Buenos Aires

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Holla!!!! After a long long journey (Sydney, Auckland, Santiago, Buenos Aires) we touched down and are welcomed by a gorgeous 27 degree day. The familiar feel of travel kicked in despite the lack of sleep and we are back in the groove. The most exciting part of the flight was the view of the Andes.

Buenos Aires is large, grubby and fabulous all at once, french style terraces sit side by side with oddly shaped shops, offices, boutiques and run down graffitied homes. Our home for the next six days is the Bobo hotel in Palermo where a booking stuff up sees us with a room each because no we are not a couple and we would each like our own bed please! Delirious but determined not to sleep we headout onto the streets where it soon becomes apparent that platform shoes and and gorgeous leather bags are all the rage. Naturally we detour from our " find food now plan " and go in and out of up and coming designer boutiques. Even we recognized the folly of purchasing after being awake for over thirty hours.......however there are indications that there could be aserious dent in bank accounts. Finally we settle in a courtyard with a glass of malbec and a platter for two - think more meat and cheese than you would eat in a month. When the heavens open up it's time to run for home........

Day two dawns and it's wet, soggy and windy, not to be deterred we head on out the door by 9.30 am to find that nothing, yes really nothing opens before 11am, doh could be sleeping! We check out the local shopping mall (mmmmm we recommend not rushing to see it if you are ever in BA) and then the docklands and the finally when it's 11 we head to MALBA (Musuem of Latin American Modern Art ) to hang out with Frida and a very cool spaghetti chair. Modern art well I love it but ...... there was a black paper mache ball similar to one Finny made in kindy hanging from the ceiling and a wall of plastic beads. Back on the streets it's still raining but our spirits are high. We lunch with the locals on parrilla -char grilled steak and chicken, salad and chips and take a tour of the Teatro Colon, the world famous theatre. I have to say I had my doubts but it is indeed an impressive building with apparently pitch perfect acoustics. Kiernan you would have loved it!

The local Portenos are very friendly, every time we have stopped to look at our rain sodden and torn map someone offers us help, they patiently explain and mime Spanish menus and laugh when we look at them blankly as they rapid fire us with Sesh, although the lady who commented on my excellent hair I understood, it seems appreciation of hair and shoes is universal. Rochelle's italian is great so we pretend we are girls from Italia and get by.

By this time it's after 6pm and the weather is getting worse, our shoes are damp and we head for home, the man who snatches our taxi get a loud "oi" from Rochelle except that this does not seem to translate. So this blog comes to you from our new "twin room" that has french doors with a view of the neighborhood, has the sound of the rain pattering down, there's glass of red and a great friend beside me.

Pray for sunshine, until next time,

Px

PS Many thanks to Rochelle for offering me the salt at breaky this morning, nothing flavours omelette quiet like artificial sweetener.PSS Much love to my boys big and small

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