Robert's Travel Blog

I've been trying to save money by making sandwiches, even though choices in the supermarkets are pretty much limited.  Little flat packs of four slices each of cheese and ham plus two rolls = 1650 + 1840 + 800 = $3.00 for two sandwiches, not bad! I was excited to find an empanadería!  A wide variety of fillings, so I had chicken, BBQ chicken and "meat" (beef).  Unlike empanadas in Colombia, which are deep-fried, they are baked, and were delicious.  Three empanadas plus "gaseosa" (pop) for 4,700 = $3.30, a bargain considering what you get. Okay, I went.  To McDonald's. (In my approximately two months I've only seen two fast food restaurants.) Honestly, it wasn't that I was hankering for a taste of home or anything I like that.  I don't even like fast food that much, rather, there are sites that claim that the real measure of the cost of living across countries is the cost of a Big Mac . . . so let's just call it research! There was no Big Mac ...

My sixth (counting duplicates) hotel and the best!  Quite large, with another don't-blink-or-you'll-miss-it entrance, a fairly large room with a fridge, so that means more ham and cheese sandwiches! The lobby has a slight Lynchian vibe: It's on another pedestrianized street, busy on a Sunday afternoon.  Its official name is "Lavalle," but I call it "Cambio Street, " because every few feet there's someone hawking money exchange.  Luckily my room overlooks the quiet side street! Arepas are a popular Colombian food, but not so popular that I ever found a restaurant selling them.  I had to come to Buenos Aires! They're nothing more than a fried disc of cornmeal flour.  Sometime small (2-1/2") thin ones were served as part of the breakfast in one of my Bogotá hotels, but generally they're larger and thicker, and stuffed with just about anything -- think sandwich. This is just down the street from my new (again!) hotel: I got one with ham ...

I didn't read that much in Colombia, but enjoyed Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore, Steinbeck's East of Eden,   Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go ( creepy excellent ), and a few others I don't recall. I'm almost out, just finishing up  To Kill a Mockingbird, so was delighted to find this bookstore, just three blocks from where I'm staying: It's not large, but has that heavenly used book smell.  I would have been happy to find this anywhere in the U.S., let alone Buenos Aires.  (I don't know why this text is large italicized, but I'm too lazy to worry about it.) These should keep me entertained for a while!

 I've been avoiding using the Subte (subway/metro/tube) but got tired of paying $5 for Ubers, so tried it out today.  Just four lines, lettered/colored, with stations clearly marked, you can use any debit card, and the station announcements are comprehensible -- piece of cake, man! BUT (1) Some of the entrances are for the trains going in one direction only.  Obvious once you know to look for it, and (2) my debit card didn't work on the way back, so I ended up taking an Uber anyway! The Jardín Botánico was a huge disappointment.  It sounded great from the website -- separate greenhouses for tropical plants, for bulbous plants, and cacti.  I was sooo looking forward to the cactus one (succulents are my plant passion).  But both the bulbous plants and cacti greenhouses were small (maybe 25' x 15') and all the greenhouses were LOCKED.  Just as well, though, since I peeked into the cactus greenhouse, and though there were a few xeriphytes (low-water plants...

It's museums-closed Monday so instead I spent a couple hours walking around, and spent some good time in this lovely park, about eight blocks from my digs. I'm a little tired of ham and cheese sandwiches, so treated myself to a nice lunch.  Just roast beef and potatoes, but delicious.  $10 with a coke, so it won't be an every-day treat.

. .. is a cemetery!  No kidding, my guidebook says it's #1. You'd think a cemetery would be free, but no, this one is $15.  Between that and two Uber rides there goes my spending limit for the day. It *was* pretty interesting, a wide mix of ages and styles.  Here are a few pics. This is outside the wall: Inside:  

 Just a few block away from my studio is the Mercado de San Telmo.  You'd never guess from the small entrances, but the (covered) market occupies an entire city block.   It's on the left in this pic: On the outside (of the inside) are all kinds of shops selling everything from art to fruit: And on the inside of the inside are all kinds of eateries: My plan was to treat myself to a nice dinner, but it was absolutely heaving, way too busy/noisy for my tastes, so I went home and made myself a ham sandwich 😀

 Just as in Bogotá, Sunday is market day in Buenos Aires, but it's completely different.  Here in San Telmo (the neighborhood I'm staying in) about a mile of Defensa Street + side streets is given over to stands selling artisinal items (think leather/wood/glass), that I have no interest in buying, but it was a good walk anyways. The Museum of Modern Art is smaller than it looks from the outside, but had some really interesting pieces. On the way, I crossed United States street!

After a few nights in an over-priced hotel, I moved into a mini-studio.  Finally after claustrophobic hotel rooms, a bit (okay, not much!) of space. It's on this nice street: Blink or you'll miss the entrance: The best feature?  The micro-kitchenette.  Not much space but it has two burners, plus utensils, so I'll be able to make pasta etc.  As I mentioned, food here is expensive!

 The Plaza de Mayo is the heart of BA: and the Casa Rosada ("Pink House") is Argentina's equivalent of the White House, although the president doesn't live there.  If you look closely, you can see the "Evita balcony:" Metropolitan Cathedral: Just a couple of pics I like: