Day 110: December 2, 2007 Buenos Aires

  Buenos Aires, Argentina
Sunday, December 2, 2007

Day 110: December 2, 2007 Buenos Aires

Traffic in the street below awoke us at around 7:30. We showered and dressed before going downstairs to the dining room and eating an expansive continental breakfast. Elise and Shirl were supposed to arrive around 10:30 so we only ventured around the block to look, without success, it was Sunday, for an internet place. We returned to the hotel and read our books in the lobby awaiting their arrival. At 11:45, I wondered what was going on and called my father. He said their flight had been delayed in Atlanta. I went up to the room to tell Elena, who had gone to watch a movie on TV, and then returned to the lobby. Naturally, when I got back down, Shirl and Elise were at the check-in desk. We went up to our room and Elise knocked on the door. Elena opened it and there was a joyful reunion between the sisters.

Elise and Shirl had the room across from ours. We let them shower and rest a bit before we walked down the block for lunch at the place Elena and I ate the night before. After that, we all returned to the hotel and dozed for an hour or so before venturing out in the late afternoon sun.

La Recoleta V

We caught a cab over to La Recoleta Cemetery and I showed the new arrivals my standard tour. They were both enthralled so we wandered into parts of the cemetery I hadn't been in before, finding the mausoleums of several more past presidents, famous generals, and other noteworthy figures in Argentine history as well as a lot of interesting mausoleum architecture and statuary.

After that, we wandered through the artisan fair outside the cemetery and ended up at a sidewalk café beneath the "awesome tree". We took a cab back to the hotel and read, dozed, bathed, watched TV, whatever, until 9:30 when we took a cab to Pellegrini and La Valle. I decided to complete the introduction to Buenos Aires with a parilla at La Estancia, on La Valle. I've always enjoyed eating there but in all honesty, it doesn't hold a candle to the Vista de Cóndor, in Salta, my new measuring standard.

We stuffed ourselves and then looked, without success, for a cab at Pelligrini. We walked back to Esmerelda and finally got one to take us to the hotel. We were all beat and went to bed, knowing that tomorrow was going to be a long day.