San Telmo Sunday

After breakfast of eggs self cooked in the B&B we have all to ourselves, we walked long and well to San Telmo, the old town, where antiques and tango reign. Sunday is a big day of street dancing, performing, vendors and markets.
We met up with two other couples - Jim and Cheryl from California and Doug and Dianne from Toronto, Canada, folks Janell met via an internet travel site (and with whom we had previously drunk a beer or two) and had lunch together. Curiously, years ago, Jim's mother and sister lived a few miles from Janell's hometown in Louisiana. These two couples travel extensively around the world. They met in Thailand a few years ago and have since met up on several trips. This is Jim's and Cheryl's fourth trip to Buenos Aires - this time for six weeks!

We parted after lunch since we wanted to spend more time around San Telmo and catch some tango.



Larry and I walked around San Telmo shops, had coffee, watched some street performers, and then caught tango music and dancers performing in the San Telmo square and came home via subway, our first such venture. The old wooden cars on subway line A are original, from the turn of the twentieth century and their style is very reminiscent of New Orleans. Ticket cost - approximately $.30.








Janell

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First full Day in Buenos Aires

Ayer (yesterday), long walking on busy city streets of the aptly named "Paris of South America", and a very long crossing past the obelisco rising from the Centro of the Avenida de 9 de Julio brought us to the Calle Florida and Galleria Pacifico built for world class shoppers (with whom we mingled) enroute past the Teatro Colon to the Casa Rosada. The Pink House, known to Norteamericanos (us) as the Argentine home of el presidente and his lady (as typified by Eva Peron/Madonna) or, most recently (this week) as the site of great anguish and much graffiti mourning the Oct. 27 death of Nestor, former (and expected future) president who is survived by his wife(and current president) Christina.
The woefully placarded Plaza de Mayo with Casa Rosada background:




After a meal (meat) and a cafe at Cafe Los 36 Billares, an old Movado clocked, wood paneled billiard hall we rolled (via taxi) to Recoleta, the cementario and "one of the world's great necropolises" to see Fuerza Bruta, a high energy show we had seen described as "a cross between Stomp and Cirque de Soleil" and it was quite an extravaganza. Very difficult to photograph but J snagged this pic of slithering, sliding, diving women, water and all, suspended in transparent Mylar over a rowdy wet rave scene.




Beers after at Bullers, a brewery, with bar mate, Jennifer, a New York/Seattle writer here for a year of Spanish learning... and a long cool walk home to Casa Jasmin...where we are now awake and writing.

Larry


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Location:Lavalle,Buenos Aires,Argentina

Buenos Aires Arrival

What a long day! After about an hour of sitting on the plane in Miami we finally took off around 12:30 AM. It was interesting to see the lights as we flew over Cuba. We were served dinner, then I was out like a light until morning before we landed in Buenos Aires. Larry was able to sleep off and on and envied my ability to sleep so soundly.

We went through Customs without a problem. We had a short wait for Nico, the driver from the B&B, to pick us up. I had a picture of Nico in my iPhone because the B&B owner had emailed it to me, so he was easy to spot when he arrived.

Our B&B is more like an apartment. We actually have 3 bedrooms, living area, kitchen, and bath. The kitchen is stocked with yogurt, eggs, cereals, milk, fruit, juices etc. We were also provided with a fresh baked cake which is a typical Argentine treat. It is very similar to King's cake. The apartment is usually rented out by bedroom, but because the owner is out of the country for a month she rented the whole place to us for the regular price of one room.

It is rainy here today and is supposed to be the same tomorrow. It looks like we will have nice weather after that. It is the beginning of spring here - warming up each day. December and January are supposed to be fairly hot here.

Tomorrow we officially start our sight-seeing of the city. I'll try to get Larry to post to the blog as he is quite descriptive in his writings. You'll certainly notice a distinctive style of writing if he does a post!

Janell

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Location:Pasteur,Buenos Aires,Argentina

We're Off To Buenos Aires

We are finally off on a trip to Argentina. Currently we're chilling at DFW airport where we've a 5 hour wait for the flight to Miami. Flight from Miami does not depart until after midnight.
Eventually...we'll be based in Buenos Aires but will take several days to make a trip to Iguazu Falls (on the Brazilian border). We may also make a day trip to a Gaucho Ranch if time permits. BA is such a large, cosmopolitan city that we'll be hard-pressed fitting in the must-sees in BA alone.
We will try to post to this blog daily - words and pictures if all goes well with my publishing venture. If you are interested in following us, go to Larryandjanell.blogspot.com to view updated posts.

Janell and Larry


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Location:Unnamed Rd,Grapevine,United States