Bs.As!

B.A. -- This is a big place. Nice, too. Forty million people live in Argentina. One in three live here in the port. And why not? Buenos Aires is the self-proclaimed cheapest metropolis in the world (so far, so good); it has the parks, subways, and sleepy bookshops a major city should and the weather is comfortable. Somewhere along the way, someone had the splendid foresight to plant leafy deciduous trees along the broad avenues. They´re now huge, so immense, in fact, that negotiating around this seething metropolis on motorcycle is like carreening through a gridded forest grove. Though the trees are large, the very streets they line are even more so. The main drag spans some sixteen lanes. Coming across the continent to get here has paid off in spades. Yesterday, Sunday, most with family or at church, became a day for a polo match: Four on four, each rider armed with a sleek croquet mallet mounted on a horse (heck, stallion!) more glistening and muscled than the next, trying to push a grapefruit-sized softball into an undefended goal. It´s like hockey on pedigreed horses with an infusion of fine wine. The whole affair was curiously upper-middle class. Like a jam band concert, the throngs of people cadging beers and chattering outside the match were a healthy part of the spectacle. Sunday is indeed also a day for leaving the backpack behind and going exploring. The adventure of going to and from the match -- that is, romping the throttle off a stockcar countdown green on the widest boulevard this side of the equator -- leaves Buenos Aires the finest megacity I have ridden in. I would balance the bike and begin quickly stretching my bones at a red, like a boat waiting for the water to begin rising. The sweep down stream starts slow and builds as the furthest signals flick green. In rushed concentration to navigate the stream of traffic, the very same streets would seem completely different while on foot the next day. The night before was exhausted until sunrise in a churning multi-floor dance club settled twenty minutes outside the city center on the river delta. I´ve never, ever seen hips move like that. Tonight, we tango. (No, not like that! Not together! Watching! Maybe a lesson! Sheesh ...)