Though I'm currently staying at a couchsurfer in Mar del Plata (about 5 hours by bus away from Buenos Aires in the south) I want to write a few more things about Buenos Aires.

The story of the mashed ladybugs
(Marienkaefer; mariquita; бо́жья коро́вка):
a few days ago a heavy rain accompanied by thunder hit Buenos Aires. 17 people died in the province of Buenos Aires and the news reported great damage in some places. However, at this time I found myself waiting for a couchsurfer traveler at one of the main places of the City of Buenos Aires, Plaza Mayo. For me it was just raining cats and dogs for about 20 minutes, nothing more. I got soaking wet and the streets smelled like mashed ladybugs. Yes, mashed ladybugs. It's a kind of memory of my childhood when I used to play with all kinds of insects (yes, I did). One day it happened that I mashed a ladybug (by chance, it was not intended) and the smell remained in my memory until now. Strangely enough, the streets of Buenos Aires were filled by the same odour after the rain.

Is it okay to be paranoide in Buenos Aires?
Sometimes yes, sometimes no.
Why yes: The thing is, that as a tourist you should not go to about 80% of the area of the City of Buenos Aires (according to locals living there and my Lonely Planet guide). As sometimes this circumstance is quite apperent I got kind of paranoide there. However, fear makes you alert and that's what avoids that your purse gets stolen. But this did not help me the day I went to Tigre where I had to take the train from the Retiro train station, a rather dangerous spot. Only a few minutes after I sat down in the train I noticed that my money bag was missing. I panicked, nearly hyperventilated until I found it in my backpack where I have never put it before until this day.
Why you should not be paranoide: The first days in Buenos Aires I had very much fear of the mosquitos which carry dangerous illnesses, according to my doctor. After talking about this with my ex-host Daniel who is still alive after having lived for 3 years by now in Buenos Aires without having extensively used the poisonous repellents I also stopped using them and got stung about 50 times (whereas Daniel got stung only 3 times during the same period)

Laughing about bats in Temaikén
Temaikén is a "bioparque" in nearby a city of the same name about 1,5 hours by bus away from Buenos Aires where you are surrounded by crowds of families and queues of the length of 0,5 km. Although it was really expensive I enjoyed the visit together with my Peruan ex-host Cristian very much. Located in a subtropical ambient we saw all kinds of animals except for elephants, stood under a glass ceiling over which glided rays (dt: Rochen, Ru: скат, Esp: raya) and laughed about bats hanging from branches using only one claw of their feet.

Dancing Salsa on the Streets of BA until 5.30 am
The last night in Buenos Aires I spent with my gorgeous ex-host Cristian who suggested to go to a place at the southern end of the centre of Buenos Aires in front of the national park Costanera del Sur. We got there around 23.30 pm where we "already" found people dancing Salsa. During the following six hours I learned and danced Salsa and Bachata (thanks to the patience of my lector Christian) alongside 15-years old youngsters, 60-years old gentlemen and twentysomethings, all dancing like professionals. It was AMAZING!!!!!
For the Salsa dancer among you: one day you have to go there!!!!

"Salsa Hangover"
After spending the night on the streets of BA I woke up later then usual and had only little time until my bus went to La Plata, where my next host, Gabriel, would pick me up and bring me to his home in Mar del Plata.

So I used the time to breakfast with my host Luciana who is a student and lives together with another male student. After she had edited an event of her in the Buenos Aires Couchsurfing Group I also needed some time on the Internet. You know, it's not so easy to get things organised if you travel with couchsurfing. It takes a lot of time to write the Couch Requests as they have to be personalised, funny and exact. Fortunately until now I always found a host. Initially I only wanted to surf women but to be honest; I think that's impossible!

After the breakfast we went to the Museum of Arte Latinoamericano in the district Palermo (the biggest and one of the safest in Buenos Aires) where we enjoyed an exhibition of interesting modern latinamerican art as well as one which was called "Bye Bye American Pie" and was interesting but kind of brutal too.

To take the bus to La Plata it took me one hour to actually get into the bus for various reasons. The following 1,5 hours weren't exciting except for the beautiful eclipse above the skyline of BA.

At the station of La Plata my current host, Gabriel, and his girlfriend, Julieta, picked me up and during the 4 hours sitting in the car we talked about couchsurfing, Mar del Plata, La Plata, Buenos Aires and also the "Desaparecidos".

Who are the "Desaparecidos"?
I am using wiki to explain it:
During Argentina's Dirty War and Operation Condor, many alleged political dissidents were abducted or illegally detained and were smoked to life and kept in clandestine detention centres such as ESMA, where they were questioned, tortured and sometimes killed. Whenever the female captives were pregnant, their children were stolen away right after giving birth, while they themselves remained detained. Eventually, many of the captives were heavily drugged and taken on airplanes far out over the Atlantic Ocean, into which they were thrown alive, allegedly with heavy weights tied to their feet, so as to leave no trace of their death. Without any dead bodies, the government could easily deny any knowledge of their whereabouts and any accusations that they had been killed. People murdered in this way (and in others) are today referred to as "the disappeared" (los desaparecidos), and this is where the modern usage of the term derives. There is an activist group called "Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo", formed by mothers of those victims of the dictatorship.

This period and the Desaparecidos remain present in people's minds.

A little information about my current host:
Gabriel is a 35 year old brewer and collector of all types of beer (I have never seen him drinking beer during the last 2 days). He speaks Spanish, English, French and even German (a little bit) and already visited Salzburg (and the Stiegel brewery of course). Originally he's from La Plata but changed his place of residence to Mar del Plata to work in a kind of beer manufactury (resembling Stiegel) which is called Antares. Obviously he loves his country (like all Argentines do as far as I know) and travelled many times especially to the south(west).
A great traveler too is his very sympathetic girlfriend Julieta (Jujú), a teacher, who has a great humour, speaks very fast and is can tell you millions of stories of her low-budget but extremely exciting journeys.
Both help me a lot with my travel planning, It's so great I've met them!! I'll stay with them until Thursday and then I am going to Puerto Madryn, a 16 hours ride by bus.

Okay... What else?

I am too lazy to describe you all the details but to cut a long story short:

- couchsurfing's one of the greatest inventions ever
- sometimes it's hard to be a "mochilera sola" (a sole female backpack traveler)
- I miss the Austrian tap water
- Argentine is as big as India so I will have to do a 27,5 hours bus ride in about two weeks
- Argentines are Mate addicts
- Argentine ice cream is absolutely yummy
- dulce de leche (kind of caramel) is heaven
- my shoes smell horrible

hope you're all doing fine!!!
I am happy about comments and messages (: