We arrive in Buenos Aires at about 1am and are greeted at the airport by a wonderful taxi driver arranged by our BA tour guide, Marcelo. He drives like a sane man–imagine that! We are grateful for his careful driving. Our destination is the CE Hotel de Diseño. Originally we had booked an apartment. But when our arrival time was rescheduled by the airline about 2 weeks before we left California (from an 8pm arrival to 1am the next day) our apartment manager said he would not meet us at that time of the morning! We considered staying our first night at an airport hotel and then transferring to the apartment but I did not want to have to pack up one extra time. So, with Marcelo’s help, we found the CE Hotel and booked it for the 4 nights we were to be in BA. Our hotel room was beautiful! Our only complaint was that the streetlight shines into our 3rd floor window. It took 2 nights of wearing sleep masks before we realized that we had blackout curtains. The staff is incredibly helpful and they all speak excellent English. I wish that we had a better grasp of the Spanish language. There are so many valuable traveling phrases that we’ve mastered in French; it is frustrating to not have those words available in Spanish on this trip. While we were in Patagonia we only had the tour group to communicate with and if we were at breakfast or dinner Rex or Jonathan easily stepped in to help translate. But in the cities we are on our own and I hate people thinking that we are Americans who don’t have respect for other languages and cultures. The next time we come to South America (and I hope we do) we will be better prepared. Before our heads hit the pillows I check our email. We have not had email access for about 48 hours. We are horrified to see that Nancy is asking us to come home. Len has taken a serious turn for the worse. Then we read a subsequent email and he seems to be better and stable. We go to sleep wondering what news we will find in our email when we awake. We sleep about 6 hours and have a fabulous breakfast. They have: real coffee (unlike those coffee-hating Chileans) with hot milk, croissants, delicious OJ (I swear we had Tang at most breakfasts on the road), granola, bran cereal (I do believe we need that), nut and dried fruit mix, fresh grapefruit, big grapes, plums and yogurt. They have toast with dulce de leche–sweet caramelized milk that we happily discovered on this trip. The common areas of the hotel are nice and homey. We will come to love the basement bar and lounge area. We call Nancy about Len and she assures us that he is stable and to enjoy BA. We are relieved and feel a little selfish to carry on with the vacation–but we don’t feel bad enough to call the airlines! We are grateful that we put Nancy and Dorothy in place two years ago to help Len when we are not able to do so. Otherwise we would have been in AZ long before now. Today and tomorrow are holidays (tomorrow is the 1st of May–Workers’ Day or Labor Day) so the traffic is light and everyone is in the long holiday weekend mood. It is a gorgeous day so we take off on a little sightseeing walk before we meet Marcelo for our half-day tour. Buenos Aires is a gorgeous city! We pass lots of parks as we make our way to a pedestrian mall about 15 blocks away. We are accosted by hawkers of every trade: tours, tango shows, currency exchange, leather shops, and restaurants to name just a few. I’m on the hunt for a baby alpaca-hair scarf or shawl. Baby alpaca fiber is incredibly soft and is considered a superior fiber in many ways to cashmere. Alas I cannot find a color I like. We come upon an Italian restaurant and have salad and pizza–not great but OK. We are scheduled to meet our guide, Marcelo, at 2pm and we find a very likable, knowledgeable young man. We found him on TripAdvisors–our favorite vacation resource. Where do I start with our incredible tour of the beautiful city of Buenos Aires?? Argentina’s history includes unbelievable tragedies; incredible resilience; and unforgettable political figures. I’ll begin with the most incredible parts– many of which you will know some of this history but you will say to yourselves “how could human beings do such things?” Between 1976 and 1983 the Argentine military dictatorship “disappeared” people who criticized the government in any way. The estimated number of people who were kidnapped, tortured and then disappeared ranges from 9,000 to 30,000 people. After these people were tortured they were thrown out of airplanes (alive) over the ocean to make sure that their bodies were never found. While they were in custody it is estimated that 500 children were born. These children were taken from their parents and secretly adopted by the very criminals who perpetrated these heinous crimes. In 1977, 14 mothers of the disappeared, wearing scarves embroidered with their children’s names, began walking around the plaza directly in front of the presidential palace. The “Mothers of Plaza de Mayo” grew in number and strength and continued their walks every Thursday to show that they would never forget their children. Three of those women disappeared, joining their children. It was not until 2006 that the mothers’ group was satisfied that the government was finally bringing the criminals to justice and they had their final March of Resistance. The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo will never see their children again. The Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo are still looking for their grandchildren who were born of the disappeared. Even today there are commercials on television telling 30 to 35 year olds that there is free DNA testing available in an attempt to reunite the grandchildren with their families. Imagine finding out that the father you loved all your life was involved in the brutal murder of your real parents. Eighty-seven of these grandchildren have been found to date. The Spanish that is spoken in BA is the Castilian dialect. Double “L”s are pronounced as “Y” in the Spanish dialect that we learned. In Castilian it is a “sh” sound. It can be very confusing. Marcelo speaks perfect English but he does occasionally quiz me on my knowledge of Spanish. He corrected how I order at a restaurant. It’s as it is in France: you want to say “I would like the steak” rather than “I’ll have the steak.” I appreciate him helping me. Marcelo takes us on the metro. It is scary to take the metro in an unfamiliar city. He also takes us on the bus. He makes us buy the tickets and it is very easy. We should feel more confident taking public transportation! We get more interesting history lessons. Marcelo says that Argentina models itself with the USA in its efforts to gain independence from Spain. Jose San Martin is the liberator of Argentina, Chile and Peru from the Spanish. We see monuments to this great man in every country we visit in South America. I should describe Buenos Aires. It SHOULD be a Spanish-style city based on its history. However you would think you are in Paris as you walk through this beautiful city. The buildings are very much European. The city lay-out is influenced by Houseman who made Paris what it is today. Buenos Aries decided long ago that it did not want to have any evidence of its Spanish influence and it’s done a good job of making itself unique outside of Europe. Marcelo takes us to a cafe that also has a tango studio on the second floor. The people who come here just love the dance and come every day to enjoy it. We told ourselves we’d come back in the evening when the dancing would be HOT but we were too lazy. We’ll do that the next time for sure. But let’s go back to the cafe. The cafe was a very traditional European-style cafe. Unique to Argentina I ordered a “submarine” coffee. I got a capuccino with a dark chocolate candy to stir into the hot coffee. Marcello was disappointed that the candy was not actually shaped into a submarine. That is the Argentine tradition. But it tasted great no matter what shape it was in. As we end our day with Marcelo he kisses us both on each cheek. He says that we will enjoy that tradition each time we meet and say goodbye to one another. It is so sweet–I love it!! I can’t wait to greet him with a kiss tomorrow. We enjoy a nice cocktail hour (pisco sours, of course) at our hotel’s basement bar. The bartender puts on the tango video on the movie screen–it is so interesting! Then we walk about 10 blocks to the restaurant Marcello recommends. It is a Argentine MEAT (notice the emphasis) BBQ place. OMG, what a place. Marcelo says that an Argentine tradition is to have sweetbreads (mullejes) as an appetizer. We LOVE sweetbreads (veal thymus) and we love our sweetbreads appetizer. Howard has strip steak and I have rib-eye cooked rare to medium rare (called “jugs” in this part of the world). Mine is much more flavorful; Howard is jealous but there’s enough to feed 6 people. We have GREAT French fries. I’m in heaven. We start our walk back to the hotel and I realize that I’ve lost the map. We’ll never find our way back! We should have dropped breadcrumbs! We hustle back to the restaurant and there it is on the floor. We’re saved! Wow–this is a LONG blog but it has been an incredibly interesting day!