I got robbed!

But all is good. Here's the quick and dirty story.

I returned to BA from Patagonia, and checked into a flea bitten hostel in Barrio Norte, a sweet neighborhood with lots of restaurants and tree lined streets, right near bustling Santa Fe street which is the border of lots of cool neighborhoods. After a week of heat and sharing a room with 5 others, some friends and I moved across the street to this other hostel that was kind of hidden. It was a total gem and the people running it became great friends - three siblings, the oldest this gorgeous lady who is also a semi famous entertainment reporter on a show like the Today Show, the youngest a great girl who is an entertainment journalist, and the middle guy a total Argentinian stud who turned out to be a great buddy and excellent BBQer. Asado - Argentinian BBQ - was a weekly event, where everyone in the hostel would get together and feast on great steak, blood sausage and chorizo and also drink tons of great wine.

The hostel was large and airy, used to be the grandmother's house. There were only 10 rooms and I got a solo room so I could get some sleep. Only $18 a night, with a discount for long stays. I'd end up there for a month. There was a fun, small number of people in the hostel, and we all got to know each other well. It was really trusting, and it was a new hostel, and the family was also incredibly nice and helpful. The only problem in retrospect was that it was too lax at the time. Key to rooms were kept out in the open, hanging above the reception desk in easy reach if someone leaned over the counter.

One night, we went out to the birthday of a friend of the youngest daughter, Vero, and had a blast. We stayed out till about 5am. Probably one of the most fun nights out in BA for me because we went to a local's house, and met tons of people, did a little dancing, which I have realized I am horrible at. Back at the hostel, Lucas, the brother, was manning the desk and he apparently went upstairs to have a few beers with some of the guests.

There was this guy who had checked in a few days earlier who threw the great vibe off just a little. He was about 45 years old named Carlos from Colombia, but worked in Bolivia and Brazil. He was in BA to visit his son, but he never really left the hostel. Ugh, in retrospect, all these things were so stinky, we all felt we should've smelled it. Anyway, I got in the habit of locking the door to my room, even though I hadn't been doing that before he came. So, we went out, and the door was locked. It was weird, because we were talking with the thief before we left, and we was acting weird, saying he wanted to go to a swingers club and showing some of the others pictures on his phone. He said, "Jeff, go to a swingers club!" I was like, okay weirdo, and didn't think more of it, tried not to judge - I'm traveling just like everyone else.

When I got back, I went into my room where I had left my computer on my bed powering up. It wasn't there. Another friend from the hostel who I had traveled to Antarctica with would sometimes go into my room and grab the computer to use it when I wasn't, which had been cool with me because we were good buds.

I got a bad feeling, but went over to my friend's room and woke him up, hoping that he had the computer and had forgotten to put it back, which he wouldn't have done. He didn't have it. I found Lucas and asked him if anyone had checked out, and sure enough, Carlos had checked out that night at like 2am saying goodbye to Lucas and telling him he was going to stay at a girlfriend's house. In his bag unbeknownst to Lucas was my computer, camera, ipod and watch. Arg! Things started to come back, like how he wouldn't drink wine with us, and was always around. I think he was a pro, pretty calculating. Even the swingers club thing was probably something he did to make us think he was weird and leave him alone or something.

Still a little drunk, which was probably a good thing, we called the cops and spent the next two hours in the police station filling out a report. He had also taken a Swedish girls camera, which had been left in the common area. The police really don't do anything apparently, even though we had his passport number. It was funny, because when this guy Carlos had checked in, Lucas said to me, "do you think there's anything shady about that guy?" I was like, hm, not sure....

I was tempted to go to the swingers club he had mentioned to stake it out and see if he showed up. I also wanted to go CSI on him, and even check his pillow for any hairs he had left. Then I wake up - wait a second idiot, you're in Argentina and the cops are playing cards right now at the station and eating empanadas, and Carlos is getting ready to sell your computer right now, and taking pix of some swingers with your camera. The dude was from Bolivia and probably had a fake passport.

So, there it went. Not a big deal, and now I'm not on the computer as much which is a good thing. He didn't get my passport or phone, but the only bummer was I had a ton of great pix and videos from Antarctica on the computer. F- it, the images are filed away in my wooden cabeza. The family at the hostel felt really bad about what happened, and obviously changed the process for getting keys to rooms, and let me stay for the rest of the month for free. In retrospect, it's been a positive experience and something I won't forget. The things aren't important, and now I travel with more finely tuned hackles up and a lighter bag. Obviously stuff gets stolen from hostels all the time. I was stupid not to lock my stuff in the locked room every time I went out. This guy will probably head to another hostel and lurk till he gets another opening. I got off lucky - some other folks in the hostel were held up at gunpoint on the street a few weeks earlier.

The rest of the month was great, I saw some incredible music called La Bomba, took a tango class, and some spanish classes, and of course ate incredible food. I also visited Mendoza, the wine region in Argentina, where I checked out some Bodeguitas, which are wineries.

Back in BA, I got the hang of the city, which is huge. I played some indoor soccer with some friends who live in BA, went into the google office once more, and also went to an incredible football game at La Boca stadium, called La Bombonera. Maradona, who along with Pele was probably the most famous footballer ever, played for Boca and the games are pretty legendary, so it was a cool experience, though I'm not huge into soccer. The fans in the Boca section don't sit the entire game, and also never stop singing. The whole game. So cool. Afterwards, security lets the other team's fans out of the stadium first, and then Boca fans can leave, so violence is avoided. To stick it to the Boca fans, the other teams fans stay for 30 minutes after the game singing their own songs, which Boca fans just sit and wait.

Here's what it was like - we were right in the middle of the singing:



Saw some great live music too, including the most amazing accordian music Ive ever heard - I know, accordian? - but it was off the hook. And also some great percussion. I planned to practice my Spanish pretty seriously, but got pretty sidetracked hanging out with friends and not practicing Spanish. But its improved a little, very little. I learned what a Perro Viejo is. I looked at some apartments, thinking of buying down here with brutha Dave since it would be easy to rent out with Lucas helping out, and lots of Googlers coming down to live and work in the office here, but I didn't pull the trigger. Real estate is relatively cheap here, and it'd be fun to have. Maybe I'll get serious about it a little later.

I just met this cool guy from New York, and we have been chatting about each other's travels. He's waiting to get into law school, and telling me about all his friends who've been laid off in NYC. Lots of guys in finance working for investment banks, and tons of lawyers are out of jobs. Its a great time to be traveling, and I'm incredibly lucky. I asked Googs for more time off, which was pretty unrealistic, and they said uh, naa. 4 months off have been going pretty quickly. Anyway, this guy from NY asked, so, in your time, what have you learned? What have you realized? Great question and fun to stop and munch on it for a bit.

At the end of BA, I got ready to head to Rio, hearing tons of stories about how unsafe it is. This big Russian guy told me that he was on a rented bike in the center of the city, and this kid came up and played with his handel bars while he was at a stop sign. Suddenly, behind him, another kid grabbed a necklace he was wearing and pulled, choking him and drawing blood. Another kid tried to grab his backpack at the same time. The chain snapped, and he dropped his bike and grabbed his bag and the kids kind of ran away a bit, then turned and looked at him a smiled for a while. Being Russian, he just nodded and smiled back. "So watch out, Jevv," he said to me.

But my friend John Stassen came here and had a blast and he still has all his necklaces. And brutha Brad lived here for a year in a freakin favela, which is a tent city, a step above a slum. People try to freak you out all the time, with tons of warnings and horror stories, that you almost don't want to go...and its hilarious once you arrive and are able to. Though its good to be careful...I had heard stuff got stolen in hostels all the time, but that didn't stop me from getting my stuff stolen....

I'm here in Rio now and its been amazing. More on that next time. Much love!