11-4-09 in Buenos Aires, Argentina

What an amazing day. Prior to leaving the Atlanta airport, I met three other volunteers with Operation Smile: Walt Peet, a surgeon and team leader from Montanna, Chelsea, a nurse from Seattle and Anesia, a nurse anesthesia from Florida. We were not together on the plane, but met up when we landed in Buneos Aires. I don't sleep well sitting up, so needless to say I'm a little tired. We waited for our luggage on the slowest moving carousel I ever saw. All of our luggage showed up which was a bonus.

I had a LONG layover in Buenos Aires. Some fresh brewed, strong airport coffee was the fix I needed. We were to be picked up by our hotel. We waited, and waited-well you get the point. After about an hour and nothing, Walt made some phone calls. Seems no one reserved a ride for us. So we had to take a taxi. Let the fun begin. The fare should have been about 100 pesos; however since there was 4 of us the price went up. We ended up paying about 228 pecos or $60. Not bad for a 30 minute cab ride. We got to our hotel and it was great. Little did I know there would be no sleeping today. We brushed our teeth and out the door we go. We left around 10:30 and got back at 4:30. Just in time to freshen up and head for the airport at 6:20

We had an amazing day exploring Buneos Aires with the short time we had. We took a taxi ride that took us through demonstrations against the government. You think the cabs in New York are crazy, you need to ride one here!!! We arrived at our first stop-an old cemetery which was totally awesome. We spent about 90 minutes there and then went to this great restaurant next to the cemetery Our bill for 4 was $67, which included steak for everyone, two glasses of wine and a beer. The food was incredible. The same meal in the US would have been double that amount. Below is a picture of Anesia and me having a little fun at the restaurant, the staff was great.