South American travelogue, winter 2008
- Week 9 (March 22-28): Buenos Aires and the pickpockets; home
March 31, 2008 -
Saturday, March 22
Mostly quiet day for reading and work. Temperate and sunny. Out in evening to highly recommended Le Bourgogne restaurant in Alvear Palace hotel. Truly exquisite; asparagus and morel mushroom
(asparagus included aspic and mousse; mushrooms chopped up in delicious sauce served in egg shell) for Susan and frog’s legs with shoestring potatoes and excellent herb sauce for Tom as appetizers,
then scallop ravioli in delicious sauce for Tom as main course with merluza (translated as black hake, but is what we call Chilean sea bass) for Susan, lovely cheese cart, ice cream with caramel
sauce and nice little desert treats. As in France, several small treats added throughout the meal. Probably the most thoroughly outstanding dinner we’ve had on all of this trip—some other restaurants
have had individual wonderful dishes, but none so excellent throughout. Generally trying not to catalogue dishes at restaurant meals in this log, but this one is well worth memorializing.
Sunday, March 23
Afternoon visits to the Buenos Aires Zoo, the Jardin Japonés, and the Museo de Arte Latinoamericana de Buenos Aires. The zoo takes up part of a large park and has a wide range of animals. The
facilities aren’t always in top shape, but the animals don’t seem badly off. And people really turn out to enjoy the place. Many are browner than most Argentinians we see around the city; Luis told
us at dinner later in the week that most are Bolivian workers, not Argentines from the northwest. The Japanese Garden in a pretty corner of a neighboring park is a gift from the Japanese community in
Argentina and is very attractively done. The Museum of Latin American Art is in a striking modern building that opened in 2001; it has an extensive and interesting collection of mostly 20th-century
Latin American art by fine artists of whom we mostly hear little. Good late dinner at lively, well-attended neighborhood buffet that cooks dishes to order on spot plus has plenty out ready for the
taking.
Monday, March 24
Found part of town where leather shops are concentrated and got Susan a nice red leather coat at a good price to replace the nice Chinese-made one she’d gotten from Nordstrom’s and is finally wearing
out. The Subte subway has to be heavily subsidized with a fare of about $0.28 US to go anywhere in the system, but it seems to work well and makes it very easy to get around if places you want to go
are near stations. Back to a pleasant lunch in a quay-side restaurant near a sailboat marina with the same muddy water that’s all around. Taking brief walk through neighborhood with little traffic on
way to shopping street, we noticed junk on Susan’s hair and back as if from droppings of large bird. We started to wipe it off and were helped by a couple with water and napkins who turned out to be
pickpockets, successfully making off with Tom’s wallet in the distraction. Well-executed job with no injury to either of us. Total cash loss of under $150. No police to be seen, so we went straight
home to clean up and make calls canceling the one credit card lost (Tom had reduced the number he carried in his wallet because of this danger). The card had been used for one minor purchase in a
grocery store, and an attempt to use it in an ATM got nowhere because they didn’t have the PIN. Out to dinner at excellent Bar Uriarte in fashionable Palermo district; very modern setting,
imaginative cuisine.
Tuesday, March 25
Off in late morning to relevant police station to make report on theft. Busy station house and long wait, but we got report made. On to so-so barbecue lunch at colorful Museo Cultural del Tango
(mainly a restaurant but with all sorts of tango memorabilia), on to shopping in upscale Calle Florida and Pepsi and coffee at charming, antique Café Tortoni that’s also a tango performance place
(not on while we were there). Back to apartment and 8:30 pickup for dinner with Tom’s former student Luis and his fiancée Carolina at excellent Spanish-style tapas place they picked. They were
fascinated at the distances we crazy Americans had covered driving. On the way out to dinner demonstrators were banging pots and pans and honking horns in support of striking farmers, who’ve been
blockading agricultural shipments and causing shortages in protest at high new taxes; we’d noticed closures of small section of grocery store and no availability of plain yogurt when we stopped in on
way home. Susan recalled the “casarolazo” protests in Santiago against the Pinochet regime when she was there 25 years ago, when people stood on balconies banging pots because they couldn’t go on
street during curfew; here, of course, in democratic country demonstrators can march on sidewalks and honk on streets.
Wednesday, March 26
Mostly quiet day staying in the apartment getting ready to leave, with lots of services to change over and the like. Taxi out for dinner at Cabaña las Lilas, a top barbecue place down near the
harbor; fine empanadas and rib-eye steak, with single portion large enough to feed us both with ample leftovers for lunch next day. Continuing pot-banging protests and honking as we rode to
restaurant. Some slowdowns on the way and driver took alternate route, but generally festive feel and no violence we’ve been aware of in urban demonstrations; police, common around city all the time,
just stood by and watched. Old civil-rights worker Tom, who’d glimpsed in Mississippi in 1964 what it was like for people to have to live in fear and hated it, was moved to tears at seeing these
people free and fearless in what a quarter century ago was a place of fear under the military government. The demonstrators may be right or wrong in their support of striking farmers protesting an
increased tax on highly profitable soybean exports (government says tax is sliding scale tied to price levels and meant to help support anti-poverty programs in a country that still has much
poverty), but the people aren’t afraid to turn out and protest against a policy of a president recently elected with a strong majority.
Thursday, March 27
Out for a morning run, Tom noticed with amusement that demonstrators appear to have turned the street sign on our nearest corner 90 degrees. Situation in country seems to be getting serious—food
shortages all over as blockades continue, farmers vowing to keep strikes and blockades going indefinitely, government saying it won’t negotiate until blockades stop and threatening to break them by
force and jail blockaders. Good thing we made our driving trip when we did. Soya shippers unable to deliver on international contracts; peso down. First major test for President Fernandez. Street
sign back on right direction when we went back to leather shops after lunch to buy longer leather coat for Susan or daughter Sarah if she likes it, shoes for Susan, and replacement wallet for Tom.
Checking out of the apartment, our Alojargentina agency subjected us to an unbelievable rip-off: withholding $300 of our $400 US cash deposit because a pull-down curtain had gotten stuck when its
chain jumped the track and we couldn’t fix it ourselves. We protested furiously, including talking on the phone with the supervisor who insisted they’d have to replace the entire blind. They’ll no
doubt be able to get it fixed very cheaply, and we didn’t think we should be liable for anything because it failed in normal use—that’s a defect. The blind is also only three months old and should be
under warranty anyway. Called Luis from the taxi after we had to leave for airport without our money; Tom will send him documents and he’ll find ways to complain. We’ll also see about ways on the Web
to tell what happened and urge others to avoid this agency, which otherwise provided good apartments and had been highly satisfactory until this last-minute exploitation of our having to leave.
Inexpensive ride to airport ($15 US with tip for fairly long distance); easy check-in, with apparently free upgrade to economy plus with a little more leg room, and on-time departure. Tom steaming
from rip-off in middle of red-eye flight and writing up episode!
Friday, March 28
Smooth clearance back into US at Dulles, transfer to flight home, and pickup to take us to house, which looks fine. Wonderful trip; good food and wines, good health, plenty of good memories, and
constantly enjoying each other’s company. In addition, nothing really bad happened—we now understand that the early scare almost getting hit when we started to turn left may have been because
Argentinian custom, unknown to us, is that to turn left on a road with one lane in each direction you go to the right shoulder and wait for everything to clear; a left-turn signal when you’re in your
lane is taken as saying that it’s OK to pass. The pickpockets didn’t get that much and nobody was hurt, and we may surprise the apartment agency with legal steps to get our withheld deposit money
back or at least force them to defend their outrageous conduct. Enjoyed the trip enormously, but glad to be home. Timing perfect—South American summer with mostly fair and not excessively hot
weather, then returning to lengthening days and beautiful early spring in North Carolina. End of travelogue.
- Week 8 (March 15-21): Brazilian wine country, Uruguay, back to Buenos Aires
March 22, 2008 -
Saturday, March 15
Enjoyed morning view in clean air after rain over colorful city from our 14th-floor balcony, including down into house back yard right across street that shows nothing to the pedestrian behind its
walls but has lo...
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- Week 7 (March 8-14): Mostly Rio de Janeiro, plus to and from
March 16, 2008 - Saturday, March 8
Good hotel breakfast—including breakfast in hotel charge seems universal where we’ve visited, although...
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- Week 6 (March 1-7): Salta, Argentina; Iguazu Falls; Curitiba, Brazil
March 12, 2008 - Saturday, March 1
Abbreviated version to catch up after Tom’s computer died late Monday, March 3, taking with ...
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- Week 5 (Feb. 23-29): Mendoza, Cordoba, northwest Argentina
March 1, 2008 - Saturday, February 23
Post-breakfast stroll through very pleasant Mendoza town center; long pedestrian walkway on main street with lots of people out enjoying lovely day, sidewalk cafés, music in friendly atmosphere.
Mendoza has planted large sycamores everywhere, and they m...
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February, 2008
- Week 4 (Feb. 16-22): Santiago, Valparaiso, Mendoza
February 24, 2008 - Saturday, February 16
Early (by local standards) lunch at Camino Réal restaurant half way ...
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- Week 3 (Feb. 8-15): Southern Chile to Santiago
February 17, 2008 - Friday, February 8
Awakened by brilliant sunrise over lake with mountains in distance. Staff of small group of cabins where we’re staying knew local dentist,...
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- Week 1 (Jan. 24-31): Buenos Aires
February 1, 2008 - Susan and Tom’s South American travelogue, (North American) winter 2008
Thursday-Friday, January 24-25
Smooth, on-time United red-eye nonstop from...
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- Week 2 (Feb. 1-7): Buenos Aires, western Argentina, southern Chile
- Friday, February 1
Moving and shopping day. Checked out of Recoleta apartment and went across to Moreno hotel in San Telmo near Plaza de Mayo--in an old building but very recently conv...
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