Friday, January 20, 2012

please excuse all typos! keyboard is very different here…

 

OK, so, because no trip is complete without a snafu…turns out either I misunderstood Laura or she misunderstood me, but I needed a visa to get from Argentina to Paraguay and didn”t have one (i can”t find the single quotation mark on this keyboard!)….so we”ve gotten the snafu out of the way and the rest of the trip will be perfect, right?

Laura made reservations for me in Buenos Aires and then flew down Saturday morning The hotel was the Gran Dora, a wonderful older, quiet hotel with distinguished older gentlemen behind the desk. All were very helpful with my limping español and got me all settled in. I suspect this hotel is much like parts of BA, distinguished but a bit past its prime. I felt I got a real taste of the “old” Buenos Aires.

Saturday, we met up with another friend of Laura”s and wandered the city, from Recolleta Cemetery to “La Boca,” the mouth of the river, where colorful neighborhoods are fun to walk by day but too dangerous by night. Went out last night to one of the many famous Argentine steakhouses….in true South American style, didn”t go out until 11 pm, had dinner at midnight, and had the best steak I have ever eaten. Drank wine and talked, got back to the hotel at 2 AM.

Very, very hot here, but it is summer here after all!

Have now checked into the fabulously decadent Sofitel and am enjoying being spoiled rotten!