Day 4 - Warhol at MALBA

We saw a great Andy Warhol exhibit at MALBA, the modern art museum....a perfect way to spend a rainy day. It is a fabulous building and there were works in the exhibit, most of which was on loan from the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh (we didn´t realize this existed), that we had never seen before. The museum had this incredible wooden bench that we weren´t able to photograph. The wooden slats making up the bench continued beyond the bench itself and tendrilled throughout the three floors of the museum.



Our room overlooking the courtyard at the guesthouse. We were invited to join the owner of the house and other guests at Recoleta for a dinner of salads tonight in the dining room. We enjoyed the dinner and conversation and the feeling of belonging somewhere in BA.

Hank and Ar

Day 3 - Tango to Eagles Victory

This is our little computer nook on the floor above us at the Recoleta Guesthouse.


We took in the famous Sunday antiques flea market/handicraft market/tango and musical performance spectacle today in San Telmo, an architecturally stunning district in the city known for tango halls and great parilla restaurants. For Hank and I, this was the perfect day. What more could we ask for than checking out the antique stalls (yes, I found a half-doll and Hank found an oil can at good prices), the throngs of people out on a beautifully sunny and hot day (great people watching), watching street performers up and down the streets and eating at one of BA's well-known parilla restaurants, La Brigada. We had our first hunks of Argentinian meat, for which it is famous and Hank enjoyed his a bit more than I did.

Some of the dancers we came upon.

There is grafitti all over the city, but some of it is worth saving, like this drawing of Che. After walking around for hours, we headed home to rest our feet..............until...........

Of course Hank found the one American bar (about a mile away) showing every sports game being broadcast from the U.S. So, along with some newfound friends at Shoeless Joe's El Alamo Bar, we watched the Eagles move from a sure to win position..... to HOW DID THIS HAPPEN........ to finally win the game in the last few moments with a field goal. The one other person rooting for the Eagles and Hank were delighted and it was the perfect way to cap off an already great day.

Ar & Hank

Day 2 - From rain to sunshine

These photos are out of order, but food always comes first for Hank, anyway.



The first half of the day ended with lots of sunshine in the Palermo Section, which has all these great sidewalk cafes and art galleries. It's considered the SOHO district of BA.



Day two started out with thunder and lighting so we were lucky we had scheduled a bus tour of the city. We kept dry as we traveled around the town! Here we are in Plaza de Mayo. The red building in the background is the president´s house; they call it the ¨Pink House¨ but it looks pretty red to me.




The La Boca section of the city was built from the scraps and discards from the ships in the harbor. It was an immigrant community where the Tango got started. The interiors reminded Ar of the teniment museum in New York's Lower East Side.

We're headed back tomorrow - to San Telmo, actually - to see tango in the streets.

Hank and Ar

Our First Day in BA

What better way to start a lively vacation than to head for the cemetary - Recoleta Cemetary, that is. Walking distance from our guest house (more about that later) and adjacent to a park, where we found a surprising number of people out and about on this beautiful (sunny and close to 80 degrees) Christmas day. We also found this amazing magnolia tree, which Hank is standing under.

The cemetary dates back to the 1820's and houses the remains of famous political and military leaders, as well as prominent Argentinians, in fabulous mausoleums like these above. The top one is where Evita Peron was laid to rest.

What a start!

Why does Hank look so unhappy? Well, what began as a mellow morning became an anxiety-ridden day of uncertainty as to whether we would make it to Buenos Aires after all on our anticipated arrival date.

The last of our (well, Arlene´s) incidentals got packed just as our next-door-neighbor Jane pulled into the driveway to load our bags into the car and drive us to the Glenside train station. The train was on time and we arrived at Terminal A with plenty of time to spare before our 11:35 flight to Dallas/Ft. Worth for our connection for a 7:30pm flight to BA. The departure board listed our flight as "on time" so we settled in to relax until boarding. Less than an hour before our boarding time, they announced that the flight to Dallas was cancelled and told us to call the airline to rebook our flight.

American Airline´s telephone agent told us that the earliest she could get us out would be the 26th - 2 days later! Frantic, we spoke to the desk agent at the airport and he said the only possibility was for us to go stand-by to Miami at 12:00 for a 7:30 flight from there to BA. This photo was taken after we didn´t get on that flight!

So, we were put on another stand-by list for a 5:40 flight and, if that worked, we could get on an 11:30 connection to BA. Well, eight and a half hours after arriving at the airport, we finally boarded a plane. Profuse thanks to the airline agent who handed us boarding passes for the last two seats on the plane...........one more than she had apologetically told us she thought she would have five minutes earlier.

So...........we arrived in BA at 10:30 this morning.........and will post photos from our first day here soon.

Whew!!!

Hank and Ar

Night before the trip

Well, we're ready to go and this is all we're taking on are trip. We accomplished the feat of cramming everything we need into 2 carry-on's and 2 small day packs.

Howdy

Wishing you plenty of magical times way down south :)

TEST

JUST CHECKING IN
PAT

Two days before take-off

Here we go "Blogging Virgins". We've been planning this trip for almost 6 months, - well Arlene has been working at the computer that long - and it's just a few days away. Twenty-nine days in Argentina and Chile. Environment changes from the hot jungles at Iguazu Falls to the wet and windy glaciers of Patagonia to the European styles of Buenos Aires. Arlene the world traveler insists on taking only one carry-on! I'm a little nervous, will I have to turn my underwear inside-out? Will there be room to take soap and shampoo from the hotels? I think we'll get down with the natives at the local laundromats. We leave Chirstmas Eve, and arrive Chirstmas morning in Buenos Aires. Feliz Navidad! The picture is from our last trip South, in Cuba, about 5 years ago.