Juan the Porteño and Pinamar

As much as I am fascinated by, and in disbelief of the nocturnal habits of Porteños living in Buenos Aires, I may have started to acclimate to their lifestyle.

I started the weekend on Wednesday night, joining my Londoner friend Rosi to a trendy, but laid back place called Acabar in the barrio Palermo for a few drinks until around 2am. The next night, my friend Mike (Texas) and I met up with two other American girls, Kara and Tara, at a funky place in Palermo called Mundo Bizzaro. Before we knew it, it was 4am. Finally, Friday, night, I had dinner with Karina and some other acquaintances I'd met in Iguaçu at a great parilla called El Desnivel for my second, sabrisima, dinner there. Afterwards we milled around for a bit before deciding to return to Mundo Bizzaro again, and stayed out until 4:30 in the morning.

The catch was that early on that Saturday morning, Mike and I were scheduled to take a bus to the Argentinean beach resort of Pinamar. I rushed home and packed for an hour until 5:30am, crashed for an hour and a half before miraculously waking at 7. After calling to wake Mike, I met him outside of the bus station with 5 minutes to spare before our bus left.

The ride to Pinamar was some five hours that I don't remember, I was fast asleep the entire time. We arrived to a partially-wooded, warm, sunny town with beautiful homes and quaint dirt roads. It was a welcome descanso from the noise, traffic, and polluted air of the city. On top of that, the temperature was a perfect 74 degrees and was a relief from the oppressive heat and humidity that I was used to falling asleep in every night in Buenos Aires.

The beach and the water were pristine, and the relaxation brought back memories and saudade of Brazil. The hostel was right across a dusty lane from the ocean and the entire town was accessible on foot. Saturday night we toured the town's main strip, which had all of the shops, restaurants and clothing stores you'd expect in a beach town. But it also had countless "upscale" car dealerships (only displaying the models) and sound-system specialty stores, each model accompanied by its own good-looking saleswoman. Needless to say, Pinamar is a playground for Argentina's upper-middle class.

The sunset brought with it the coldest temperatures I'd experienced on my whole trip, though not unlike those at the beaches in California at night. After eating at another sumptuous parilla, we listened to a live band playing on the street in front of a bar. It's a strange feeling to be in the southern hemisphere, in a Spanish-speaking country, listening to a rock band play Nirvana songs in English, nonetheless, it was a good time. After another 5 hour bus ride, it was back to the city, the heat, the pollution, and my daily Spanish classes.