Settling into Buenos Aires

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Out of bed at 7, breakfast at 8 and met our escort at 9. We are off to our apartment for the next three months. We are so anxious. It is closer to downtown than all but two of the others in a barrio (district) called Ricoleta. Met our landlord and rental agency rep. They showed us the place and between them and the rep from the agency that brought us down here, signed the papers. I guess technically we are responsible for every thing but all the papers were in Spanish and my pokito Spanish couldn’t get through the first sentence. Hopefully we didn’t sign for anything that isn’t here but I am a trusting soul. One of the nice perks is we have a cleaning person come in once a week to clean and change the towels and sheets.

The place is a relatively quiet one bedroom place on the 4th floor. Thankfully it has an elevator. Dragging bags up 4 flights of stairs was a recurring nightmare last night. Included is a reliable and fast internet. That is the only reason you are getting this as the school has only 4 unreliable computers. There are internet cafes around but from past experience it is so nice to write at home listening to NPR audio stream classical music.

Did I tell you it is cold here? Quite a shock from our 90-100 degree weather in Cool. Anywhere from 60 to 75 depending on where the sun is. The ten story buildings in our neighborhood pretty well eliminate any direct relationship with the sun though. This is more east coast weather and when it does warm up in December it will be humid. So we turned on the heat in our apartment. In about ½ hour a very irate downstairs neighbor and her friend banged on our door. Now the only thing worse than an Argentine woman yelling in your ear is two Argentine women yelling in your ear. Apparently the heating unit is outside and down a little so the heating element is putting out a pretty noxious smell right into her apartment. Now I don’t understand very much Spanish but coupled with Italian hand gestures and repeated “pellegros” I got the point. So we turned off the heater and bundled up. Maybe the cleaning lady will bring us an electric blanket.

After disgorging our bags we decided to explore the neighborhood. We just started walking hoping we could find our way back. Ended up finding a wonderful Sunday craft fare but what was more interesting for me was an amateur high wire club practicing their antics with bands tied between two trees. Not too far from these distractions is the most famous landmark in Recoleta. The cemetery. As the guide book says “The necropolis is a city within a city, a lesson in architectural styles and fashions.” Many are buried above ground and you can peer into some of the glass doors to see the old caskets and imagine what is left of these bodies. Even Evita is buried here.

But my objective was to observe the famous La Biela confiteria or café. Outside under the huge tree is where one of my heroes, Juan Manuel Fangio sipped expresso and discussed his Ferrari and Maserati formula one driving days.

Lots of the other sights located within walking distance of our little abode in Recoleta and I will probably let you know all about them eventually. Of couse the basics are important and within two blocks of our place is the local Costco called Coto. Everything from tv’s to towels. And in the food department we can get fresh veggies and wine. I went up and down the wine isle looking for something over 10 bucks. Nada! This has to be cheap wine lovers heaven. Fortunately my taste for red wine has returned so I trying out some new varietals such as malbec and tannat as well as the old standard of tempranillo.

What a day. It makes me tired just remembering it. Can’t wait til tomorrow and our next adventure.

Buenos noches

Danny and Kazuko

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Comments

[maser]

Fangio?
Such a good man. He also used to be at his house in Caseros aVENUE, between Dean Funes and La Rioja, barrio parque patricios.