First Day. Return BsAs

Wow, it was so wonderful to return to BsAs. 

When we arrived, after we finished with customs and immigration we walked through the departure, gates, we were so surprised by the number of folks waiting at the airport for friends or family. It was so crowded. People standing with homemade signs, others with flowers, and professional drivers holding name signs. All these people were waiting.

Walking with our luggage cart, we found the door that our driver wanted us to meet at.
We found our driver Daniel who will transport us to our rental apartment in the city. This is an apartment I have rented a few times before. A bright and sunny two-bed and two-bath apartment on the quiet side of the building on Montevideo Avenue. My apartment is located in what is considered the most beautiful part of the city, Recoleta. I agree, that’s why I rent it.

When we arrived, we were greeted by the doorman, Javier, as if we were family. Yes, we welcome you back to Buenos Aires. Going up in the elevator was memorable as we chatted about this 85-year-old elevator when it was broken down last year for about a week. 5th floor walk up! 

We meet with my agent, getting all the paperwork and money sorted for the apartment. Then, when all the paperwork was finished, we found we were exhausted after flying from Madrid for 12 hours.

Unfortunately, I can’t sleep on a plane no matter how many melatonin gummies I’ve eaten. But I did exist in this semi
zombie state of sleep for 4 hours, so I am guessing this counts for some type of sleep state.

We collapsed on the bed and slept for 5 hours. Upon waking up, we realized we needed to shop for food as the fridge was empty. We walked to the Carrefour market that was close by and bought staples for breakfast. Deciding we were a bit hungry, we had a bite to eat, and our first cup of Argentina coffee. It was good.

We returned to the apartment and once again collapsed on the bed and slept until 10 the following day. We woke to a text from a friend saying she would arrive shortly. We got up and were ready for the day, and what a typical day in Argentina the day  turned into.

If you have lived here, it will take a moment to remember that in Argentina, time is fluid and not an exact science like in the USA. Being up to 30 minutes late is acceptable. When I first lived here, this habit made me crazy. I had gotten used to it, but after being in the USA for a while, this is something I have to recall and remember to slow down again.

After visiting my favorite hair salon, Shock Therapy, for a wash and blow, we decided to do some other errands and needed to take the bus.

First, we tried to refill the Sube transport cards, but we’re unable to do so. After 2 attempts, we said we would try again later.

We grabbed a taxi to go crosstown as we thought we didn’t have enough money on our Sube cards to cover the fare for 3 people.

Now taxis have also doubled in price, too. When you sit down in the cab, the fare begins at 1900 pesos.

After finishing up at a friend’s apartment, we decided once again to try the bus. We’ll see if we have enough money to pay our fares. We boarded the bus, paying our fares, thinking this would get us all the way home. As we proceeded down, Avenida Entre Rios, we got stopped in front of the legislative building on Avenida Callo by a demonstration. As is typical of that section of the city,  there was a protest going on, which shut down the traffic. We were asked to leave the bus after just paying the fare, 2 blocks earlier.

We walked across the street to the next bus stop, waited a few minutes, and boarded another bus. My partner told the driver that we had just paid when we were asked to get off the bus because of the protest and that we should not pay again. The driver agreed.

After getting off at our bus stop, we tried again to add money to our transit cards at a couple of different locations, including the train station itself, but none of the machines were working and an oficial  person was not to be found. Typical process for Argentina. I have been told that there is a new app that works for public transportation. I will download it and see if it will work for me.

We went home for a short siesta, and then it was time for dinner. We talked about going to one of our favorite parrillas as we hadn’t had a really good steak in the 9 months of traveling, so it was time.

We went by bus a short distance to the restaurant. It was almost 8 pm early for dinner by Argentinean standards, and the restaurant Parrilla Peña was just starting to get busy.

Our favorite waiter was there, but we weren’t able to sit in his service area. We were close by.  We looked at the menu. The prices were almost doubled for the meats, and the wines had increased by about 40 %.

We ordered our favorites and enjoyed ourselves.  Remembering how big the portions are, we ordered our usual. We had a leftover steak to make steak salads for the following night’s meal. My favorite.

With our leftovers in hand, we walked to the bus stop around the corner.

We skipped dessert at the restaurant, opting to go to an incredible Italian ice cream place, but our bus had other plans as we passed by the stop for the Italian ice cream. So, no Italian ice cream.

Instead, we  went to one of the best local Argentinan ice cream places,  Volta. Ahh, great Belgian chocolate flavor, one of my favorites.

We strolled the short distance from the ice cream place to our apartment, dropping off our friend at her hotel.

As we walked into our apartment, we both said, “What a horrible day we had today.” It is our joke. We use this expression when we have had a good day filled with things that either work out really well or don’t function at all, to anything  in between. This reminds us that we are alive!

So there it is.
Welcome back to BsAs.

Next story about our returning to the Milongas.