Wenesday, Jan. 13, 2010 - Mendoza

Our flight departed from the domestic airport in Buenos Aires at 8:00am. It's a 2 hour flight to Mendoza, our last stop in Argentina. That would allow us to spend practically a full day in Mendoza upon arrival. The following day we would go out on a full day wine tour. We arranged a taxi from the taxi desk at arrivals and went to our hotel.

When we arrived at the hotel it was much too early to check in. We left our luggage at the Bell Desk and then proceeded to lunch. I had become somewhat used to initially speaking Spanish to anyone we came across. So I asked the hostess, "Tiene una mesa para dos personas, por favor?". The hostess seem to get a little excited and told me I spoke very good Spanish. But she said it in English. How good could it have been if you feel compelled to answer in English? To be fair to myself, the hotel catered to an International customer that typically spoke English. It was a Hyatt Hotel, and although the room was very comfortable, interaction with the staff was usually reserved. It's not our preferred way to travel. We like it when the staff gives you a personal and biased opinion of things, it makes your short time in their native city more enjoyable.

Hotel Room

After lunch we went out to explore the town. The city has a large grassy square in which to wander. It was right across from our hotel. There were a number of street vendors on the other side of the square so we wandered over there. After that we took off for the Mercado several blocks down. It was a bustling area in and around the Mercado. In the Mercado they sold fresh meat and vegetables. There were several large eateries as well.

The usual hanging carcasses Cow Parts

We continued to walk around the downtown area. What was striking was the number of storefronts selling cheap goods. There were lots of low end stores selling electronics, kitchen appliances/gadgets, and clothing. It gave me the impression that the town was not as well-off as the areas in Buenos Aires we had visited. It was around 2:00pm and most of the businesses were shutting down for siesta.

We stopped in at an open air bar for a snack and coffee since the town was shutting down. While we were seated, we caught a glimpse of our Canadian friends which we met in Antarctica and flagged them down. They had just come back from Para-gliding. That is where you go up to the mountains and launch yourself off of a mountain slope with an open parachute. They showed us the video later at dinner, it looked like quite an adventure. While on the ship in Antarctica we had made arrangements to have dinner in Mendoza. They had made dinner reservations for that evening so we could all get together.

Open Air Cafe

We went back to the hotel. Given that 6:00pm dinners are not possible in Argentina we still needed to wait awhile until dinner. Frankly we were a little bored. I think we just sat outside in a patio area overlooking the town square. It was a very warm early evening, probably over 90 degrees.

We had dinner at an Italian restaurant, where we were seated outdoors. There were 8 or 9 of us. We had a nice evening meal and then we took an evening walk around the square and said our farewells to the Canadians, aye. We really enjoyed those guys. It reminds me of a song by LCD Sound System, called North American Scum. It is a song about North Americans not being as cool as other peoples of the world, but there is this one line, "but don't blame the Canadians!". You can get it on the iTunes monopoly, it's basically Techno.

Bruchetta Canadian ring-leader Nhung

Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010 - Buenos Aires

For today we did not really have a plan for our final full day in Buenos Aires. We decided we would head out to a bookstore, then walk over to the Recoleta neighborhood. In Recoleta we would have lunch, visit the grave-site of Evita and maybe take in one or two of the museums. Afterward, we would walk back to Palermo, which was where our hotel was located, and maybe do some shopping.

We had a somewhat leisurely morning and we headed to the subway station. This would take us near the bookstore we wanted to visit. We were told by a couple on the Antarctica ship that it was worthwhile and the hotel also recommended it. The bookstore is actually a wonderful old theater. The main book sections are on the main floor and there are other sections on the balcony floors. I bought a couple of Spanish/English language books and we proceeded to our next stop, Recoleta.

Inside the Bookstore

Recoleta is the nicest neighborhood in Buenos Aires. It is inviting and better maintained than the rest of the city. We wanted to get to the cemetery where Evita is buried. The cemetery is a tourist attraction in and of itself because of the history and the elaborate mausoleums. First we stopped for lunch. As an American it becomes clear that fast food could not have started in Argentina or many European countries. By this time you would have thought we would have learned not to stop at a restaurant with table service if we were short on time. But no, we did it anyway and killed a little over an hour.

Street in Recoleta

We made our way to the cemetery, it took us a little bit of time to find as the entrance was not obvious. The mausoleums were indeed elaborate. We did find Evita's grave site but we did not have a guide. On the way to the cemetery we had run into some of the passengers on the Antarctica ship. They had planned their cemetery visit and had just taken a tour with an English speaking guide. This is reason I like to plan our sight-seeing, it makes more efficient use of your time and you get more out of the sight.

Evita's Mausoleum Plaque on Evita's Mausoleum

Because we were running short on time at this point, we decided to head over to the Evita museum and skip some of the other interesting museums nearby. We really did not know what made Evita such an interesting character and given her importance to Argentina (and Madonna) we thought we should find out. After walking a fair distance we found Evita's museum. Eva Duarte had been popular on radio and then she also made several movies. She married Juan Peron who became president. She became very active supporting worker's rights. Through her foundation several schools and hospitals were established for the working class. The Peron's were populists and Eva's stylist manner and dress made her a cult of personality. The people of Argentina called her by a name of affection, Evita. Evita's career was cut short by cancer. Evita's body was not laid to rest in its current location until 1974, she died in 1952. The military had hidden the corpse and forbid public discussion concerning the Peron's. Juan Peron had been in exiled and Evita's corpse was returned to Argentina shortly after Juan Peron returned from exile and became president again.

inside the cemetery Outside wall of the cemetery, high rises in the background

Next we hoofed it to Palermo. Our hotel was in Palermo and we really had not explored much of it. Palermo is supposed to be known for its cutting edge fashion and nightlife. It is interesting and hard to describe. Try to imagine you are in a city's warehouse district and in the midst of the gritty surroundings is a shoe store. The shoe store is nicely lit with creative branding and large picture windows of fashionable displays. It is a small shop and there are several customers inside. You go to open the door to enter but it is locked. The staff has to buzz you in. Weird. In Palermo we also saw vibrant bars on the street corners with lots of outdoor seating completely filled. It seems like there is a lot of work to be done in the area, but where the work has been done it is first rate.

We made our way back to the hotel and then out for dinner. We ate at a Parrilla recommended by the hotel. It was probably about 10:00pm on a Tuesday night and the place was packed. I had a steak tenderloin, cooked over a charcoal barbecue of course. It was delicious. They also had a Malbec label called Rutini. I had had this elsewhere and found it was such a great compliment to the meat that I had another.

Monday, Jan. 11, 2010 - Uruguay

Today was Uruguay day. We had to get to the port early to catch our 8:30am ferry. Since this was a border crossing we had to get to the ferry terminal by about 7:30am. We were going to Colonia del Sacramento, an old Spanish colonial town. Colonia del Sacramento is a straight shot across the river (Ria de la Plata) from Buenos Aires to Uruguay. The river is very wide at this point just before it empties into the Atlantic Ocean. We were going over on one of the fast ferries. It would take us 1 hour to get across the river. The ferry was very nice with large comfortable lounge chairs and a complimentary cup of coffee. Uruaguay is 1 hour ahead of Argentina, because Argentina does not observe Daylight Savings time and Uruguay does. I'm with Argentina, why do we change our clocks? It is so unnecessary.

So we arrived in Colonia del Sacramento at 10:30am local time. It was very quiet the morning and the weather was just perfect, probably about 80 degrees. The main attraction of Colonia del Sacramento is the old town. In the old town there are the old colonial buildings, the waterfront, and a few attractive plazas. We walked from the dock to the old town and went to find something to eat. We had a nice breakfast at a table outside under a large tree. After breakfast we looked for one of the museums to visit. We had a hard time finding it and ended up on at the water. We watched some guys fishing off of the point. We continued on until we arrived at the marina and took in the view from there.

One of the most frustrating things about this daytrip was currency. The breakfast place took Argentina Pesos, but for the most part you needed Uruguay currency. We only found one ATM and my card would not work. After calling Eric to get a Credit Union phone number (the number on the card was an 800 number and that only works within the US) we were able to verify that everything was fine but the ATM service we had attempted to use most likely did not support the right network. We headed back to the museum where there was an admission fee stated in $US. When we went in they said they would not take any $US. We left and found some tourist police, with a little bit of Spanglish we were directed to another ATM machine. At the machine we finally declared victory and we were blessed with the local currency. However, the denominations were too large, so nobody would want them. That's OK you can go into the bank and for a fee you are given change. That's right, you use the bank's ATM to get bills that are of no use and then get change from the bank for a fee. It didn't matter, we had money and we were going to use it.

Now that we were able to do a few things, we headed over to the museums. There were several very small museums in the old town. A couple were about the history of the town, where both the Spanish and Portuguese rivaled for control. There was a home furnished as it might have been seen in the 1700's. Then there was the lighthouse where you could take in the view.

We walked to the newer part of town, had an early dinner and made our way back to the ferry terminal to check in with immigration.

We boarded the ferry, but this time we were on the slow boat. It was going to take us almost 3 hours to get to Buenos Aires. This was a larger ship with a large duty free store, and was it packed with bargain hunters. Then they had some entertainment, a sharply dressed singer that everyone seemed to enjoy. Then as I walked through one of the passenger seating areas I spotted a guy with an A's hat and a UC Davis shirt. I chatted with him as he was indeed from the Bay Area. He was living with a local family in Argentina while teaching English. He needed to make the trip to Uruguay on a regular basis so that he could renew his Argentina visa.

Finally we arrived at the dock in Buenos Aires and took a cab back to the hotel.