Day 17 through 20 - Buenos Aires, Argentina: Day 17

Day 17. Sunday, December 7 – Exactly one year to the day that Todd proposed. The ship has docked in Buenos Aires while we were sleeping. We go to the dining room and stuff our faces with the free food for the last time so that we won’t have to worry about meals for the day. When we get to the theater to check on our status for checkout we are told that we can go right away. That sure beats sitting around. Once in the depot, we get our luggage and head for the exit. There are half a dozen doors leading outside but there is one that says “Taxis to local hotels” so we stand in line for that one. The price listed is $15 USD. While Denise stands in line, Todd heads all over the depot looking for a place to get some Argentine Pesos. We didn’t need them in Ushuaia and we were going to get some in Puerto Madryn after we were all done with the Chilean Pesos. There were no troubles getting Uruguayan Pesos quickly once we were in Punta del Este. We didn’t think it would be a problem to find and exchange location at the port. Well, think again! There was absolutely no place to do this. He asked everywhere; even the policemen. He ended up buying a small Diet Coke bottled for $3 with a $20 bill just to get pesos in change so that we could have at least something. After a little more waiting we make it to the front of the line and take the taxi ($20 after the mandatory $5 tip) to the Loi Suites Hotele in the Retiro district. We later find out that if we had just walked outside the port we could have taken a taxi for about $5 USD. Less than 10 minutes after getting in the room we get a phone call. It’s a man that Todd corresponded with while doing research for the trip. He makes us an “offer we can’t refuse”. Making a very long story shorter here – we end up in the front seat of a small car, Denise on Todd’s lap, with the man’s wife driving and the man and another couple from England in the back seat. We go on a whirlwind tour of the city where, because of being squished in the front seat, we don’t really see anything. Plus, with all the research Todd did, we already knew what was in this city and where it was. We are asked where we want to go for lunch. Todd says that we already ate on the ship, so just a nice salad would be great. Blah, blah, blah…. Todd’s egg salad consists entirely of hard boiled eggs and nothing else. Denise has a grilled vegetable plate. The other four have full meals with multiple deserts. Since we have no local currency we offer to put the tab on our credit card and take their cash. We pay more than 1/3 the total. Had our host actually acted like he wanted to talk with us or even cared we were there we would have offered to pay half of of their meals as well. But the other couple got virtually all of his attention.

Once outside the restaurant our host, who seemingly couldn’t get rid of us soon enough, hails a taxi for us and we are on our way.

Ready to finally start with the positive experiences in this city, we arrive in San Telmo, a district that is proud of its reputation as the guardian of the city’s traditions.

When the city’s grand mansions were abandoned by their patrician owners after a yellow fever epidemic in 1871, they were converted into apartments for housing for immigrants.

Every Sunday, this is the site of the San Telmo Feria; the Sunday fair. This place is bustling with character; cobblestone streets and street performers all around. This one café’s balcony looks very cozy doesn’t it?

And there are people selling their handicrafts as well.

http://www.geobeats.com/videoclips/argentina/buenos-aires/san-telmo-market

We bump into Al and Lori from San Francisco and walk with them for a while before saying goodbye.

We walk a few blocks to catch a subway back to the hotel. Before

going to the room we walk down the street and find a disco and go inside. This isn’t like the disco on the ship. This disco is actually a supermarket.