For the second time this trip, I've seen the sunrise in a foreign country. This time, my over-night bus was passing through Suipacha, an agricutural area about three hours outside of Buenos Aires. There were flowing wheat fields and young corn growing everywhere, and in between these crops were thousands of head of cattle. It was a farmer's paradise, and companies have flocked to this area for generations: Agrimex, Coincer, and Cargill. Argentina is, after all one of the world's largest exporters of wheat, and it's also home to some of the best steaks in the world. I've yet to have one, but I'm sure I'll be accomodated at dinner tonight. But I'd like to talk a little bit about Buenos Aires. I knew we were getting close to the city when big stores, like Wal-Mart, and Easy (the BA version of Home Depot) started popping up on the side of the road. And then came the fashion billboards... And then came the container stacks. Buenos Aires is - quite literally - the mouth of South America. It's situated on the Punta Indio Channel, a wide delta of sorts that serves as the main port of all of South America. Imports, exports, agricultural commodities, automobiles... You name it, it passes through here. And unlike Santiago, Buenos Aires has retained a bit of its Old World Charm, with European architecture and lovely city parks, it will be a pleasure to walk around the city later. Here's what I've got planned for the next couple of days. Tonight, I'm hitting up a bit of an "underground" tango show. I'm headed off the beaten touristy path to a small, out-of-the way place to watch what promises to be an authentic show at 9:00pm. (By the way, that'll be BEFORE dinner. Folks eat late here, and party even later...) Tomorrow, I'm headed out of the city to a town called La Plata. There, I'll be immersed in Futbol culture in a big match between the Boca Jrs. and La Plata. Boca is expected to win, and if they do, they'll be playing for the championship next weekend. It will be an eye-popping adventure. When I get back to BA, I'll meet my city guide for a tour of the city and I'll be stopping at all the important places, like Recoleta Cemetary, where Eva Perron is buried. She was a revolutionary woman and political figure, and if you don't know about her, I recommend picking up a history book, because Argentina wouldn't be what it is today if it wasn't for her. (You could even just rent the Evita movie based on Andrew Lloyd Weber's musical, I don't care... Just learn a bit, as she's one of the biggest historical figures in the country.) As I've been saying a along on this trip, I've come here with a bit of a bias: that Chile's economy is much stronger that Argentina's. My purpose on this half of the journey will be to test that theory. It's summer here in BA, and I would expect bars and restaurants to be filled, and people to be shopping on the streets... And I'm not just looking for tourists. How's the local population coping? I'll be trying to sift through some local papers to get a sentiment for how the people feel about the country's nationalization of $30 billion-worth of pensions. That's my plan, and I'll be in touch over the next couple days with updates on my findings.