Rio - Part 2 & Buenos Aires

My friend Betsy from home visited me for one week. She was my only visitor the entire three months. Everyone else is a loser because you could have had a free place to stay and a local tour guide. She had one and half days in São Paulo before we headed to Buenos Aires in Argentina and then Rio.


Although Betsy and I have been close friends for over 14 years, we are very different people. We're nearly opposites, with drastically different personalities and interests. This poses a challenge when travelling together. These were the principal things I wanted to do:

• active endeavors, like kayaking in the lake and running



• go out to bars and meet new people



• dance at a club



• get a professional massage (so cheap in Argentina!)



• go to local, not-so-touristy spots



• eat healthy food, including sushi, fruit & fresh fish



• wine tasting



• lay on the beach



• see live music, especially because there was a music festival happening in BA at the time



• not spend too much money

And these are the things Betsy wanted to do:

• shopping



• bus tour of the city



• sitting at the hotel pool sipping a tropical drink



• shopping



• stay at a luxury 5-star resort (our 4-star one 2 blocks from the beach didn't make her standards)



• the major tourist destinations, like the cemetary with Evita Perón's grave in Buenos Aires and Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio



• eat at the American-style restaurants with burgers & anything fried



• shopping

And since she spent the money to visit me, I gave in to almost everything and agreed to do what she wanted to do. I wanted her to have a fantastic time. Luckily, we did have a couple common interests - getting good deals, laying in the sun in Rio, and enjoying affordable spa treatments at the Hilton in Buenos Aires. In fact, everything in Argentina is cheap in relation to the U.S. dollar. While in Brazil I'd generally cut the price in half to equate to dollars, in Argentina I'd divide by three. Which is why Betsy did not want to leave.

Highlights of our trip were Ipanema beach, very inexpensive food & clothing in Buenos Aires, and Pão de Azucar in Rio. I created a web album to chronicle our journey through photos. Check it out:

http://picasaweb.google.com/swiryn/BuenosAiresRioTripWithBetsy

Betsy was terrified of Brazil, based on horror stories & advice from multiple people back home. Betsy would walk down the street with my arm in arm so we would be able to save the other person in the case of attack, and every time someone came within 5 feet of us, she's tug my arm tightly.

One girl (who was actually born in Brazil) warned her not to talk or laugh loudly because it will alert people to the fact that we're American and thus make us both targets. It became a favorite running joke of mine that when we laughed, one of us would wanr the other sternly: "No laughing!"

Felipe especially loved these rules. He said if he visits America, he won't speak. Instead, he'll just use sign language to communicate.