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Well we finally arrived in beautiful Buenos Aires, the best kept secret on where to travel.More bang for your buck - trust me on this one (even if "su espanol es muy malo). J
The apartment that Rachelle found is terrific. It is run by very knowledgeable and friendly switch hitters.BA is the mecca for that ala San Francisco, Toronto etc.For $84.00 US/ night you get breakfast, a cell phone and 20 foot ceilings.After checking in, the four of us set out to explore the immediate area.The first thing we noticed is there are no leash laws.There are dogs every where including their deposits.We found a small café that looked inviting and after eating we went back to our place and played an intense game of Hearts.How come Antony always wins?
Day 2: We hear rumors that the banks are on strike and everyone panics because it's Easter weekend and there was a run on the ATMs, meaning all machines are out of cash.Boy, you should have seen Rachelle go on and on.Anyway the rumors were not true.We immediately went on a walking tour of the city (what a surprise "walking again").Thank God I brought walking shoes. The first stop was the cemetery - now don't go south on me here.This place was amazing with the most expensive sarcophagi and massive mausoleums that I have ever seen in one place.You can't imagine the amount of money spent on them, we are talking marble statutes, walls and over the top doors.Eva Peron is here and her mausoleum was very popular but nothing close to the big bucks guys.I guess it was an all men's club back then.
From there we proceeded to follow the path to a nice pub (surprise) followed by a trip to an art museum that looked very benign on the outside but had pieces from the greats i.e. Picasso, Manet, Monet, Rodin, Gaughan, etc.To me the highlight was "The Kiss" by Rodin.That was a test question in my art history course.
At this point, I must mention the food.We have had many great meals with good Malbec wine.They give you huge portions (makes Dallas portions look like you are dieting) for very few pesos but the caveat is we don't know how to order steak medium rare and there is no black pepper (but salt is served by the bucket).Also, Argentineans love ham; not Tennessee or Virginia ham but processed sandwich meat and they layer it on everything.
Day 3: We visit La Boca (part of BA) which is a rough area of the city but it sports the best local futbol team, the Boca Juniors.Kat thought it was a great place to shop and suddenly we were all out of cash.She's that good.And before we know it we are in the center of town shopping again.Antony LOVES this but the girls press on.That night we meet Jim and Shelly (from Iguassu Falls) for dinner. The best dinner yet and Rachelle figures out how to say "medium rare" and I almost die and go to heaven.
Day 4: We wake up late (isn't this what vacation is all about?) and Rachelle, Kat and I go out shopping again.Fast forward… we walk into an art gallery.Kat finds a picture of some tango dancers and I said that I needed to think about it over a glass of wine.Around the corner we found the mother lode - Malbec Heaven.We sat down and proceeded to drink a bottle that won the best Malbec of 2006. I was in ecstasy. WOW!
Didn't need to be convinced any longer and we bought the painting, a few extra bottles of wine and had just enough time to collect Antony for head out to see a tango show at Cafe Tortoni.A bit touristy but we had to do it mostly to prepare ourselves for our $5 tango lesson the next day.
I have enjoyed blogging on this space though it is tough to write about all of the events.I had no idea how R & A keep up.So end my writing by saying- mucho gracias and buenos noche!
Doc
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