We´ve Arrived in Buenos Aires

Our long ordeal of a flight to Buenos Aires ended with our on-time arrival here this morning at 9:30 am local time. It was an uneventful flight aside from just being too long in too confined a space with too little ventilation. Customs was slow and stuffy but after only a couple of glitches we all found the courier, Susana, the bus and were on our way into town.

Our hotel, The Dazzler Tower Hotel on San Martin Street is a great place, strategically located. As prices are much cheaper here we were able to upgrade to 4-star hotels at no additional cost. Thanks Mosaic Tours!

We got a bus tour of the city which gave us a terrific overview with a stop in La Boca, a fun district of the city with brightly colored wooden buildings and tango dancers in front of restaurants. Street artists also lined the streets. Sadly, none of use had had anytime to get any Argentine pesos out of an ATM yet so no one had any cash to buy anything and there were a few artists whose work we loved! A fun place to walk through in a group but apparently not advisable on your own or especially after dark.

We also stopped in the Puerto Madero district and walked through this area and across the beautiful Puente de la Mujer pedestrian bridge. This area was filled with lovely restaurants and shops--very posh. In stark contrast was our experience a few blocks away. The bus suddenly got very quiet. We were driving through a street in an industrialized area near the freeway lined with shanties built of anything its occupants could find--cardboard and scraps of wood and metal fit together in jigsaw style and with open fires where families were eeking out an existence. The students sat in shocked silence as we drove past probably the worst poverty any of them had ever seen.

After checking into the hotel everyone went off in various directions. We along with small pack of students and groupies walked over to a giant outdoor market place in the Recoleta district that sold the wares of local artisans. I thought most of it was cheap and showed little real artisitic value. We did manage to find one artist who impressed us near the end of the market stroll and we bought one of his paintings before grabbing a taxi and heading back to the room for a rest.

This artisan market surrounded a beautiful church which would later be the site of a Sunday Mass and concert for the choir. There were also vendors selling various street foods. We tried our first empanadas here that cost only 4 pesos (about a dollar) and were huge and tasty!

Taxis are apparently a part of the adventure here. We were warned to pay in small bills as your change back from paying with a larger note is sometimes conterfeit. We never had any problems and the drivers were very nice.

The locals don't eat dinner traditionally until after 10 pm. Not being much of a night owl we headed out for a short walk before settling on a restaurant across the street from the hotel which many other students were raving about called El Establo. Read more about our experiences there in other blog entires. We tried it and what a meal. I had tongue as an appetizer and ordered an incredibly tasty loin steak called Bife Chorizo that just melted in my mouth and the flavors were so intense. I also sampled the sweetbreads ordered by another person in our party. This was my first taste of sweetbreads and I was a little apprehensive. I needn´t have been. They were so tasty, creamy, full of beef flavor. We drink a couple of bottles of Malbec, a famous Argentinian red wine. El Establo became a regular dinner and or lunch place with so many of the group that it was nicknamed Cheers!

Then back to the hotel to retire early before a 6 am wake up call. Tomorrow we take the ferry across the Rio de la Plata to Colonia del Sacramento on the Uraguay side of the river. We stay in Uraguay for several days before returning to our base here at this hotel for the remainder of our trip.