It’s Just Poison…

I woke up sometime around noon I think. Well, I was repeatedly woken up throughout the morning by other people in the room and the perfectly aligned sun through 3 different windows hitting me directly in the face. I actually wondered if they positioned the beds so as a cruel inside joke. Oh well. So noon is when I actually got out of bed.

To start the day out right, I popped a Claritin 24 and one of the knock-you-on-your-ass benadryl. I figured with a full nights rest, one of them shouldn’t really affect me…too much.

Nicole and I then headed outside to find a certain area in Buenos Aires called “Bond Street”. Here’s the neat part, it’s not a street. So asking around for “Bond street near the intersection of Santa Fe street and Rodriguez Pena street, and bond street isn’t a street” got some weird looks. To start the adventure off, I located the intersection that I was told to go to. I found it on the map in the back of my guide book, so we walked a few blocks and jumped on the subway six stops and then walked through what looked exactly like NYC’s upper west side to the intersection. The more and more I walked through Buenos Aires, the more I don’t notice it. It’s so much like nyc that I feel right at home. For the most part, I just thought I was in a part of nyc that I’ve never been to before that had a lot of spanish speaking people in it. The only difference is that Buenos Aires is waaaay cheaper. About a third of the cost. Very tempting relocation spot. New york feel and atmosphere, but without the ridiculous cost of living, and a much better climate. Something I’m seriously considering…

Ok, back to the Bond Street thing. Bond Street is a place that Gaz told me I would love. Supposed to be full of tattoo shops, metal-head stores, video game stuff, a bar, and all kinds of cool things. This is why I wanted to find this place so bad. After a few blocks of walking around the area we were told to find it, we stopped into a cafe to grab a snack. I had an apple tart and a coke (in a bottle…love it), and Nicole had a fruit salad.

A couple bites into the apple tart, I heard the voice, “Hey, remember that pizza last night that I told you not to eat?”. The bathroom was on the third floor.

Before we left, I asked our waitress about this mysterious Bond Street, and thankfully knew what I was talking about. In the mix of my less than perfect Spanish and her better-than-my-spanish English I got the directions. Turns out we passed it a couple blocks back. I guess in thinking “street” and not actually looking for a literal street I missed it. Her directions worked out perfectly. Bond Street turns out to be a mini-mall just like the one in Santiago. A bajillion tattoo parlors, and all the other deviant after-school kid hangout necessities. Though this one was much cooler. These people definitely 0wned this place. It was covered in graffiti, a lot of the lights were busted out, and there was various music playing all over the place. If you’ve ever seen Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the movie, think of the hideout for The Foot. This is the closest thing to that, that I’ve ever seen, except everyone is in their 20’s and early 30’s. I liked it =).

There was actually a more specific reason as to why I wanted to find this place, and the story starts with the discovery of Ushuaia, the most southern city in the world. It’s only a couple hundred miles from Antarctica. This was my next destination, and we bought the tickets back in Florida with the others. I had the brilliant idea to get a tattoo on the lowest part of my body (my foot) in the lowest city in the world. Brilliant! Here’s a mockup of my original idea:

It’s a simple outline of the lower area of South America with a bold star at the bottom pointing out Ushuaia. Well, after almost two weeks of sitting on this idea and mulling it over, I kept updating it and modifying it until I had a completely new idea. I wanted to get something iconic from every area that I visited all mashed into one collective piece. In the end, here’s what I came up with:

- Penguin (Ushuaia)
- Steak (Buenos Aires)
- Llama (Lima)
- Volcano (Pucon)
- Monkey (Rio)
- Coconut water (Rio)
- Pudu (Valdivia)
- Some Inca symbol (Machu Pichu)

A Pudu is a mouse-deer, worlds smallest deer and only found in Chile. It represents Valdivia because when I was drinking at the Bunker with everyone I was asking around for what is really Chilean. Matias mentioned the Pudu. Bam, pudu is was.

I would be taking a gamble with the penguin and machu pichu because I haven’t been there yet, but I figured I’d probably find a better (read: any) tattoo artist here than in Ushuaia or at Machu Pichu.

So we wondered through all the various tattoo shops looking at portfolios, or pictures on wall (that was the extent of a lot of portfolios) looking for someone that was half-way decent. Most of them were scratchers or copiers. Not too much originality. Then when I felt all hope for a nice tattoo, I stumbled in this one shop at the very top floor in the back with no one in it (most of the others were busy). The first thing I noticed about this guy was that he was a developed artist. Not tattooing necessarily, but he was gifted, creative, and definitely had his own style already pinned down. His name is Cray Fish. He turns out to be a world renowned graffiti artist that decided to move into the tattoo industry. His tattoo portfolio was ok, nothing really popped out and said, “woah!”, but I figured that was because I’ve been spoiled by being around some of the worlds greatest tattoo artists. What did pop out at me was his portfolio of graffiti. It was some of the best pieces of work that I’ve ever seen! This guy was awesome. I found my tattoo artist. A few minutes later and the artist, Cray, arrived. Nicole acted as a translator for us and I described what I wanted, “I want these items all working together somehow. I don’t care how it’s done, I just want it to be done completely in your own style.” We went over the list of items and he seemed more than happy to take on this project. I think he thought the collection of items was pretty amusing. There really isn’t a common link anywhere. After discussing placement and size, he told me to come back tomorrow at 1pm and that it should take around 3-4 hours. Seemed reasonable to me, so I shook his hand, left a deposit and then headed back to the hostel to get ready for some dinner (Argentinean Steak tonight!).

My dinner was awesome. Nicole’s on the other hand was plain gross. She ordered a salmon dish and the fish tasted not so fresh. She was also too embarrassed to send it back and get something else instead. So I did the dick move and told the waiter the fish sucked and to bring an order of the shrimp ravioli. This wasn’t exactly Burger King. When we showed up I thought there might have been a dress code just to get in. Anyway, the waiter took the fish and brought out a plate of the ravioli a little later (btw, the ravioli’s were “really good”… i don’t like shrimp, so I wouldn’t know).

After dinner, neither of us were feeling too hot, so we called it a night and headed back to the hostel to catch some zzz’s. This night was a little different than last night though. I wasn’t as tired, so I laid a sheet down first. Still no pillow. Still didn’t care.

Tags: Travels //