Uruguay and T.Y.'s visit

So in December Tyler had said he would love come down and visit but it just wasn't going to be possible. Then I think that a combination of an overwhelming amount of snow and of exams in Vancouver took their toll and he agreed to come down for a South American visit. He wanted to meet in Rio, however, had I stayed in Rio any longer my body would have shut down and I was already planning to be in Buenos Aires by the time he had reading break (yes, that is what we call it at UBC). Problem was, although BsAs is a spectacular city and a delightful place to spend a subtropical vacation there is, contrary to popular belief, no beach. Argentina isn't really renowned for its beaches either. Neither Tyler and I had ever considered going to Uruguay (I actually looked up Uruguay on the map about 6 weeks ago while reading Shake Hands with the Devil... one of the main characters is Uruguayan) but I kept hearing they had sweet beaches... half a day's travel from BsAs.

Tyler arrived on Sunday and proceded to have the best meal of the trip, perhaps of his life (at least the best steak of his life...). I guess we forgot to save the best for last but we didn`t realize it would be THAT good. We went to a place called Cabrera on J.A. Cabrera in Palermo... about five blocks from where we were staying at Ale's place. (A quick aside about Ale... anothe couchsurfing friend who I had met originally on the beach in Rio - a spectacular host who inspires me and furthers my belief that it's possible to be a lawyer and still be really cool. She has a beautiful apartment in Palermo which she graciously opens to visitors almost everyday of the week and best of all a turtle, or perhaps a tortoise, named Jules who is 22 and whom she has had that whole time. He has free run of the place and acts more like a dog than a tortoise. amazing.)
So back to the restaurant we sat for over two hours just drinking wine and trying to breathe enough to stuff our faces with an amazing huge pasta, a gargantuan steak and a bunch of sides... we did it. Well, I didn`t quite finish the pasta but Tyler, the trooper that he is, about did the steak. Eventually I will put the photo, it is spectacular. After that we went back for a quick but much needed nap before attempting to go see a Boca game... but only expensive tix were left (just wondering around amid all the craziness, people in the streets shouting and police and riot gear was still really cool). We did get to see a River game before we left... River and Boca are BsAs' two biggest soccer teams. It was quite cool though I think slightly more tame than Boca because it is in a nicer neighborhood. The neighborhood that we stayed with Simone, Caroline and Lynn actually. They have a beautiful place and are great sharers: mate, fernet (they taught us ALL about what to do, and not do, with fernet - argentine liquor of choice).
They also had all the luxuries - hair straightener, Orbit gum (gum in SA is a joke... the texture is awful), the Office downloaded on a laptop, AC... man it was like an oasis.
We all went out dancing (twice) on Saturday and danced and danced and fought with glowsticks and I got escorted by the cops to an ATM because we ran out of cash.
Tyler and I had a great time and I am so glad he came. I think he agrees, minus the sunburn.