: "Yuck. Big one?"

Carrie: "Uh-huh."

So I get up and go into the room where there is a cockroach which has clearly been smacked because it's sort of oozing. (Sorry to be gross.)

Carrie: "I'm just surprised how fast it moved!"

Jonathan: "You're sure it's dead?"

Carrie: "Yep. I heard it pop."

Jonathan: "Want me to throw it away?"

Carrie: "Yes, please."

Jonathan: "Sure it's dead?"

Carrie: "Yep."

So I moved a suitcase to get closer to pick it up. Despite the oozing nature of it, the thing took off and freaked both of us out.

So I asked Carrie for a bigger shoe.

Carrie: "But I heard it pop."

Jonathan: "I know. I saw it oozing."

A few solid heel swats later with a dress shoe, and the cockroach was definitely dead.

Mostly, he just freaked us out with his erratic moving. We didn't know just how crazily or fast a big cockroach moved.

I wrote a poem/limerick (below) in response to this incident.

It's really the best way to see things, and really experience the place where you're at.

(Not to mention the health benefits of walking.)

So, this post will catch you up on what we've been up to over the past few days.

But first, since most of the visitors to our site are American (and Americans are notoriously bad at geography) and because it might help someone wanting to visit Buenos Aires, we'd like to offer a little refresher about where in the world we are, and familiarize you with the neighborhood a little bit.

But up until now, we have been having some big issues with our Buenos Aires Apartments. We went through a real estate agent who is from Buenos Aires and is based out of Florida.

We told her that we wanted a nice place that was quiet (and obviously clean, if we were going to be paying $1400 or $1500/month for the time we were here).

The apartment we originally had reserved, we got talked out of and got talked into this one. We saw that it was on a busy street, so we asked (before confirming our reservation) if it would be noisy. The real estate agent confirmed that it would not be noisy.

When we got to the apartment, it was both noisy and dirty.

We'll answer that soon...

2. What's the weather like? Is it summer there?

We're in the southern hemisphere, so the weather is the opposite season as the northern hemisphere. This means that it is just the beginning of fall down here. So, just as we were beginning to see the very first buds and even a flower or two right before we left Colorado, we are just beginning to see the leaves change colors and drop from the trees here in Argentina. The weather is still rather warm (high 70s to low 80s), and pleasant. It is definitely more humid here than in CO (but it's hard not to be).

March is the rainiest month here. We've experienced a few rainstorms. The rain here is very different. It comes down in sheets. It downpours for about 20-30 minutes, and then stops. It might do this 2 or 3 times during the night.

3. What's the food like?

"You're staying at like, a resort, right?"
"How did you get that much time off of work?"
"Do you have friends who are Argentinian?"
"I'm sorry...How many weeks did you say you're going for?"

Most of these questions revolve around the basic question that no one's really asked directly, which is:

"A six-week "vacation" in South America? How Is That Even Possible?

We hope that by our example, we inspire others to do similar things in their lives, but here's the real answer to the question no one's asking directly.

How Is This Possible?
-------------------

In a lot of ways, I don't really know what to tell people about the idea that we're spending a good deal of time here in Buenos Aires.

Most people's lives are based around working a certain number of hours every week or every month at a JOB. That job is usually based in a specific location.

Emily and BoRyan (friends who are down here), are fortunate to have jobs with a company which allows them to work virtually.

But most people have that traditional job which requires that your life be structured around your work.

So, we've been in Buenos Aires, Argentina, a total of four hours.

And here are the most important lessons we've learned so far...

Lesson #1: Language Learning
No matter how much you listen to language tapes, (at least beginning ones), nor the help offered from friends and family who soeak a language (thank-you SO much for spending the time with us Laura) they just don't prepare you for what you'll need to know to get around.

So, we'll be struglling our way through our minimal Spanish (just as we've both done in German), screwing things up, probably offending people (on accident of course), and working to laugh at ourselves the whole time.

Hopefully we'll be able to convey the experiences well enough through our writing on this site to be able to have you laugh at with us as well.

Lesson #2: Taxis and streets

And we realized over the past week that many people don't know this, so here it is...

We're currently sitting at Denver International Airport, waiting for a flight to Dallas.

But Dallas is our connection.

The final desitnation, as the title of this post would suggest, is Buenos Aires, Argentina!

We will be living and working there.

The most common question we get when we go to travel somewhere is:
Why?

Because we want to experience what it's like there.
We'll be living and working in Buenos Aires, as we do at home, but will be experiencing what it's like in a different place.

Thank-you to everyone who has supported us in taking care of things at home while we're gone. We REALLY appreciate you!

So, here's a quick overview of Buenos Aires, as well as approximately where we'll be staying (in Palermo, which is a district of Buenos Aires).

Oh, and it's 1 hour ahead of the Eastern time zone in the US, so it's three hours ahead of Colorado.

A little Friday afternoon fun.

We're totally nerds.

Take a look.

Here is Carrie's Nerd type:

What Be Your Nerd Type? Your Result: Literature Nerd   Does sitting by a nice cozy fire, with a cup of hot tea/chocolate, and a book you can read for hours even when your eyes grow red and dry and you look sort of scary sitting there with your insomniac appearance? Then you fit this category perfectly! You love the power of the written word and it's eloquence; and you may like to read/write poetry or novels. You contribute to the smart people of today's society, however you can probably be overly-critical of works. It's okay. I understand.
Musician
Social Nerd
Drama Nerd
Artistic Nerd
Gamer/Computer Nerd
Science/Math Nerd
Anime Nerd
What Be Your Nerd Type?

Oh yah, Jonathan's a total nerd too.

And there are probably some people who are going to watch this video and think, "So what."

Having prefaced it with that, I think this is super-cool, and offers a neat explanation of how 3D Games and Television may develop in the future.

I wouldn't say I hate them, but January 1st is a date.

And a New Year's resolution that is marked only by a date is, by its very nature, a finite thing. Any time you are externally motivated to take action primarily by a date, the action you want to take and the results you want to achieve must be short-lived as well.

In other words, January 1 is not a good time to set a goal to "get in shape" or "be financially free" because it's created without the "resolve" to make it happen (resolve is at the root of resolution), and the plan of action to bring it about.

So, if what you have been doing with your resolutions in the past has worked for you, you can stop reading now. Keep doing what's working.

But, if the process you've been using for setting goals and resolutions for a new year hasn't been working for you in the past few years, and you want to do some really great things this year, here's my advice for how to accomplish them, based on things I've learned over the past 6 years.

(And just so you know, I'm not getting all preachy here... I'm definitely not. I have been just as guilty of falling into the trap of too many unfulfilled resolutions as anyone. I'm just sharing something which has worked well for me in projects and goals I've worked on.)

1. Don't try to accomplish them, AND
2. Start VERY small.

Start small and pick just one thing that you do every day.

January
Get in shape = walk to the end of the street and back every day
Become financially free = earn (not save) $1 extra every day
Find your dream person = say hi to one stranger every day

Get the idea?