A Break from Buenos Aires

One of the reasons that I haven't posted on my blog for so long is because we had a long weekend, and my friends and I went away. 5 hours to the south are some beach towns, and my friends and I ended up, somehow, at Villa Gesell. We stayed at a hostel--7 of us in one room, albeit with a private bathroom--which was 5 blocks from the beach and 3 blocks from the main avenida. We wanted to relax, eat empanadas and get tan, and we succeeded.

The beach was really nice, and although there were lots of people on it due to the perfect weather it was still great. I read two books on my Kindle (thanks parents!) and got some sun. And by some sun, I mean that I tried to be very diligent with my sunscreen but I underestimated the power of the sun. My legs burned very badly and I'm pretty embarrassed about it. However, one of my friends snapped a picture of my tan/burn line, and it's also pretty impressive:

Here are some friends tanning on the beach, a view of the beach and a beached sea lion that we found:

On Saturday night, after dinner and hanging out at the hostel we decided to stay up to watch the sunrise. This was good idea #1 of the trip. We went out to a bar at 4 AM because that's what you do in Argentina. This bar, Keep On, was empty when we went the night before at midnight, but this early in the morning it was almost packed. We left around 5 and got to the beach around 5:30, and sat and watched the sunrise at 6:40. We went to bed at 7 AM. Of course, my camera died before we actually saw the sun but other friends got great pictures. I think this one is also pretty fantastic: 

My favorite part of the trip, however, was the last day when we ended up playing soccer on the beach with some Argentine guys. This was good idea #2. Anyone who knows me knows that I don't play sports with balls, but as I sat shivering on the beach, I figured this would be fun. I ended up saving a bunch of goals and making a few, and it was so fun to meet these guys. Of course we talked in Spanish. After the game ended, they invited us to meet them at a bar later that night. Which meant 2 AM. We got drinks and danced until 5 AM when we had to leave to head back to the hostel to catch our bus back to the city. That was the second all-nighter we pulled IN A ROW. I was exhausted and slept on the bus and basically as soon as I got back to my house for the rest of the afternoon. The good news? These guys all live in Bs As as well so we're planning to meet up with them for dinner at one of their houses. Top row: Walter, Ivan, Anna, Jeremy, Forlan, Jenna, Kara, Makeda. Bottom row: Daniel, me, Gerónimo. 

Still peeling a week later, 

Rachel