lindsay traveling

Generally, I like to travel slowly. A couple weeks here, a few more weeks there. I like to get to know people, discover some favorite spots, and people-watch in parks without feeling like I'm wasting precious time. That's why I decided to split my five weeks in Argentina between only two places: Buenos Aires and Mendoza.  Argentina is huge and diverse and spectacular, I realized, but cramming as much as possible into five weeks would not be enjoyable to me. I preferred to skip some places in order to really enjoy others. I'd explore Buenos Aires first , then spend a week with a friend exploring both Buenos Aires and Mendoza, then stay in Mendoza to WWOOF at the end. Or so I thought. I'd found an awesome Mendoza WWOOF gig: a sustainable community filled with likeminded people from all over the world. Well, it will be. When I met my future host in Buenos Aires, he explained that he had bought a huge plot of land, and was just starting to give pieces to interested...

As sad as it was to say goodbye to Bolivia , I really expected to like Buenos Aires. I'd always heard good things, and I'd always wanted to visit. I was ready to be wowed. I booked a hostel in Buenos Aires for five days, then quickly decided to extend it another week. Then five days more. When I left to explore other parts of Argentina , a big part of me wanted to skip all that and just stay. I wasn't surprised that I loved it. But I was surprised by just what I loved... 1. The parks. I was so lucky that my hostel was walking distance from two amazing parks. But the more I explored, the more I realized it wasn't just luck -- the city is full of them! People are running, bicycling, practicing yoga, teaching boot camps. People are having picnics and drinking mate with friends. People are feeding birds and literally stopping to smell the roses. Shady benches are actually available and people actually sit and read for a while. And when you're on vacation an...