Friday (Feb 29)

Buenos Aires is a sprawling city and resembles both NYC and Paris in many ways. There are 12 million people and more than 47 different neighborhoods. Our apartment is in the Recoleta - a neighborhood with several parks, eclectic architecture, outdoor cafes, and lots of shopping. And, for better or worse, there are pastry shops everywhere - I anticipate it will take enormous discipline to restrain ourselves (so far to no avail).

After our arrival on Thursday, we got a good night's sleep (B.A. is 3 hours ahead of EST) and ventured out on Friday morning. A wall of heat and humidity hit us dead on. This, we understand, is somewhat unusual for March (their fall season) but, according to the weatherman, may persist for at least another week. I anticipate lots of bad hair days!


Since we've read so much about it, our destination is the Recoleta Cemetery - the oldest in the city. It's almost 14,000 acres and includes mausoleums of past presidents, scientists, artists, and Eva Peron, whose tomb we have yet to find. I expect we will make several more trips, as the statuary is amazing!

Next stop - La Biela Cafe (http://www.labiela.com/eng/menu.htm) for dos cappucinos and medialunas (sweet mini croissants). There we met Rick, David's "pen pal", whom he met through Trip Advisor. A Californian who lives in B.A. 4 months a year, he gave us all kinds of useful tips (like how to arrange to have groceries delivered to our apartment), restaurant recommendations, and day/overnight destinations outside the city.


At around noon, Dave and I really started exploring the Recoleta. But reading the map proved more difficult than one would expect - it seemed we were constantly heading in the opposite direction until we got oriented. For you pilots out there, it is kind of like orienting to a VOR; i.e., determining to/from without the flag for help. It was not until we began walking in ever-wider concentric circles that we began to find our way.

We also found out that on the 29th of every month, the city celebrates by eating noquis (aka gnocchi) - go figure! So, in the spirit of the evening, we bought ourselves some noquis and headed home, where upon David proceeded to take a 4 hour nap. I, on the other hand, spent the time reading up on the city, identifying and locating restaurants, and planning itineraries. This is what I do while, in a true division of responsibilities, David reads the map and handles the money. We both take photos and are both attempting to speak Spanish (with moderate success).