Blog Number 10: Life in Buenos Aires

March 2 – 3

After a busy weekend, we spend most of Monday relaxing. In the evening, we meet our cruise friends Debra and Gene and their friends, who are passing through BA on their way back to the States, for dinner at El Marisol, a parilla; i.e. a steakhouse. David claims that they served him the best "lomo" (Argentinian version of filet mignon) he has had in Argentina to date! We also enjoyed a couple of bottles of a great Malbac and caught up on Gene & Debs trekking travels at El Chaltan and Fitz Roy. Two places we really want to go to next year and try some more glacier trekking!

Next morning, we are still full from last night’s dinner, so at 1:00 we go to the Melody Café with the intention of getting a light breakfast. We think we are ordering the usual…tostadas, which is probably yesterday’s baguette sliced and toasted. But what they hear is tostados, which are crust-less ham and cheese sandwiches. So we each end up with 4 of these sandwiches. Our light breakfast turns into the equivalent of a very full lunch. But more importantly, this reinforces our experience that even a slight nuance in pronunciation can affect an outcome. Attention to detail is a must!

Later in the day, we buy colorful cotton throw rugs (actually, they are horse blankets – new, not used!! – that are typically used under saddles) to cheer up the apartment. We also go to Disco, our local supermarket, because we’re having our first “dinner party”.

As we are shopping, we realize that in the last 2 weeks, prices in general have increased by from 10-20%. You can actually see prices rising weekly. So, while the dollar is getting stronger here the price increases are only partially mitigated by the dollars strength against the peso.

In anticipation of our dinner guest, we break out the good (oh, I mean only) dishes, heat up barbequed chicken, serve it with onion and pumpkin tortes, fresh tomatoes, repollitos de Bruselas (Brussels sprouts), bread and, of course, a bottle of Malbec. Finally, a home-cooked meal!

And, believe it or not, we regret not having brought saran wrap with us from home! That’s because saran wrap here is just awful. It is very thin and there is no serrated edge on the box, so every time you want to use it, you have to find the end and peel it away from the roll. I can’t tell you how frustrating this is. It takes at least two people to wrap things in order to not lose the end of the roll!

We decide to keep it out and balanced on the toaster, slightly unrolled, so we won’t have to deal with finding the edge and peeling it back every time we use it…but the maid, who comes on Tuesdays and Fridays, rolls it back up and puts it in the box. Oh well – it sounded like a good plan at the tiime.

Blog Post Number 9: Palermo Chico & More

February 28 – March 1
On Saturday we make a major decision…we’ll stay in the apartment. The landlord has arranged to clean the carpet and we plan to buy stuff to “accessorize”. Kind of like making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear or, in this case, maybe a polyester purse.

We take a 3+ hour walk down Avenida Figueroa Alcorta, past the Floralis Generica, a giant sculpture that opens and closes with sunrise and sunset. We have yet to see it at night but have been told that it is wonderfully lit.





through Palermo Chico with it’s large lavish homes and very detailed architecture

















around the Tres de Febrero Park and gardens,













past the polo field, the casino, the Hipodromo Argentino and the racetrack,




and end up at Kansas (our second visit to this great restaurant) for a late lunch (5:00pm). And I mean late…we’re just about the only people in this really large restaurant, except for some stragglers from a normal lunch hour!

On Sunday, Jim comes over and we all go for a light lunch at a local parilla. There’s an unexpected downpour so we taxi to Palermo Hollywood








and walk around the local flea market (the Mercado de Pulgas; literally, the market of fleas).









We don’t buy anything, but do spend 30+ minutes chatting, mostly in Spanish, with Susanna, who runs one of the stalls.




People we’ve met are incredibly friendly and those that have some knowledge of English love to practice, while David gets to practice his Spanish.

Then we head over to Sarkis, an Armenian restaurant, for dinner. Halfway there, it begins to pour again. With only one small umbrella between us, we stop often and stand under awnings to stay dry.





We are a bit early for dinner, so thankfully we are able to sit under an awning while it is pouring rain until the restaurant opens.




The days fly by. We plan very little ahead of time…but they fill up spontaneously and before we know it, it’s 8:00p, or 11:30p, or 2:00 a.m.

Post Number 8: Return to Buenos Aires

February 15 – 21

First thing we do is pack away our winter coats…hot times, summer in the city.

Next…we go to check into the apartment that we rented last November from an on-line agency.

Last year, we rented an apartment in the Recoleta and wanted to rent the same one this year but it wasn’t available. So we rented another in the same neighborhood. The location is great – near Vicente Lopez Park and friends,

restaurants, shops, streets with great architecture. Whoever said Buenos Aires is the Paris of South America captured it (or parts of it, anyway) perfectly…

But the apartment is not nearly as nice or comfortable as last years. And, with several not-so-minor issues (inadequate AC, no hot water, no internet connection) we begin the hassles of trying to find another apartment and getting our $$ back from the rental agency – ughhhh!

Lucky for us, our friend Jim offers his apartment while he’s in Brazil, so we stay there for the next few days. At first, we’re pretty cranky, but than decide we’re not going to let the apartment situation get us down. So we get into the city’s rhythm.

We meet friends for lunch at Kansas (an American-style rib place), check out Jumbo supermarket (BA’s equivalent to BJs or Costco), eat pizza at Los Maestros (we were regulars last year and recognize the waitress), and find new “locals”:

the Melody Café for our morning café and toastadas, where we look forward to seeing waitresses Laura and Gabriella. David practices his Spanish with them and they get to ask what the English words are for the food served. It's a great way to start the morning (usually around 11:00 or 12:00) and there are a lot of laughs.

and Pasadena for late night snacks (David orders “migas,” little white bread sandwiches with the crust cut off, like the things my mom made me for lunch when I was in elementary school).

There are “liquidacion” (sale) signs everywhere so we buy a few things, but better than that is window shopping and photographing fabulous gowns that hardly anyone I know would wear.

After 5 days we decide we can’t stay at Jim’s indefinitely so we move into our apartment. Luckily, the hot water is fixed, David has figured out how to get access to the internet, and we buy a floor fan. We spend time outside, either walking the city or sitting in the park, where David studies Spanish, I sketch, read, or listen to my iPod, and we catch up with our friends, who also hang out there.

February 22 – 26

On Sunday we walk down Avenida Posadas, a very upscale street just a couple of blocks from our apartment, to the open market in the Plaza Francia. There are two really nice parks on the way with sculptures and giant trees.

We peruse the many vendor stalls

and head over to the Recoleta Cultural Center to check things out.

I decide I’m going to watch the Oscars that night. We are 6 hours behind WST, so they don’t start here until around midnight. And they are televised in Spanish. David hooks me up via computer, to an English simulcast, but there’s a 45 second delay between the picture and the sound. My brain is on overload by 2:00 so I give up and go to sleep.

On Monday, the AC is fixed – a small step for mankind! This is good, since we have not yet found another apartment. And, in some bizarre way, I’m actually getting used to this one…it’s quiet, the bed is really comfortable, it’s in a great location and the view from our balcony is really nice.

On Wednesday we go to the movies, since Wednesday is 15 peso day (per ticket). Tickets are discounted from their usual 20 pesos ($5.71 currently) per ticket. 44 pesos (about $12) gets you 2 tickets, popcorn and a Pepsi. We decide on Slumdog Millionaire and buy our tickets at a kiosk in the theater; no waiting on line and you choose your seats ahead of time – very civilized.

The movie is in English, with Spanish subtitles, except when they’re speaking in Indian… then there are Spanish subtitles. A little is lost with our limited translation skills, but not so much that we miss the essence of the movie, which we love.

More to come soon...we are almost caught up!

Post Number 7: Puerto Montt

Day 12 – Our last stop is Puerto Montt, Chile. Along with 12 others from the ship, we hire a tour van for 6 hours. But to David, it feels less like a sightseeing excursion and more like one continuous shopping trip. Needless to say, he’s bored and very restless. Luckily, the other guys in the van sympathize with him, make him laugh at the situation and, somehow, he gets through the day. Lucky for me! A bored David is not a pretty sight!

From the port, we drive to Frutillar on Lake Llanquihue (pronounced Yankee Way). Not your typical Chilean town, it was settled by Germans and has a distinct Germanic flavor to it.

Other stops include Puerto Varas and Petrohue Falls, where the handicraft stalls attract the potential buyers among us. On the way to the falls there are so many people that we actually never make it all the way to see them....that however presents a buying opportunity for Carol.

In the distance, we see Volcano Osorno, which is shrowded in mist. It's one of two active volcanoes in the region.





While waiting on line (for over 45 minutes) to board the tender, an unfamiliar "guest" walks by:





On the way to the ship and also as we pull away from the dock many locals come out in their boats to wave good-bye.








Day 13 – At Sea
We spend our final evening with friends:





Day 14 – We arrive at our final destination – Valparaiso, Chile. We disembark and take the bus to Santiago for our flight back to Buenos Aires. David wanted the adventure of taking a local bus …I, on the other hand, wanted “easy”… we end up on an NCL luxury tour bus (at NCL prices). “Easy” won the day!


Next stop BA...Stay tuned.