My Second Day in Buenos Aires

I slept for a long time after the terrible flight.  I woke up about 7:30AM and thought to myself that I'd only slept for 10 hours, so I went back to sleep.  The next thing I knew, the maid was knocking on my door and it was 9:30AM already.  I felt sort of dozy still, but knew that breakfast (which is included in the hotel charge) was only until 11:00AM, so I forced myself up and out to the restaurant.  They have a breakfast buffet, so I had eggs to order, bacon, ham and potatoes, then went back for fruit and bread.  The coffee was to die for and the orange juice was fresh squeezed.  I found that Argentinians eat mostly a continental style breakfast - breads and fruit, but many had the potatoes also.  

After breakfast I went back to my room to grab my coat and my guide book.  It was overcast and I felt a slight bit of rain on my face, but the temperature was bearable in my leather coat and long sleeved teeshirt. I started out at the Plaza San Martin, which was right across from the hotel.  I saw a clock tower in the distance, so I headed that way.  The clock tower was a gift from Great Britain, and had the lion and unicorn symbols on two sides, and what I took to be Argentinian symbols on the other two sides.  From there I headed to what my guide book told me was a memorial to the soldiers who died in the Maldives and Falklands war.  There were two soldiers in full dress uniform guarding the memorial, which had the names of all the fallen soldiers similar to the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C.  I was lucky enough to be there at the changing of the guard - kind of mini English style.

From there I walked down Florida Street (a pedestrian shopping area) again but paid more attention to the buildings around me.  Turning left, I hit the Plaza de Mayo, which is considered the most important plaza in Buenos Aires.  At the end of Plaza de Mayo stands the Pink House, which is the presidential palace and was the place where the Perons made most of their speeches (and where Madonna recreated the scene in the movie "Evita").  There were also government buildings surrounding the plaza, many of them in fantastic style, but all were closed for Sunday.  From there I walked to an obelisk, a smaller version of the Washington Monument.  In all, I walked probably three miles.  Then, as it was starting to rain harder, I made my way back to the hotel.  I slept for a bit, took a shower, and called my ex-husband, who lives here in Buenos Aires with his native wife.

As it turns out, he lives not four blocks from the Plaza Hotel where I am staying, so he met me in the lobby.  We headed out with the rain gone and the sun shining.  The bar that he wanted to go to was closed (this being Sunday) so instead we headed to the bar at the Claridge Hotel.  There we settled into some leather club chairs and ordered some beers (Quilmes, the local brew, for me) then proceeded to catch each other up for the some five or six years since we'd seen each other.  I asked him a lot of questions about Buenos Aires and he promised to email me with some names of restaurants and tango shows that were in the area.  He was quite a font of information, as he has lived here with his wife for most of that time.  He told me a lot of history of BsAs and Argentina in general, along with some of his wife's family history.  I've often told people somewhat sarcastically that he raises cows for a living, as his wife's family owns a large estancia outside of the city, but when I asked him what he actually does here, he replied that he raises cows!  Apparently he functions as sort of a gaucho - herding cows, vaccinating them, castrating them, etc.  Coming from a confirmed city lover, I was astounded to hear him tell of sitting in a bar one night, drinking beers for five hours with a salesman and pouring over a catalog of...bull semen!  Novertheless, he seems extremely at home here, and I'm happy for him.  We agreed that life can lead you into places you never saw coming, and sometimes it's all for the best.

I asked Mike if he wanted to get dinner (around 8:30) but he declined.  He walked me back to the hotel and we hugged good-bye.  It was good to see a familiar face here, and especially good to get tips on what to see and do.

So, I came back to my room and ordered room service - pasta (it's very Italian here, strangely enough)  - and I'm going to try to go to sleep early, as tomorrow is my first day of work.  Marcello will be here to pick me up at 8:15AM, and I'll be working until 6:00PM.