And so it begins

Day 1: After an epic flight, we arrived exhausted. The air was surprisingly warm, and just a touch muggy. We hired a car service to take us to the apartment, and managed to fumble through some conversation with the driver who spoke only Spanish. One interisting thing we learned from the driver was that yesterday he had picked someone up from the very same apartment and taken him to the airport. I would say that was an amazing coincidence, but since I chose the remis company recomended by our rental agency I guess it's not that amazing.

We were met in the apartment by Tomás from the rental agency. He walked us through the apartment, which felt like it took a long time, but I'm sure it was only 20 min. We both needed to relieve ourselves and couldn't wait for him to leave. But leave he did, after showing us how to use the remote control for the TV, air conditioner, keys, etc, etc.

By the way, speaking of keys, the set of keys for this apartment is old school. All different kinds of shapes and sizes - nothing like keys in the US. Tomás says most of the newer apartments have card keys, which would be more convenient, but I find these keys charming.


Once we were done with the apartment tour, we settled in for a nap. Actually, I connected to the wi fi and searched for a good, nearby lunch spot while C immediately fell asleep on the couch. After unpacking, I took a little nap myself, and we both got up around noon. That's 7 am west coast time, if you're wondering, and a perfect time to start the day. Still tired but feeling a bit better after a hot shower, we took off in search of food and a cell phone.

We did manage to find food at a mediocre cafe that seemed to specialize in german food (I had goulash and spaetzel.) We then wandered into a CarreFour (this is a french supermarket chain) to buy a few little snack items for the apartment, and when we finally purchased our items, we discovered the rain that had been threatening all afternoon had suddenly started. And it was dumping. Walking back to the apartment was a soggy affair, after which we promptly took another nap.

We got up in time for dinner (around 9pm) and headed over to one of the area's finest parillas. That's the traditional Argentine way of grilling meats. Simply seasoned with salt, and adorned with the famous chimichuri sauce, this stuff was amazing. I particularly liked the cut I ordered, which is called lomo. I'll have to look that up to see what it is. Really tender. Mmmmm. The restaurant had a live band, playing mostly Beatles tunes and soft rock from the 80s.

After dinner, we intended to head out and discover some night life, but found ourselves crawling back into bed. Ah well, there's always tomorrow.

Observaciones del dia:

- Stone pavers look great on the sidewalk, but are amazingly slippery when wet.
- Buenos Aires has an amazing bird population for being such a dense urban environment. Possibly because of all the courtyard gardens and tiny plazas. There seems to be a lot more green around here than in San Francisco, but that might just be based on the limited area I've seen so far.
- Stupid iPad won't let me embed photos in my blog posts, which means those of you reading this blog and hoping to see photos will be disappointed until I can find some other way. I really wanted to include photos in the blog, but may resort to picassa album or facebook. More research needed.