Arrival in Tucumán

After a whirlwind tour of Cordóba, my friend Allison and I left yesterday for Tucumán. After a 10 hour bus ride, we got here and stayed at a hostel for the night. Of course before going to bed we needed to grab some food at a local pizzeria. Our friend Dara arrived this morning at Tucumán and we´re heading to meet up with a friend who has family in Tucumán today.

After my trip, and probably more likey after I return to the US, I will write about everything that we did here. But until then, give the Wiki a quick glance for facts and interesting stuff about Tucumán.

Arrival in Córdoba

I arrived this morning after a 9 hour bus ride in Córdoba, Argentina. We´re touring the city for the day and then will hop on a bus tomorrow afternoon and take off to Túcuman.

I´m passing through, so if you want to read about Córdoba, I suggest skimming the WIKI Article.

Temaikèn Zoo

The flamingos inspired me to do some painting/sketching. This is a colored pencil drawing done on a sketch pad.

Matt, Lindsay and I went to Temaikèn Zoo on a federal holiday a few weeks ago. This was about an hour and half drive from Buenos Aires by the #60 semi-express bus. This zoo was one of the neatest zoo's I've ever been to, however I might have to have conversations with my zoo-expert-cousin-Anya to completely verify my claim to its greatness.

The cool part of the zoo is that it is much larger than most zoo's since it is not in a downtown section of the city. I think this is a much more humane way to have zoo's, especially since it still can serve its educational purposes and increases the overall health of the animals. Also since the collection focuses on local species, it helps educate people of the wild life around them instead of the typical zoo collection.

I really appreciated the fact that this zoo focused on mostly exhibiting species indigenous to South America. I was especially impressed of their collection of South American fish, too. The flamingos were a highlight and definitely inspired some creative juices, as you can see one of my paintings on this post.

This sign greeted us as we went into the zoo.

We had a lot of fun, and I took a lot of pictures. Make sure you look at the gorgeous flamingos. I also thought the pictures of the little bird underneath a four-footed-friend was particularly interesting.

NBC Today Show's Matt Lauer Visits Buenos Aires

On the NBC Today Show there was a special this morning as Part of the segment on "Where in the World is Matt Lauer?" focused on Buenos Aires, Argentina. I had known about this ahead of time through a friend who was doing some ghost writing, but it was funny that several people from the US contacted me about it via email throughout today.

Lauer stays mostly in Buenos Aires, but does trek to Bariloche Patagonia. Through the segment they touch on Tango, Argentine Beef, the legacy of Eva Peron, wine, and many travel tips.

NOTE: One inaccuracy was the price of the taxi from the Airport. Its about 20-25 US dollars to get from Ezeiza International Airport to Buenos Aires.

If you missed the segment, I highly recommend you check out their web site. If you have high speed internet, you can watch the whole segment from the internet.

WARNING: You might impulsively want to buy a ticket an visit Argentina.