Good morning, South America!
It sure took me long enough to get here: SFO to Houston =4 hours; Houston to
Buenos Aires = 10 hours. And for my Facebook friends who are a little fuzzy on
Argentina’s geography (easy to do, it’s a big country), here’s a map — Buenos
Aires is where the airplane is situated, on the Atlantic Ocean side of the
continent.
Here’s what I did from October 8-13 in Buenos
Aires, Argentina, and Colonia, Uruguay
I had a lot going on in the
week before I got on the airplane to Buenos Aires today, and I forgot to check
the exchange rate for the Argentinian Peso to the US dollar. So, I march to the
ATM at the Buenos Aires international airport arrivals area, stick in my bank
debit card, and figured: “Well, 200 ought to get me pretty far with covering
tips, taxis, and treats.” Out spit 2 crisp 100 Argentinian pesos notes, and the
receipt. I looked at the receipt, and thought, “How can the bank charge me 600
ARS for a 200 ARS withdrawal?” To find the answer, and get a really good gauge
of my sometimes ding-dong actions when I travel, see the photo below. (I think
I have to go to a bank again...)
SO MANY ASPECTS
OF BEAUTIFUL BUENOS AIRES!
SHOPPING BUENOS
AIRES....
A store I don’t think I’ll
ever see anywhere else in the world - dedicated to the gaucho (Argentina
cowboy) tradition. Located on toney Av. Callao in the upscale Recoleta area of
Buenos Aires. Anybody need a great set of horn-handled steak knives for their
barbecue meals? This is the place!
My major shopping pursuit of
this trip is to get Matthew Keck a shirt from the Jaguares World Rugby team
from Argentina. It only took me looking in 4 stores to find it, but here it is.
There are many nice shopping streets in this beautiful city of Buenos Aires.
And they are busy, despite the much ballyhooed inflationary problems in this
economy
Walking around Buenos Aires
is wicked bad for a diet. I loved looking at the chocolates created in letters
to make messages, and the ice cream. Ummm... dulce de leche ice cream ... yum!
The shopping scene in Buenos
Aires is really fun! Most shops are well merchandised, with plenty of eye appeal
from the street. The Libreria el Ateneo is one of the most beautiful bookstores
in the world, built in 1919 as the Teatro Grand Splendid with the beautiful
interior preserved when it became a bookstore in 2000. To read more https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/el-ateneo-grand-splendid. And then, just down the street a flash dance in the foyer
of a clothing store...so fun to watch as passersby joined in!
TOURING BUENOS
AIRES
RECOLETA
CEMETERY: Among the 4800 mausoleums in the famous
Recoleta Cemetery is that of Eva Peron. If you’ve seen the play or movie about
Evita, you will understand that it’s much visited. Fresh flowers appear there
every day. What a place! Marble, granite, bronze, stained glass!
The artistic neighborhood
of Boca is very exciting visually!
Hmmm, I’m seeing a theme here in Boca...but who
would expect tango dancers at a pizzeria?
The presidential
palace on Plaza de Mayo... where
Evita used to greet her adoring public from the balcony of this Italian-French
architectural jewel! The plaza also features an obelisk dedicated to May 25,
1810, the beginning of the Argentinian War of Independence from Spain,and at
the opposite end of the plaza from the Casa Rosada ( The Pink House, as the
Presidential Palace is called), there are many lovely historical buildings from
the “golden age” of the late 1800’s.
I always try to meetup with
other grad school contacts when I travel. It’s the best way to get the real
lowdown on what’s happening in the country, and when I meet my fellow women
grads, I get a good reading on the progress of women in a country. Breakfast
with Gustavo Herrero, MBA 1976 and after-work coffee with Laura Ge, MBA 1994.
I want to give a shout-out
to this wonderful small hotel I am staying at on a quiet street in the Recoleta
neighborhood of Buenos Aires. Room rates include a terrific breakfast in their
glass-ceilinged courtyard and the dining room is fantastic for both lunch and
dinner. Dinner starts at 8 pm — very European. Food is excellent. Plan on about
$25 per person for dinner including a great glass of wine from Mendoza. I’d
stay here again in a heartbeat. Put it on your list if you are headed here!
URUGUAY’S
HISTORIC CITY, COLONIA
Good morning Uruguay! I
almost don’t mind that it is pouring down rain since it is so lush and green
during this spring season in South America!
Okay, here we go with a very
short geography and history lesson about Uruguay, and some current stats. The
Colorful map shows you where Uruguay is located in the great sweep of South
America… It’s over there on the right hand side, near Argentina. The country is
the size of Ohio, with only 3 million people in total. It was formed as a
Portuguese colony, because according to the treaty of 1494, everything to the
west of the treaty line was a Spanish possession, and the Portuguese were allowed to colonize everything to the east. England also had a
huge influence in Uruguay, as they needed a port from which to disembark slaves
from South Africa… You can see on a map that Uruguay is on the same latitude as
South Africa. The presence of the English deterred the Spaniards who were well
established in Argentina (and with soldiers in Buenos Aires) from taking over
Uruguay. However, the English were pretty busy around 1776 (!) and Uruguay
moved into Spanish hands. Before that, the Portuguese had established the town
of Colonia Del Sacramento (1680). Today this town is a UNESCO heritage gem,
with its old town showing bits of both the Portuguese and Spanish colonial
eras. (as a side note, an enduring legacy of English influence is the fact that
Uruguay always exported a lot of corned beef to the UK)
There’s a lot of visiting
back and forth between Buenos Aires, Argentina and Colonia, Uruguay. Three
ferries a day make the 35 mile crossing in about one hour. The ferry carries
1000 passengers and 200 cars. You go through customs in the ferry building
(yay! A passport stamp for Uruguay!) and then wait with the crowd to board.
Many Argentines have second/vacation homes on the coast of Uruguay. It IS
beautiful!
Everywhere you turn in the
old town, its history captivates you! An interesting thing I learned on my
walking tour is that the red Spanish tiles on the roofs are quite irregular,
since the wet clay was shaped into form over the thighs of the slaves, and then
baked into tile. Different thighs, different sized tiles...
Lunch in Colonia’s old town
at Meson de la Plaza, a gem in and of itself. (Pippi Longstocking chose the
place because they gave her a bread basket all for herself, you know, to keep
her strong...). We were both thrilled to be serenaded at lunch!
Now… to go to
Patagonia! BUT FIRST….
Travel challenge number one THE BROKEN TOOTH
Travel challenge number one THE BROKEN TOOTH
Well, I always look like
hell in the morning, and good lighting in the airport lounge is pretty lousy,
but losing this front tooth on the taxi this morning on the way to the airport
really enhances the effect, doesn’t it?
And then... Travel Challenge number two...
THE FLIGHT WAS CANCELED… IN FACT ALL FLIGHTS WERE CANCELED!
THE FLIGHT WAS CANCELED… IN FACT ALL FLIGHTS WERE CANCELED!
“Pippi, that’s not our
suitcase! And no, I don’t know where ours is!” This is what happened when my
flight was cancelled. The suitcase
arrived after a 4 hour wait (baggage handlers did not want to work in the
gale!)
Back to Hotel Club Frances..
and those folks found me an emergency dentist! Temporary crown. 50
minutes in the chair. $35 USD. If you ever need dental help in Buenos Aires, go to Hospital Ramon Carrillo at Sanchez de Bustamante 2529. Wonderful service!
And then the Hotel Club
Francis desk clerks waited for almost 5 hours until Aerolinas Argentinas picked
up the phone and re-assigned me onto a flight in the early hours. But what a nice room the hotel gave me: cheered me up. I was grateful.
Goodby Buenos Aires; how
pretty you are at night (when it’s not got a gale-force storm going on...).
The motto: TRAVEL ON! Next
destination, the beginning of 12 days in Patagonia: El Calafate, next stop!
(click here to see the Patagonia Adventure)
(click here to see the Patagonia Adventure)
