Back in BsAs

So about that passport hiccup, somehow rain had gotten on my passport, right on the photo page and caused it to fade, so much that I was told to go to the Canadian Embassy first thing in the morning. I guess the replacement passport needed to happen right away in BsAs instead of after I got home.

The process actually turned out relatively painless, save for the cost itself. From my hotel on Ave Corrientes, I decided to hop on the metro, little did I know the metro doesn't actually stop near the embassy - a bus or walking would've been better given that I'd even gotten off one stop too late. Nevertheless, once I got there, it was pretty straight forward. The receptionist spoke English and I didn't have to wait long to meet the Consular Assistant who went over my options, the forms with me and gave me a map of where I could take passport photos.

Between the photos and filling out the form, I spent my morning there before heading back to San Telmo to meet a friend for lunch. This time I took the bus after getting some info from locals. And then back to the hotel where I met up with another friend who lives there. Turns out she's Canadian so we headed back to the embassy before the end of day so she could sign a new form for me as my guarantor.

We had a funny moment on the bus, a story that I like to tell. My friend lives in Buenos Aires and speaks Spanish, but on the bus, she asked me if it was our stop. I looked around and my recognition memory jumped in. Yup, and we scrambled off the bus but not before she called out "Thank you" to the driver and I called out "Gracias!" Are we Canadian or what? And then language swap made us laugh so hard. I guess also it was reasonable she asked me the stop since she probably hadn't been to that location of the embassy. If someone asked me the same thing in Vancouver, I probably wouldn't know either.

Anyway, after leaving the embassy, we got back on the bus to explore the city. Initially we were going to walk through the Rose Garden and then up through Palermo. Mother Nature decided to unleash some wet weather though and we found ourselves running back to the bus stop after changing our minds. The thunder rumbled on as we strolled through the streets of Palermo Soho. Most businesses were closed, the pubs and restaurants still quiet.

We could almost tell when the storm would pick up again and found shelter under an awning of a street corner, watching the lightning, counting the seconds between the thunder and observing the rain levels growing to street flood levels. Though it didn't recede as fast as it came down, once the rain stopped, the temporary rivers of rain dropped into the drains by the curbs.

The skies would brighten up again as we wound away through the main streets, taking in the street art. Not as colorful as the ones from Valparaiso earlier this trip, but still very cool and creative. Another thunderstorm cell arrived and we sough shelter in a cafe just in time before it poured again, and then clear again. By now, the neighborhood was started to waken and become alive. Bars were filling up and hungry locals packing the restaurants.Read more