We Are Sugar Band

Thursday morning we all felt a little sick from wrecking our bodies, so we decided to go for a run. We walked a few blocks to where there are a lot of parks and along the way saw the starting line for this huge cross-country race that's going on called Dakar, so the area was full of people. We ran through the crowds for about half a mile, stopped at a park that had pull up bars and what not, then ran back. Along the way we saw a guy walking his Rottweiler, and this dog probably weighed at least 130 lbs. We ran by it, this dog was taking the biggest dump I have ever seen exit a dog or any other mammal for that matter. No joking, it was probably had the volume of half of a volleyball. We have been laughing about this everyday since, not only because of the act itself but because the owner was either too afraid to pick it up or just did not care, which seems to be typical here.

Thursday evening we went out to a great café a block away from our hostel. I ordered a some kind of grilled chicken with fried potatoes, Luke ordered an excellent pizza, and Chris got some kind of white fish. When we order, we rarely know what it actually is that we order. We've been laughing a lot about the smirks we get when speaking spanish. A few people look annoyed, some confused, but most look a little humored. We also had a great local merlot.

After dinner we went to Hostel Suites Palermo, the host we checked into Friday morning, because we met some Brazilians who invited us to come hang out. We found them out back with a group of people playing "shithead", some competitive card game. At the table were the three of us, two guys from Colorado and Texas, a girl from Turkey, a guy from Norway and his fiance from the US (who met here and literally 48 hours later decided to get married, which we thought only happened in chick flicks and Las Vegas), 3 or 4 Brazilians and a girl from the US who graduated from Cal Poly in 2001. We got sick of Shithead and dropped a American culture bomb on them, introducing them to King's Cup, a very animated drinking game with cards. They loved it. Luke spent the whole night making stupid Turkey puns, and we did our best to learn as many Portuguese words as possible.

The next day we checked into Hostel Suites Palermo, and Turkey organized a trip to Puerto Madera, which is an area the three of us were the first two nights. It was the three of us, plus Turkey, Cal Poly, and two Brazilians. We took the subway over and walked about 6 or 7 blocks so that we could walk along the port. In the subway, somebody attempted to rob me because it got really crowded and after checking my back, it had been slightly opened. The passengers on the train at first were concerned and told me to wear it in front, then after things were okay they started smirking and laughing with each other. Along the way we saw the President's house and took a few photos. We settled down for lunch at this place in the port that was hard to describe, but kind of luxurious, trendy, elitist, something like this. Half of us ate while sitting in lounge chairs. The service was great and so was the food, and at some point during this meal we all came up with funny nick names. The nicknames go like this: Luke is Cream Cheese, Chris is Doce de Leche (Portuguese for Dulce de leche), I am Honey Mustard, Cal Poly was Choco, Turkey is Butter, one Brazilian is Pudding and the other Brazilian is Cheesecake. Don't ask how they came up these hilarious names, but we have been using them overkill since we got them. Then Cheesecake decided that we should be a band, and she came up with the name Sugar Band!

Eventually we split up, I went back because we had laundry to pick up before closing, and three others went to La Boca just to sight see. Once we got back Cheesecake and Pudding wanted to go to the Dakar starting line to meet up with their father, so we tagged along. The place was crazy with tons of people everywhere. Walking back, we passed three cops standing out of this armored tank-like SUV that was rad. Luke took a photo with them wearing one of their hats, and then the cops posed with the Brazilians. Luke yelled out "Queso!" right before I snapped the photo, which made them laugh because we are pretty sure nobody does that, we just thought it would be funny.

Eventually we came back at about 9pm and napped until 11. The three of us gringos went to another cafe a few blocks away and had a very excellent dinner, splitting a pizza and drinking café. When we came back, we basically decided not to go out and instead played a few games of King's Cups. Everybody went to bed a little earlier this night because we were so tired from getting no sleep the night before.

Today, we slept in, then got up and grabbed some breakfast. Right now, Chris is shopping for these sweet Brazilian sandals and in a few minutes he has to leave to the airport. The plan is for us to go shopping with some people from the Hostel because Luke needs some obnoxious shorts and better-fitting Speedo, and tonight we are going to an apology party for how poorly organized New Year´s was, even though we had fun. We will update with the details later. Here are some pictures:

Left is a photo of Francisco and Nally, and me after a very satisfying meal.

That´s it for now. We have more photos but are kinda rushed. Next time, you can see Sugar Band. Adios.