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Published: September 21st 2007
Thanks for bearing with us while we posted the remainder of our New Zealand and Australia posts. We actually have Hawaii, San Diego and Caribbean to post since then, but we wanted to catch everyone up to where we are now!
CM's new job since we've returned has been great. There is less travel, but perhaps more interesting travel. Next week she has a conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina. We decided to fly down a week early, and visit Argentina and Chile.
We flew from Seattle to Dallas on a sub-optimal 4:30 AM flight. After sitting in Dallas till about 9PM, we finally flew out on the 11 hour trip directly to Buenos Aires. We arrived before dark in BA, to a mad rush of people getting off the plane and pushing their way to the baggage carousel. Wow - these people were just in a free-for-all. Luckily, our bags came quickly, and we've since found out that usually Portenos (Buenos Aires residents) aren't this pushy. Then out to the street, past all the vendors hawking cabs to find a "radio taxi" - supposedly more safe than a random cab. Forty minutes and thirty dollars later we arrived at
Bobo Hotel in Palermo SoHo - an up-and-coming neighborhood in BA.
After a "wee sleep" and showers, we wandered the neighborhood for a grocery store to get water and snacks. We've found that visiting a store is a quick way to get your bearings in a new culture. It's always good for a challenge, a laugh and a sweet reward.
The Palermo neighborhood was an older residential neighborhood until a few years ago, when artists, clothing designers and cafes started popping up. It reminds us a lot of Notting Hill in London, or Ballard in Seattle, except a bit more run down. Everything we've seen of Buenos Aires so far has indicated a city that was really rich, came on poor times, and is just now starting to revitalize. The new shops in Palermo are fantasically decorated, but every other storefront is unoccupied. The sidewalks are in total disrepair and not unlike Paris - people apparently don't pick up after their dogs. All this feels temporary however, and we have high hopes for this neighborhood.
Our hotel is awesome. It's a botique hotel, similar to the Klimpton hotels in San Franscico (The Monaco, Triton and Diva), and the
service staff is so nice. The girl who takes the reservations over the phone also carries your bags up the elevator and calls around to book activities for you. There are many books to borrow including at least 10 guides to the city. And the WiFi is free and extremely fast! We can't wait for our free breakfast tomorrow morning.
One of the biggest surprises for us about Argentina is how far the US dollar goes. We're accustomed lately to having a terrible exchange rate (now with the Pound at 2 to 1 and the Canadian dollar at 1 to 1). Even the Thai Baht is doing reasonably well against the US dollar. But Argentina still hasn't recovered from its financial crash of 2002, so it feels a bit like we've stumbled upon something here. $500 a month will get you a nice apartment, $1000 a month will buy you a tremendous condo. Most of the fancy restaurants we've seen are priced at between $8 and $12 for an entree, which is about a third of what we'd pay for the equivalent in Seattle. Even movies are priced at $10 Argentine dollars, or about $3 US.
The people
Ladybug Light
This store had a bunch of quirky handmade "light bugs".we've met so far haven't spoken much English, but usually there's someone around who speaks more English than we speak Spanish. And people don't seem to mind pantomiming out things like "olives" (which we now know are 'aceituna'). People definitely speak more English here than in
Uno Mas? (Madrid), and they're more relaxed and friendly as well (not that the Spaniards were unfriendly).
Our first day in South America has been awesome, and we're really excited for the rest of the trip!
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