Day 2 - Buenos Aires (Monday, 2/11/13)

Today is a holiday here in BA -- Carnival.  So, no traffic, but also very little is open to the public.  We took a walking tour this a.m. to Recoleta, the cemetary where Evita Peron is buried.  She is still both revered and despised by the people here.  It is interesting to hear our guide's perspective on her and the other political issues here in Argentina.  Santiago is very open about discussing subjects that are controversial and he is giving us a good history of Argentina.  Walked through embassy row and saw where the Israeli embassy was bombed a few years ago in which people did die.  They did not rebuild the embassy, but left a few walls and foundation of the building as a memorial.  Saw the 150 year old fig tree, the cafe where Robert Duvall has coffee, the government building which is pink.  Why pink -- it is adobe and they made a protective paint from limestone and bull's blood.  This is where evidently there is a protest of some kind virtually every day -- the Argentinian's have protesting in their blood.  Visited La Boca, which is the old port area where the immigrants lived.  Tango originated here.  Very colorful area.  Some people then went back to the hotel, and a few of us went with our guide to have Buenos Aires pizza and beer.  Our bus driver had never had BA pizza, so he joined us too (but didn't drink the beer).  It was very thick pizza with LOTS of cheese and onion, no sauce.  Then a few of us adventurous went to the famous Cafe Tortoni for a coffee.  The cafe originated in 1858 and is a grand old dame.  The inside looks just as it did from photos in 1858.  Coffee was wonderful and it felt like we had truly gone back in time.  All the waiters are in tuxedo's and the line outside was about 30-deep.  Worth the wait.  Cab ride back to the hotel was .... interesting.  There were six of us, so we split up into two cabs -- same distance -- one cab was $30 pesos, the other 20.  Hmmmmm.  Still only a difference of about $2.00US.

Santiago gave us a lecture on The Gaucho (cowboys of Argentina) this evening.  Also on the history about the origins of Argentina, the Pampas area, which is the flat grassy areas which encompasses about 1/2 of the country.  Also saw a slide show on the birds we will be seeing in Patagonia.  After the lecture everyone went to a tango show, except Jim and me.  We've already seen a tango show here and besides, after our lesson last night, what could we see that is better than us!! We did ride with the group to see part of the Carnival festivities.  What energy!  Each neighborhood is a group.  They have unique costumes, their own band and perform very exuberant dance routines.  Great to experience.  On our way out, one of the performers was lying in the street --probably a broken ankle.  Santiago immediately took charge and called 911 and helped out -- making his group late for their tango show.  He is really a very kind person.  Last night he also helped a blind man who was at the dance hall.  It was raining so hard and the man needed to get to a bus.  So Santiago asked us if it was OK to ride the man to his apartment.  Very nice man, that Santiago.

So, again Santiago helps Jim and me to get into a taxi, while the rest of the group went to the tango show; he gave the cab driver isntructions on where to take us to a restaurant near our hotel.  We had a wonderful pasta dinner at a restaurant called La Stampa. We had a nice wine (La Linda Malbec -- wine named after you Linda!).  Jim had spaghetti fruitti de mare (all seafood) and I had spaghettu puttanesca (olives, capers); and pannacotta for dessert.  Yum.  We got to the restaurant around 9:00 p.m. and there were a few people here, but when we left at 11:00 it was packed. 

A nice walk back to the hotel and bed (with a full stomach)!

I'm going into a lot of detail here so that I have all these notes for when we get back and I try to do the photos.  I'm also sure that as the trip goes on, I'll run out of steam.