So long, Buenos Aires! Here’s what’s next for us…

Today we leave our lovely apartment and go back to the reality of backpacking with an 18-hour bus ride to Iguazu Falls, a gargantuan set of waterfalls, spanning Argentina and Brazil that was recently named one of the new Seven Wonders of the world.

From there we head back to Buenos Aires for a quick couple of days before taking a one-way flight to Patagonia for a whole lot of hiking. I was starting to get bored (and out of shape) in BsAs, but I think Patagonia will be a nice, quick, difficult fix.

After bus-ing our way through the region, we are heading to our first WWOOF gig of the trip! We’ve wanted to work with the organization since we decided to take this trip, and I’m so glad it all worked out. We sent so many emails and got so few responses that it wasn’t looking good for a while. But huzzah! We’re going to be working on a potato patch, and cultivating fruit and jams in Argentine Patagonia. I’ll be sure to report back when the time comes.

Once we flex our green thumbs, Eaman and I will split up for two weeks of solo travel. As much as we love each other and enjoy spending time together, we both agree a little independent time is important. So, I’m going to Colombia (!!!!!!!!) after hearing so many wonderful things about the country and Eaman is staying in Patagonia to do some plan-as-he-goes exploring.

After that, we’ll meet up in Panama and spend a week in the Caribbean — life is so hard, no? Then it’s time for Hawaii for my cousin’s wedding (where I’ll see all my family!), hopefully another WWOOF gig and a semi-steady job because it’s certainly not cheap to sit on the Hawaiian beaches sans income!

So there it is. All that planning required a ton of what we call “admin days,” but it was well worth it. We’re totally psyched with this itinerary! And I love how a lack of advance planning can result in such great surprises; I didn’t think I’d have time for Colombia, and we never even considered Panama previously. (These extra countries added between Chile and Hawaii was a function of wanting a cheaper flight. A straight flight from Santiago to Hawaii was almost the same price as adding in more countries in between. So why the heck not?)

But before I totally close the chapter on BsAs, I need to reflect. I had high expectations for BsAs. How did it stack up?

Well, let me just say that this city was built for Eaman. Steak, soccer, wine, mate, late nights, gaucho culture, expat entrepreneurs — BsAs just spoke to him. I had a more complex relationship with the city. I don’t like red meat, I hate wine and mate, and I have trouble staying out past midnight. (It’s a good thing soccer is one of the few sports I actually like to watch.)

But my mixed feelings run deeper than food and sports. I felt like living in the city — one with so many similarities to big cities in the U.S. — made me regress from the many ways I had moved forward in Peru. My neuroses about my career, relationships and personal struggles all came to light. Plus, I felt like it was too easy to slip back into my old, angry New Yorker ways. (Sidewalk rage, anyone?) In general, all those frustrations were self-inflicted, but much like my experience in NYC, the city brought out the worst in me.

Not only that, but I had too much time to dwell…and lose sight of the present. I had to remind myself that just because I wasn’t scaling Machu Picchu-like mountains didn’t mean I wasn’t traveling. I had to remind myself to appreciate the quiet moments, too. Remind myself that life is awesome?! That should never happen.

At times I thought we spent perhaps two weeks too many here, but that’s not true. In these last two weeks, we solidified great friendships — something so hard to do when you’re moving around — and met fascinating people, who made quite an impression on us. We may not have seen a ton of sights in BsAs, but we did connect with others more than we could’ve imagined being in an apartment on our own. That, I’ll really miss.

And that got me thinking… Here, a list of the things I will and won’t miss about life in the city, in no particular order:

Things I Will Not Miss About Buenos Aires:
- The sweaty subte (subway)
- Clutching my purse for fear that I’ll be pick-pocketed anytime, anywhere
- Eating steak three to five times a week
- Being coaxed into starting my night out at 3 a.m. Even if I prefer being in bed by midnight
- The difficult-to-understand Spanish
- Omnipresent dog poop
- The prices – sometimes comparable to NYC (!)
- Constant temptation to buy shoes

Things I Will Miss About Buenos Aires:
- Merienda (tea time) at girly cafes
- The ability to drink tap water and eat raw veggies
- Dulce de leche
- The plethora of golden retrievers
- Blogging frequently
- Clean toilets with soap in the bathrooms
- A kitchen
- Not having to use my travel towel
- Skipping the bars to cozy up to the TV, catch up on blogs and relax… because I can
- The friends we made, especially the girls because I love me some girl talk
- Pekin pizza