The final days of our motorcycle Odyssey

Bright and early in the capital city, the four of us took a cab that dropped us off at our hostel. This was the third time we were staying there so we knew our way around. Cut from civilization for four days in the Sierra de Cordoba, we all spent quite some time catching up on internet and then after a quick breakfast, took a shower to both freshen up and wake up a little. It was now time to enjoy another sunny day in Argentina, wondering along the streets of Buenos Aires. We were looking forward to showing our friends this European like city.

In the sacred office of the President of Argentina

Walking north along the widest avenue in the world, we turned left towards the congress building that none of us had seen yet. Oddly enough, after the first block, we saw a few cars stopped in the middle of the street and noticed that they had fake French license plates. Only when we heard “Action” and that everything around us started moving did we understand that we were on a movie set, with the scene taking place in Paris. They had to do the take several times, with tourists pretending to enter a Parisian tour bus and we watched the set for a few minutes, amused by the coordinated ballet of people and vehicles. Not only is Buenos Aires called the "Paris of South America" but it seemed to be similar enough to France that a movie could be filmed here. We continued our walk, wondering if we should have asked to be extras on the set since we looked like tourists and were actually French.

After a quick bite at a cafe that as well could have been in Paris, we arrived at our first destination, the Congreso Nacional. It was an overwhelmingly big building with a big square an a fountain in front of it. It was neither ugly nor beautiful: just an impressive official building. We walked more in the city, admiring the architecture of the buildings, Aurore and Arnaud telling us that they really liked the city. Before going back to the hostel for a nap, we went to buy a few things for the party we were invited to. Andres, the guy who now has Chad's motorcycle had invited us to celebrate his wife's birthday. Before heading out to his place, we looked for a nice place to enjoy one of our last Argentinean steak and ended up going to Desnivel, a really good choice. We watched the grill master preparing the meat and explaining to us the different cuts. We each went for a big and juicy steak as tender and tasty as can be. Man, we will miss the meat! The party afterwards was pretty fun and in a very nice apartment right across the street from the Vatican Embassy. It was nice to meet Andres' wife and celebrate with everyone.

For our last day in Buenos Aires, more touristy activities. We wanted to go to the San Telmo Sunday market and as we reached the Plaza de Mayo, noticed that the gates of the Casa Rosada where the President works were open. You could now visit the house on weekends, guided by the official guards. Pleasantly surprised, we entered the big pink building, visiting the different official salons. We also went outside on the balcony facing the big Plaza de Mayo and from which famous political figures had addressed the country such as Evita. We were being silly, just pretending to make a speech from the balcony to an almost empty square. The highlight of the visit was to be able to enter the President's office, a large and formal room with a huge fireplace. It was cool to think that on week days, Cristina or Mrs. President was sitting all the way over there. Right before exiting the building, we were quite impressed by the shaded and relaxing palm tree inner garden: this building had places you would not suspect from the outside.

Teresa and Lucrecia sending us back to the USA

The rest of the day, we walked down the San Telmo market where tons of people, locals and tourists alike, were checking out the stands lined up on each side of the street. We bought a few things to take home and tired after all this walking and street shopping, the four of use sat down on the side walk, enjoying a Cafe con Leche. Across the street, an older gentleman, claiming to have been a famous Tango star, was dancing alone on the sidewalk to the sound of his music. All dressed up in his formal suit, he looked so elegant, turning and confident in his Tango steps. The only thing missing was a partner! It was now time to say goodbye to Aurore and Arnaud: it had been a real treat to spend almost a week with them, since we had met them all the way up in Misiones. They had made this last week so much more enjoyable, taking away from our minds that were were about to finish the trip. We wish them luck and hope that their around the world journey in the next year will be as good as ours.

Through the windows of the bus, we were taking in our last images of Buenos Aires, a city we had really enjoyed. We were on our way to La Plata for our last two days. Teresa and Lucrecia had kept for us the things we had not needed for the last ten days traveling by bus. We were really looking forward to seeing these guys who had been so good to us since we had met them. The only sad news is that Lucrecia had to go under the knife and would not be home for another day. The good news is that the operation went well and she would drive home the next day after resting at her parents' place for six days. We took Teresa out for dinner to thank her for all her kindness and wishing that Lucrecia would be there as well. The next day went by so fast as we slept in and had to run a few errands in the afternoon. When we came back to the apartment, Lucrecia was home. Finally we were all together, ready for a party the girls were having to send us off to the States. It was a great party and during the evening we had a fun game where people had to answer questions about our trip. This was the best thing we could have hoped for to close this adventurous chapter of our life.

We packed all our things, sorting out things that we no longer needed or that were too used to be worth taking back. Happy to see that everything fitted in the two pieces of luggage we had, we carried them downstairs. This was it: we would leave in a few hours. It felt sad, even if we knew that it meant seeing family and friends soon. How could a year have gone by so fast? How could this be it? We were lost in our thoughts and emotions when Teresa called us for lunch. They had outdone themselves one last time, with homemade ham and cheese pie and delicious pickled eggplants that Lucrecia's Mom had both made. Delicious and almost making it harder for us to go since we would miss shortly all these good things. This is when they pulled their last surprise from the freezer: a kilo (2 pounds) of ice cream, four flavors each one having Dulce de Leche in it. These ladies were just perfect, there is nothing else to add! When we finally stopped eating, they took us to the airport for our final destination in Argentina.