Colonial Living, Now and Then...

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We never made it to Uruguay today...we got up at 7 am to get to the boat by 830, since we had not been able to buy tickets online....we ended up at the place where the boat used to be a few months ago...took a taxi to the ticket office which was closed. Tried to find the boat...but no luck (It was a few miles away from where we had ended up)....ran into the filming of an American Airlines commercial...and watched that....


We then decided to take a train to San Isidro, a suburb up the Rio Plata from BA. We spent most of the day walking around. looking at beautiful homes, eating a great lunch, and sneaking on a train for one stop...

We will go to Uruguay on the next trip here and spend more time than a day, since it is expensive to go over from here....about $60 each roundtrip on the least expensive fast boat...

Some things I´ve forgotten to say...We have seen more broken arms in Argentina than usual..don´t know why, but can guess it may be related to the fact that you take a risk everytime you cross a street, walk light or not....

People are so nice here...someone will over-hear a question and come forward to help in English....even ticket sellers in the train station take time to explain things carefully to us....

And the food is so good..and so inexpensive..and we don´t even eat meat....!

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Photos

Dog walker...
We´ve seen one with with 12 dogs! Still don´t understand why people let their dogs poop on the sidewalks here...like Paris in the early 70s...they have to walk on the sidewalks themselves....????

The cathedral next to the Edifice Cavanaugh
We snuck into the Edifice and were asked (nicely) to leave...a boring lobby...this church was beautiful....

Line to get change for the buses
There is a change shortage, which has made people horde even more change...the buses only accept exact change...so each am at the train station where the local buses stop, there is a one to two block long line for change...

Baby Mercedes
Maybe they are born here in BA?

Restaurant Where we ate lunch
The special cost $25 pesos..about $7.00..Main course, salad, glass of wine, dessert (a delicious homemade flan) and coffee...and this was in chi-chi suburb in a very nice restaurant...IWe will miss this!!

View of the giant Rio Plata
Uruguay is on the other side...this was taken from the hills of San Isidro..in front of the home we want to rent here....

Cathedral in San Isidro
Taken from tourist railroad station....we took the regular train today...except for one stop....more later!

Rio Plata
I thought I was guiding us along the river on a main road, but had us walk an extra mile in the heat and humidity to this "lovely" view...We then spent a few hours walking where no tourist (and few Argentinians) have trod....all interesting though! Lots of beautiful homes...

Playing the dumb tourist card...
We wanted to take the tourist train (we had taken it yesterday to Tigre) for one stop, but found it cost $4.00 each no matter how far we went (the regular train costs about $.30...)...so we got on without a ticket, and pretended we thought it was the regular train...Very bad, I know, but Bill´s knees and my feet were sore and there were no buses or taxis... we just went one stop...

BA from the west...
This is where we got off the tourist train....another Lynn viewpoint...

And the lovely beach here...
They were filming these kids among the trash..

The house I really want
We walked back up from the river through beautiful neighborhoods to the regular train station...In the past two days, we have so many mansions...summer places on the river and these in suburbs...

A street in the neighborhood by the station
There was no one around but the private guards on every corner....

Crowded playground in the early evening
Every park here has a great playground...school began yesterday for the private schools, and today for most public...there has been a strike, I think...The public school kids wear white lab coats to school; the private school kids wear Brit type uniforms...there is baby boom here..lots of infants and pregnant women..

Garbage Collection
Every evening...usually the trash is gone through by poor people before the collectors get to it...there seems to be some recycling during the collection.

Comments

[Jen]

Awesome adventure- Ilove all the colored buildings- did you learn to tango