Chanda, Todd, and Nick, out and about in B.A.

Journal by Todd Borgie

Work was on the agenda all day today. Yes we are fairly boring here in Buenos Aires, working on Education stuff, sponsor deliverables, and generally anything that comes up. Nick, Chanda, and I are trying to get ahead of the game so the next half of the expedition will be a lot less demanding. We are certainly looking forward to all the upcoming sights.

I have been working on the educational pages, trying to get a better format that will be easier to use, and a more straightforward design in terms of navigation. After traveling for four months, I have realized the difficulties in keeping stuff updated from the road, and also what I have to do to get ahead of the game in the future. I have also had time to reflect on what has worked, what is confusing, and how I can improve the site. The education program is a lot of fun, but web work is extremely tedious.

In the mornings, I am usually the first one who wakes here; occasionally Chanda will wake up before me, but not usually. Chanda has been patiently waiting for her laptop to be repaired; a mishap with gravity has led to great agitation for her. She has to wake up before Nick in order to use his laptop; Nick usually gets up at about noon, as he is synched up with the workday in the United States, in particular he is synched with California, which is five hours after us.

Anyway, after five or six hours working on the computer, three cups of coffee, two cups of mate, and a Roquefort calzone, Chanda sprung me from this cyber jail. I am the Spanish speaker for all of us, so I get to go on all the cool and not-so-cool errands. Today we were headed to the American Airlines offices, trying to secure inexpensive flights to Australia for the team. The great thing about these errands is when I go with Chanda, we always get coffee and desserts; when I go with Nick, we either get coffee or a beer. Besides the treats, I think it is just nice to stretch the legs and check out this beautiful city. I am always up for the adventure, and I love quests.

Anyways, we started out with dessert; a nice lemon merrangue gave me enough juice to talk to the airlines. Unfortunately, American Airlines couldn’t help us out unless we were to fly through the United States, kind of a long way around to go from Argentina to Australia. They were sorry and sent us off to Lan-Chile and Qantas airlines, as they have direct flights. Unfortunately, the airlines keep more regular business hours than other stores. Oftentimes, stores close here in the afternoon for a siesta, and then reopen at about 4:00 p.m., at which point the stay open until about 9:00 p.m. Unfortunately, this was not true of the airlines, which closed at about 5:30 p.m. We got directions to the other airlines, but found them all to be closed.

There is a giant obelisk in the center of town. It looks a lot like the Washington Monument in D.C. A couple of weeks ago, we met a fellow named John who said there was a hostel here called the Lime House that was a lot of fun. Getting tired of hanging out with the married folks, I decided we should figure out where this place was. All we knew was that it was somewhere around the obelisk. We walked to the obelisk and started asking around. Once I ask more than two people, it becomes a mission to find whatever I am looking for. Much to our dismay, no one had heard of it. We started asking in the Internet cafés, frequent hangouts of travelers, but after two of them, we found no love. Finally, we ran into a fellow that sent us in the direction of a number of hostels, a couple of blocks away, but we still couldn’t find this seemingly fictitious Lime House. It was then that we ran into a Norwegian woman and guy from Saratoga, CA. After talking to them for about 10 minutes, we told them of our mission to find the Lime House. They said that the Lime House was just around the corner, less than twenty yards away. Having gone this far, Chanda and I ducked in to see what it was all about.

This place, although not very fancy, was great. It had a big common room where everyone could hang out, a pool table, and couches that various people were sitting in reading books. It was not hard to strike up conversations with fellow travelers, despite the loud music playing on the stereo, and before I knew it there were about eight of us in the front room playing guitars and chatting. There were people from England, Germany, South Africa, Peru, Australia, Ireland, and the United States. We all spoke English, and sometimes we would slip into Spanish. We had a ball just hanging out, being goofy, and swapping stories from all over South America. Talking to travelers is always fun and informative. Everyone has wild stories, and laughs are guaranteed.

Topics ranged from politics, the plummeting dollar, to travel spots, and making fun of each other’s countries. Chanda introduced the topic of birth order and found that the crowd was mostly made up of youngest kids, which in psychology is characterized by a do-your-own-thing, playful attitude. Hanging out with the young ones is always fun, sometimes much to our older siblings' dismay.

I began giving a guitar lesson to a Brit (British person) named Jo; we had a lot of fun just goofing around. Suddenly hunger struck, and people began to filter out for dinner. I had no idea what time it was, but I had caught the hunger vibe as well. Jo and I had to complete our guitar lesson, but we said we would meet up with everyone a little later. Chanda went home at one point, but I was having too much fun to leave. Apparently Jo and I missed the rest of the group but found another corner restaurant and had raviolis and grilled cheese. I am always surprised at the hours people keep here, because as Jo and I were walking home, I looked up to see a clock reporting 4:30 a.m.; I was surprised but then remembered were I was. The restaurant had just closed at 4:00 a.m. We got back to the hostel and things were still in full swing with at least half-a-dozen to a dozen people hanging out.

Jo is heading down to Patagonia, but she offered to let me take her guitar while she is traveling down south. Great, I hope she has a wonderful trip there, and look forward to seeing her when she returns. Soon after, I was on my home, with a guitar and another great evening under my belt. I love traveling!

Help support our cause: The LONGITUDE Expedition is the longest journey ever attempted with a focus on Parkinson's Disease. The Drive Around the World team aims to raise money for Parkinson’s Disease research by driving four certified pre-owned Land Rover Discoverys around the globe following lines of longitude. Readers are encouraged to pledge small amounts of money per expedition-kilometer via a pledge form that can be found on our Parkinson’s page by clicking here. 100% of donations received go directly to Parkinson's research and all who donate $10 or more will be entered into a raffle to win an expedition-equipped Land Rover Discovery.