Date Written: Feb. 02, 2002 4:02 p.m.
Current location: Buenos Aires subway station
Subject: The Arrival in BA...the night I almost got mugged

Friday, Feb. 01, 2002 (con't)
I only have a few minutes. I'm on my way back to the hostel right now to meet up with everyone to go to a soccer game. It should be GREAT!! Wow, what a night I had last night!!! I wouldn't even know where to start. I got to the hostel around 10:00 last night. There was an anti-government demonstration on the corner near the hostel (there is severe economic turmoil in Argentina right now...the economy basically collapsed just over a month ago and the result has been major political destabilization...I think they have had 5 different presidents in the last month). There were a bunch of people just burning stuff in the street and blocking traffic. It was a very weird thing to see. There was no violence or anything, just a "peaceful" protest. I didn't film it and now I'm pissed about that. Anyway, I'm almost to the hostel so I have to hurry on with the story.
I met a bunch of people in the hostel after I got there. We all hung out and drank and go to know each other. There was Joe (Israel), Matt and Patrick (Sweden), Hugo (Switzerland), Joe and Ruth (England), and myself. There were a few others but I forget their names at the moment. I got everyone on tape though so it's all good. We all went out to this bar called The Kilkenny, which is an Irish pub. I ended up hooking up with the girl, Jo, from England. Me, her, Ruth and Matt went back to the hostel around 5:00 a.m. I went to get some beers...almost go mugged...and we all hung out for a few hours drinking in the hostel while the sun came up. It was one hell of a start to the trip. I will try to tell the tale in more detail later. For now, I gotta run.
Quickly...went to Ricoleta today...checked out the cemetery, the park, and just walked around. Very cool area but not as many people out as I would have thought...more later.

HERE IS THE DETAILED VERSION THAT I WAS ABLE TO WRITE UP IN A LATER JOURNAL ENTRY.

Okay, I never finished telling everything that happened back on the first night here. Basically I had arrived at the hostel around 10 or so, even though my plane landed at around 8. The airport is pretty far from the city (probably further than IAH is from everything in Houston) and also I had some difficulty figuring out exactly how to get to the hostel. I was a bit worried about walking on the streets late at night because I had EVERYTHING on me at that point and I had read the hostel wasn't in the greatest area. I paid for this bus service that gets you to the city center but then you have to wait for a van to take you to your final destination. Well, the company that provides the van uses specific street boundaries for how far they can take you and the hostel was 4 blocks outside of this. Anyway, the espanol kicked in as a good helper right from the start. There was me and one other girl in the van (she was nice girl from Argentina whose name I forget) and he dropped her off first. I basically just talked the guy into taking me all the way to the hostel which he did. I gave him a couple of US dollars (which have TONS of value in Argentina right now) so it was all good.
Well, when I got into the hostel, there wasn't really anyone around. The place is called Che Lagarto and is a cool hostel to stay at if anyone is going to Buenos Aires I checked in and went about my first order of business. I grabbed a beer from the bar in the hostel. I didn't even take my bag upstairs first. I figured I had plenty of time to have a beer or two, shower, and then be out at the bars by one, which I knew was probably early for down here. Anyway, there was a nice girl from England at the little hostel bar too. She was writing e-mail on a computer that they had right there. We chatted for awhile. I can't remember for sure but I think her name was Sara...she will come up again later. After that, I sent a quick e-mail out to everyone so they would know I was all good and had made it. It sure took my a long freakin' time to get there, but I was ready to rock. There really wasn't anyone in the common area of the hostel besides Sara and myself. A bit later, this girl from Portugal (who never told me her name...but I called her S) came in. She was quite a character. She actually had a mohawk that looked pretty freaky. She was cool though. After that, these two guys (who would later become key players in the Buenos Aires portion of the trip) Matt and Patrick showed up. They had been out at soccer game in a Buenos Aires suburb. I asked them if they wanted to go out that night and they said they were down. I decided to go up for a shower and to settle in, and we would meet back in the common room in about an hour.
Well, it wasn't the best shower of my life but it would do. There were no lights and it was pretty dirty. That's all good though. You gotta love the hostel life. I can take a shower just about anywhere, but as some of you may know, when it comes to #2, I can be pretty particular. I made a mental note to try and notice if there was a nice hotel or restaurant in the area:) Anyway, I got all cleaned up and headed back downstairs to meet up with the guys. They weren't ready yet and no one else was really around in the hostel accept these two girls whom I hadn't met before. They were hanging out in the common room so I sat down with them. It turns out, they were these two girls, Jo and Ruth, from England. It was their last night in Buenos Aires and in South America. They were at the end of a 5 month trek through all of South America. That is just awesome. Damn, I was jealous. Anyway, they were sitting there pretty mellow, and I'm like, "If this is your last night, you better be ready to step it up and go out with a bang!" (no pun intended). So I took it upon myself to make some plays for these girls. I went down to the corner store and bought a bottle of vodka. It was actually this vodka limon stuff that looked pretty cheap but it was all they had. I wanted to buy OJ to make screwdrivers but all they had was Fanta Orange soda. Whatever works. So I went back up to the hostel, made up some drinks, put on some good CD's and we got things started. Over the next 2 hours, more and more people from the hostel joined us. It was AWESOME! I got some good footage of all of us that night. There was about 10 or 12 people from all over the place. I had named the ones I remember before.
Anyway, that night, just before we went out, a very significant thing happened, but at the time I didn't know it. There was this one girl and this guy who were not drinking with the rest of us so I hadn't noticed them until we were about to leave. Well, when I saw the girl, I was like "Holy Cow, THAT girl is freakin' gorgeous, I better get her on camera!" Well, it turned out that she was this amazing Colombian girl named Johanna, that, as most people reading this know, would eventually become probably one of the most influential people in my entire trip. Anyway, that night, I was like, "I gotta get this girl to come out with us." Well, she wanted to roll but her friend didn't and since she hadn't really been hanging out with us all night, she didn't really feel comfortable going. Well, that was much to my dismay, that is for sure.
So as I had mentioned before, about 7 or 8 of us all went out to this Irish Pub called The KilKenny. I guess we didn't even get there until around 2:30 or so. The place was really cool though and we all had a blast. I remember Patrick was falling asleep in the bar towards the end and it reminded me of Tony. So when we were at the bar, I could tell that Jo girl from England was interested in me but I needed someone to play wingman because her friend Ruth was there. So I go up to Matt and I tell him that I need a wingman and he's like, "What's a wingman?" (Try to picture that line being said with a Swedish accent and it's a lot more funny) So I explain to him the concept of playing wingman and he says he is down. Man, I gotta tell you, he was probably one of the best wingmen ever. It was like he was an old pro. He did a great job occupying Ruth's time which opened the door for me. Eventually everyone left the bar and headed back to the hostel accept the 4 of us. Matt even played wingman so well that he hooked up with the girl Ruth. He told me later on, "I really like this playing wingman!" It was hilarious.
So we finally headed back to the hostel around 5 or so. I was still going strong and so was everyone else. Well, there was a little bodega on the corner down the block from the hostel so I decided to go down there and get some beers for us (since I was the only one who spoke Spanish) while everyone else headed inside. By the way, I'd just like to pause at this point to put a little emphasis on the fact that it was five in the morning, and I was able to purchase beer. What a great country! So I get down to the bodega and the guy is like, you can buy beer but I have to put it an a plastic container. Well that took a couple minutes so I was just chatting with the guy. He kinda liked me and told me that while I was there to come down to his place and he would give me discounts. Cool I thought, even though he was probably just ripping me off anyway. Either way, a liter of beer wasn't even a buck so I really didn't care. So I grabbed my 2 liters of beer and turned to walk back down the block to the hostel. Well, just as I turn, I see this guy...check that...this KID who couldn't have been more than 17 coming at me with his hands raised as if he wanted to fight. Well, to tell you the truth, I didn't really know if he was coming at me or not at that moment. I mean, I had about 3 seconds to register what was happening and decide what my move was gonna be. Add in the fact that I was bombed and holding a liter of beer in each hand and became a little more difficult situation. I'm just looking up and thinking "Is this guy coming at me? I mean, I don't really see a weapon so maybe he isn't coming at me. Should I just go around him like nothing? Should I drop these beers and just swing at him? Should I swing at him with the beer? " Well, I decided to just step around him and keep going. Well, he turned around and started following me, so I had no choice but to turn and face him. Well, I did that and he stopped a second and was just looking at me. So I just mustered up the toughest look I could in my inebriated state and just gave him this "What the hell do YOU want!!??" stare. Well, at the same time, the bodega guy is yelling at this guy to leave me alone and stuff. So the guy and I lock eyes for a couple seconds and then I just turn around and keep walking. He didn't follow me so I got back in the hostel with no trouble. It was pretty weird though. After I got inside, I was like, "Did that guy just try to mug me? I mean, what the hell was that!?" The guy had no weapon and he didn't really seem like he was gonna do anything, yet he seemed to think about it because in hindsight, there is no question he was coming at me. Man, he needs to go back to muggers school. It was all pretty comical really.
So I got back inside and told Jo, Matt and Patrick the story. It was funny. We all sat up until about 7:30 or so drinking, talking, and watching the sun come up. It was an EXCELLENT night all in all. I had met a ton of great people, hit a great bar, and already had hooked up...and it was the FIRST NIGHT. Man oh man, it was gonna be a great trip.

AC