theendoftheworld; otherwise: engaged!

so, we got here to buenos aires and looked around and ate some steak. its really good here, and unbelievably cheap. we also drank a ton of wine, also startlingly cheap. we met up with my godfather, cesar, who hooked us up with an apartment right in the center of town, a block away from the congreso, if you know BsAs. its a great location because its busy and convinient without being touristy. we were very happy with it all and spent 2 weeks strolling around and drinking cafe con leches and whatnot. glorious after those endless month of horrid nescafe.

but then the weather turned bad, like torrential storms every day, and there were all of these annoying little biting bugs all over the place. one night i found 1578300057399 on our ceiling, and i killed them all, which anthony thought was crazy, but it felt good. on the 5th day of the downpour, we decided to get out of town. we went to the bus station and bought a ticket to mendoza: wine country. we figured we´d only stay a few days and come back, but in a moment of foreshowdowing, i packed 11 daily vitamins. sometimes i think i know things, without really knowing them.

so we got to mendoza, which was pretty. after a few days, however, we realized it was awfully boring. but for some inexplicable reason, we stayed on for 5 nights. 4 of those nights were spent in an intolerable hostel with a broken bathroom and absurd backpàckers. they listened to sublime and hopped around, drinking mate and headbanging. no really. most of them talked about how they were traveling forever, never going home. whatever. and to think, i used to actually like sublime.

but we went on a wine tour, which was cool. and to a pretty park. oh, and they sell wine in their mcdonalds.

anyway, for some reason we decided not to go back to BsAs immedeiately, and we went to bariloche, in the lake district of patagonia. 19 hours away by bus and completely worth it! it was the most beautiful place ever. the weather was chilly and sunny, like nice late fall, and we climbed little mountains, took gondolas, and ate ice cream. at night we cooked stews and hung out in our cozy, heated hostel. it was really great, and insprired us, after 4 nights, to see more of patagonia.

so we went to puerto madryn, but realized there was nothing to do in the town itself. so we booked a tour of nearby peninsula valdez and a bus ticket out the next morning. the landscape, though, was incredible. all flat, with a low, horizontal sky. the sun was weak and it felt like winter, but in the best way possible. and the tour was cool, we saw penguins and a whale and ostrich like things and a million other animals i didnt know existed.

then we took an extremely fancy bus back to BsAs. it had been 2 weeks since we had left and id run out of vitamins. the buses here are glorious, i actually look forward to them. so we got back here and the weather was still grey but we were happy to be back in our little apartment. we joined a gym and made a pact to get diesel before coming home.

then, a few nights after we got back, we went out to a famous cafe, cafe tortoni. nice place. then we decided to go eat steak and drink wine in a restaurant. on the way we had to cross the widest street in the world, 9 de julio, with 16 lanes and green walkways with statues and fountains. out of nowhere, as we were crossing, anthony insisted we sit down under a statue of a disembowled horse. i couldnt understand why, but it was actually a nice night and a pretty view, sitting there in the middle of the street, with the lights of cars whizzing by and the fountains and trees and all. BsAs really is very pretty, in a city sort of way. so we were sitting and anthony was acting funny, shifting around alot. we got to talking and anthony said some stuff and then took out a little black box, the velvety kind, the kind that all women, no matter how un girly they try to be, love. inside was a beautiful white gold amythest ring, and with it anthony proposed. nice guy. i, of course, accepted in .01 of a second and he put the ring on my finger and we felt very surpised and new and giddy. we sat a bit and eventually waltzed off to call parents and eat steak. life is good.