Buenos Aires

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We are in Buenos Aires for the month of December. Why, because it is summer here and we like the city a lot. We rented a two bedroom two bath apartment in the Palermo Soho neighborhood. We took a taxi from the airport and met with our landlord. Mark and I could not sleep on the plane so we are dragging when we arrive. After unpacking we head out for lunch. We ordered pizza which in Buenos Aires means it has a lot of cheese. Italians settled here but the pizza is not like what you eat in Italy. After lunch we go shopping. We could not find a large store so we shop across the street at the supermercado. Supermercado is an exaggeration this is a small neighborhood market. We are disappointed to find almost all of the cereals sold have sugar so we buy the one flake cereal with little added sugar. The fruits and vegetables look sad and no fish. I am going to have a hard time cooking with the offerings available at this store. We unpack and settle into our home for the next month.

We wake up to rain today. We are prepared with rain jackets and rain pants. Our goal today is to go to the San Telmo Market. The market is indoors with booths with items to sell and many restaurants. On Sundays the surroundings streets are full of booths selling a wide variety of goods. Our challenge is how to get there. We map the way on the metro called SUBE. We walk to the station at Plaza Italia a short walk away. The station has a manned booth. We ask to buy a ticket. We are told they do not sell individual tickets you must buy a card and then put money on the card. We ask to buy a card but we are told they do not sell the cards and she points up the stairs. We went to a magazine sellers booth on Santa Fe Street. We buy two cards with our credit card. We go back to the metro station to add money to the card. You can only use cash to add money to the card in person or by machine. We have no cash so we decide to look for an ATM machine. We find an ATM machine nearby. There are five machines in a room but all of the machines are out of cash. We decide to Uber to San Telmo. The Uber costs us $12 which s reasonable but we prefer to take public transportation. The market is hopping despite the rain. Without cash and most of the vendors do not take credit cards so we enjoy looking at the items for sale. We take a break at Freddos, a popular ice cream chain. They take credit cards, yea. After the market we walk over to the Cathedral. We tour the Cathedral and it is beautiful. After visiting the Cathedral we are on the hunt for an ATM machine. We google ATM and find several nearby. We have decided to use our phones whenever we want. ATT has an international program, you do not need to sign up. If you use your phone in Argentina you are charged $10 per day. If another person on your plan also uses their phone they are charged $5 per day. Mexico and Canada may have no charge but you need to check your cell servers plan when you travel. There is a maximum charge of $100 per billing period. Since we are here for a month we will be charged for 10 days and the rest of the month will be free. The first ATM machine we try has no cash. The next ATM machine also has no cash. Note to self do not wait until Sunday to get cash. The second ATM machine printed a list of three nearby ATMS. We walk to one nearby machine in a quiet business district. Since the machine is not in a residential district it must get less use and Eureka we have cash. We walk to the metro put our cards and cash into a machine and we are good to go. Metro is very cheap around 30 cents per trip. You use your card to enter but not to exit. All trips are the same cost. The cars are clean and we feel safe in the car. Time to head home but we feel successful getting our metro cards and cash. We bought empanadas for a fast food dinner. The empanadas are hot and cheap. There are multiple empanadas shops in the area we will try them all.

Today we started our day by working out in the building’s gym. We purposely rented an AirBnb with a pool and gym so we could stay fit. After lunch in our condo we walk 1.5 miles to the MALBA (Museo de Arte Latinoamericano). The museum has information about what is in each room in Spanish and English which is helpful. They have a Frita and Diego exhibit which is interesting to us. We visited Frita and Diego’s house when we were in Mexico City. We took a break in the Museum cafe and enjoyed Argentine cookies with hot chocolate. The cookies Alfajores are very popular and tourist buy them wrapped to bring home. They are two white cookies with carmel in between the cookies. Sometimes they are half dipped in chocolate and then rolled in coconut. On our way home from the museum we shop at an upscale shop in Palermo.

Today we went for a swim in the pool at our condo. So we will not be doing that again unless the pool gets warmer it was very cold. After lunch in our condo we walked to Ecoparque near Plaza Italia. There are lots of families walking around the park. The zoo was located here until recently. The decision was made to let the animals go back to the wild or send them to a sanctuary. The zoo structures are still here. Around us we hear parents telling their children what used to be in the pens. There are lots of animals running free but I do not know what they are called. It is a beautiful day to walk in the large park.

Bike riding is on the schedule for today. We often bike ride on vacation so we bought bike helmets that fold up so we could take them on vacation. We signed up when we were at home to the app Ecobici. It took us a while to translate the information on the app and complete the registration process. We walked to a bike stand at Plaza Italia and used our phones to unlock the bikes. They have a strange system here. You pay $9 per day for six hours of bike use but you can only ride for one hour then you must lock your bike into a bike stand. You cannot unlock the same bike or another bike for 15 minutes. We take off on the bikes riding in protected bike lanes. We rode around two lakes and just followed the bike lanes. We road past China Town and decided we will come back for Chinese food on another day. We road past a food and drink festival and stopped for dinner. The festival had bike parking that was guarded but you could not leave your bike if you did not have a bike lock. Mark brought two small locks and we used those. We had a good time on the bikes.

Tonight we have tickets to the opera at Theatro Colon. It is one of the most beautiful theaters in the world. We took a tour of the theater when we were here last time but this time we decide to see a show. It was not easy figuring out what was playing and how to buy tickets but Mark figured it out. So we decided to check out a mall before the show and eat dinner in the mall. We had a a terrible hamburger at the mall and a milkshake. The milkshake had no ice cream in it just chocolate milk and whipped cream on top. We took the metro from the mall to the theatre. It was raining hard and we approached the entrance where tours are let in, we were told to go around. We went around and asked at an open door if this was the entrance. They said no to go around but then felt sorry for the wet old folks who did not know where the entrance was and let us in. They then had someone walk us to an elevator. The elevator attendant told us to get in before everyone else because we would be getting off first. We got off the elevator and another person walked us to our seats. Everyone was very helpful. We saw a show called The Absent City. The show was in Spanish and had Spanish subtitles projected above the stage. This would be a very strange show even if you understood Spanish. I think it was a post almost the end of the world show and a womans essence is put into a box. The music was good and we enjoyed seeing a show in such a beautiful venue.

A visit to Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes is our plan for the day. We take the metro to the museum. The museum is free so that is nice. The museum has a lot of Latin art as well as Italian, French and British art. We visit about 25 percent of the museum and take a break for lunch. Bellas Artes is in Recoleta district an expensive part of town. We find a restaurant and have quiche and a salad. After lunch we check out the church next to the famous Recoleta Cemetery. The upstairs of the church has a view of the cemetery. The windows of the church are made of alabaster because glass was not available when the church was built. After our lunch and church tour we headed back to Bella’s Artes and saw more of the museum. We will return to the museum another day to finish seeing the museum.

Today we head back to Recoleta to visit the outdoor market. I bought a dress and a dress for Lyla. We had lunch at an outdoor restaurant and visited the Recoleta Urban Mall. Outside the mall we saw a rack of bikes. We rented bikes and headed out with no destination in mind. An hour Into the ride we stopped at a park near Florida Street. Florida Street is a pedestrian street with lots of shops. It is also the place to buy blue money. People on the street call out cambio cambio! If you bring US dollars you follow the cambio callers to a basement and they trade for Argentine pesos. It is risky and we may try it later we had no US dollars on us. We saw our first tango dancers on Florida street. We took the metro back to Plaza Italia and walk home.

We are feeling very comfortable here and look forward to the coming weeks. Bye for now

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