argentina!

so we arrived here in argentina a little less than a week ago. we spent about 5 days in buenos aires before deciding to head north to iguazu falls.
i have wanted badly to come here, argentina and to buenos aires in particular, ever since i fell in love with julio cortazar about 7 years ago when i read his book hopscotch. somehow buenos aires was not what i expected... i don´t know how i feel about the city just yet, and i realize that i was there for too short a time to form a clear picture of the spirit of the city and it´s people. but i can say that i did not fall in love with it in the way that i expected to. i did not recognize the buenos aires of cortazar and borges.... don´t get me wrong, it is a very beautiful and vibrant city--but it failed, initially, to inspire the awe that i have felt upon discovering great cities like bangkok, saigon, paris, or madrid. perhaps i am just not feeling like a city-mouse right now. i don´t particularly want to be anywhere that has valet parking.
the women in buenos aires made me sad. apparently buenos aires has an unusually high rate of anorexia and bulimia--the highest in latin america. many of the young women on the street are painfully underweight with little or no muscle-tone. it depressed me a lot, seeing all these bony girls with boob-jobs in skimpy tops and high-heels. i can´t relate to that picture of femininity, and beeing around it makes me kind of heart-sick. i really wish women would stop making themselves throw up.
now we are north, near to the border with brazil, and the iguazu falls. i like it here. the town is small and very mellow. people smile at you on the street and there are many stray dogs who are all low to the ground with pointy faces. tonight we went to our first parilla, a bbq of sorts where they feed you meat and more meat--chicken, pork, beef, and sausage--til you beg for mercy. we decided to eat at this particular restaurant because we had been there in the afternoon yesterday to have a snack, and we were very impressed with the family who ran the restaurant and their kindness towards children and animals. they let stray dogs lounge in the shade of the patio and the woman proprietor gave a bag of bread to a little girl who was asking for food. there are not many business owners in this world who are kind to hungry or tired children or animals.
emerson got the full parilla, with about 6 appetizers and all the meat you can eat for 18 pesos, or 6 dollars. i got spaghetti and a salad and we threw the meat scraps to the dogs. the food was not amazing, but it was really fun and relaxing.
tomorrow we are going to the falls all day. we will take pictures.