There's no place like home

Yes, I'm back. Didn't have time to post again before I left, but I have stories backlogged in my head that I will try to produce in entertaining form. For now, I will just make a few observations.

Did you know:

• ...that you can purchase a vacuum-packed side of beef at the duty-free shop in the Buenos Aires airport?
• ...that the egg tacos at the Chili's restaurant in O'Hare airport are the best FREAKIN' meal ever when you've been on an airplane for 12 hours?
• ...that Buenos Aires supposedly has the highest rate of plastic surgery in the world, and if I lived there I would probably have to shop in maternity stores in order to clothe my size-8 body?
• ...that it is apparently possible to make a living as a travelling knife sharpener, riding the streets of BA on a bicycle which converts to a pedal-run cutlery sharpener, and playing a set of pan pipes to call out potential dull-bladed customers?
• ...that in Argentina you can buy shoes and purses made from the spotted, leather-like skin of the world's largest rodent, the capibara? Each item is genuinely unique because the bellicose capibaras leave so many scratches and scrapes on each other's coats during fights.
• ...that during avacado season in Chile, it is possible to purchase over 20 pounds of avacodos for under $2?
  

For the record, I did not buy any rat-leather shoes. I did eat a whack of avacadoes though.