Last night we met with a local group of interesting expats for drinks. Some of you may know there is a U.S.-based group called Drinking Liberally. As the name suggests, the group began as a place for liberals to meet, drink and socialize. Below is the U.S. map of organized chapters. Come to find out, a local group of expats started their chapter in BA about three years ago.

Drinking Liberally Chapter Map

To get there, we jumped on the 111 bus about four blocks from our apartment at around 8:30 and headed to the restaurant 20 blocks or so away. These buses travel at warp speed in a driving style similar to mine with a heavy mix of steroids.

So for us, hanging on while looking for the street signs to know where to get off results in at best a 50/50 chance of coming within a three to four block radius. At nighttime it really is just intuition. Knowing when to hit the stop buzzer is everything. We just made the odds last night with a three-block walk. Remember we are still relatively new at this.
The group was varied, shop owners, business types, travelers, bloggers, young and old, men and women, about 20 in all. Most of the expats have been in BA several years. I sat next to a 40-something Apple application writer visiting from London for two weeks . Everyone welcomed the newcomers and was generous with inside information about the city. We even talked politics. Mike is the organizer: http://www.yanquimike.blogspot.com/ and we sat near Frank, who was very interesting and knowledgeable with a thriving business selling sweets to companies large and small: http://www.sugarandspice.com.ar/.

Around midnight we made our way back to the stop for the 168  bus ride back to the apartment—a sobering experience in itself. We found our way to bed around 1 am, which is pretty early BA time.

Drinking Liberally Chapters