What is green and beautiful?

If you guessed Buenos Aires, you’re absolutely right. There are trees and parks everywhere. This city has been called the Paris of South America and it may be. It’s been many years since I’ve been to Paris but for me, it’s very reminiscent of Madrid.There were a few buildings that reminded me of my distant memories of Paris but there are many that suggest Madrid to me. 

From our balcony

Surprisingly between my miserable Spanish and Google Translate we are doing fine. The people 

we have met have been patient and very kind. We have had dropped cell phones, and even pencils, returned. We’ve had someone let us use their WiFi, order us an Uber, recommend restaurants. Quite amazing for a big city. It’s definitely not New York.

This trip started with a few glitches. First we couldn’t get access to our apartment. That was solved. The day after we arrived we discovered our credit card had fraudulent activity on it. That solution was horrific, yep, the card was cancelled. Next we had trouble using our debit cards to get cash. Checking with Chase, our cards and accounts are fine. We need to find an International ATM. We’re hopeful we’ve found just that. Tonight was to be a cocktail tour. I typed the exact address into Uber. Uber came and Rodrigo took off. He stopped about a half an hour later at a garage. Oh-oh. He looked at the address. Wrong address. Who knew there 5 places with the exact same address. How he knew which was the correct one is a miracle. Luckily he didn’t dump us out but took us to the right address, sort of. We were in front of a small bar and across the street from a police station. A very kind man got up from having a drink with his friends. He looked at The address and took us across the street to the police station. He explained to a lovely young woman with perfect English what we were looking for. She explained where we should wait. In the middle of this we got a FaceTime call from Jerry and Marietta. Were we on Candid Camera? No, we were in the middle of a Laurel and Hardy skit. We waited on the corner. Another man approached asking if we needed help. Finally, Dennis went across the one street we hadn’t tried and into that bar. Yep, that’s the one.

The bartenders were friendly and funny. They knew the woman who was supposed to be our guide. They called her. We could cancel or come back tomorrow. We canceled. We stayed at the bar and had a couple of their signature drinks and some food that included the best croquettes we’d ever had. Eventually we called yet another Uber. Gaston was another excellent driver. Time for bed.

Dennis says…

We made it safely out of Chicago on 1/11 and landed in Buenos Aires on 1/12, after a 7 hour lay over in New York and a 10 1/2 hour plane ride. Everything went well, except for one hitch. Cindy spent a lot of time on her iPhone and the Internet trying to get our passcode to get into our apartment in the city. Without it we’d be out of luck getting in. When we arrived at the airport the passcode finally arrived via the Internet with a 4 digit code for the building access and a 6 digit code for the apartment, Both locks worked perfectly. We settled in just fine. 

The next day we took a 4 + hour “Hop-on Hop off” bus ride around the city. 

We had a terrific meal back in our neighborhood. Today we spent time familiarizing ourselves with our location in Palermo.

Sorry, about the lack of humor but next time, I’ll do better.