Goodbye Africa, Hola America del Sur!

While sad to say goodbye to Africa, we were excited to make our way to South America, as our first and only taste two years ago in Peru left us wanting more. And on the more romantic side, it`s also where we got engaged (ahhhhh). We first flew to Buenos Aires, where we were again spoiled rotten by some amazing friends with a superfun hotel in a trendy district and a knock-your-socks-off tango show. Oh la la...

What an insanely great introduction to Argentina and our South American wanderings. Watching the tango has us committed to learning that dance. It will likely take us all our lives, but WOW, it is something to behold. I`m not sure if we`ll be able to comply with the lack of facial expression that it requires, though.
What a city! Buenos Aires is amazingly beautiful. A lot like Paris (there are even bidets in the bathrooms!), as all the guidebooks promise, but with Latin flavor. And it´s definitely a night-time city. Most people don´t even think about having dinner until after 9pm, and restaurants often stay open until 2am or later. Crazy. Thank God they serve breakfast until the civilized hour of 11:30. Our first few days, we wandered the city eating too much and drinking our weight in red wine. We particularly love all the dog walkers and the great street graffiti. We almost had a *really* racy start to our time in Argentina when a language mix-up had our hotel thinking that we wanted to know where all the strip bars were (we had asked about where to find a strip of restaurants and bars). Doh! To their professional credit, they did not do much of a doubletake, but simply clarified whether we really wanted to know where the nudie clubs were before offering recommendations.

In any case, no time to linger over cappuccinos and medialunas, because we`re off on a 20-hour bus to meet Kristina in Brazil. Whooppee! We are fairly confident that the busdriver will be wearing a standard-issue Copacabana thong. The friendly folks at the Brazilian Consulate in Cape Town, where we got our visas, had ubertight pants and hypercool glasses, so we can only hope! Eric has been doing push-ups in anticipation of having to fend off the capoeira dancers and defend beautiful and blonde Kristina´s honor on an hourly basis.