Arriving to Buenos Aires
Sara's mom
The Plane Ride:
We left SF airport to Buenos Aires Tuesday February 26th. The plane took off 30 minutes late. I don't know why. It arrived 5 hours later on time in Miami Fl. I don't know how. This is the first time that I have flown since the 9/11 happening. It was a bit of a shock to see armed military in uniform with guns at the airport. Wow. The security even made Sara take off her shoes to check. They didn't want my smelly shoes. I was wearing sandals, and Sara wore tennis shoes.
Sara (I thought) bumped into a friend at the airport. He gave her a hug and with a British accent ask "How are you doing darling?" Then he shook my hand for a greeting. As we were walking away with starry eyes she said "Wow, I just meet Craig David". "Who", I said? She was so excited she just had to call one of her friends up on a payphone. I guess now I ought to buy his CD, Ya think.
The plane ride was pleasant. We saw a movie "Hearts in Atlanta" staring Anthony Hopkins. Cute movie. I wouldn't mind seeing it again. We arrived in Miami 10:30pm and walked a mile or two to the next terminal to catch our next flight to Buenos Aires. The plane ride took 8 hours and we arrived the next morning. I can sleep in cars, trains, but not a plane. Most everyone on the plane was Argentino with a few of us Americanos. I had a conversation with the lady next to me some in Spanish, and some in English. We understood each other ok, and had a nice chat. A lot of people warned Sara not to leave me alone in Buenos Aires, and to be very careful. Things are tenser down here. I was becoming more and more paranoid and wonder if we should have made vacation plans somewhere nice in the US. I got a hold of my fears and decided if I could survive NY City in a very country-looking dress (dumb country hick written all over me), I could also handle Buenos Aires. After all, we are all part of this big beautiful world.
Hola Buenos Aires:
The airport there was calm. The first noticeable thing was the heat and the humidity. They were having a record heat wave that day. Gee it was just winter yesterday. This is my first time across the equator into the opposite season. We rode off in a remis (pronounced raymeese) taxi to our hotel about 20 to 30 minutes from the airport. I notice a Shell gas station on the way that looks like the ones we have. Even the sign for "car wash" was in English. Shell stuck their American gas station here and didn't change a thing.
The hotel that we are staying is in Central Buenos Aires (downtown). Very nice and comfortable. Our room has hardwood floors, not too much of a view, modern fluorescent lights, and a cool coffee machine. It does espresso and well as regular coffee.
Sara and I walked for 30 blocks to exchange our dollars for pesos. I really got to see a lot of the downtown area. A few things that I notice to be different are the police are on foot everywhere wearing bulletproof vests; the traffic is crazy no one stays in their lane, and they make a left hand turn from the right lane three lanes over. How do they survive here? No one one bothers with seat belts, and the traffic light flash yellow before they turn green. Despite Argentina's bad times I only saw two homeless people begging in the street. SF has much more than that even in the best of times. When we got to the bank it was crowded, and the bank was much smaller than in the US. It was the size of a small jewelry store. There was a doorman letting people in one at the time. Most everyone there was business men/women exchanging their pesos for American dollars. The exchange price changes daily now, and the dollar is more solid. It is sad to see this happening to a country that used to be strong economically. The exchange was $2.15 a peso for one dollar. It was one to one in better times. For me thats great, I get double my money down here.
We did a little shopping and found the prices to be much cheaper. Sara bought a bikini for $7 pesos. While we were at this little shop we heard a lot of clanging noises from the street. It was a peaceful protest against their national banks. Sara and I went over there, yeah we got in the middle of it all. We took a lot of pictures. They had signs and banners and banged on cups or some kind of metal. The news cameras were there. The police lined themselves up against the front of the bank, and the bank employees were inside looking out at the crowd. Wow, it was exciting. I was proud of the protesters for taking a peaceful stand for what they believed in. Then they moved on and stopped traffic in a busy intersection. Of all the protest in the US, this was my first one. This Friday there will be another protest in favor of the President. I don't think I will want to get in the middle of this one. I don't want to push my luck; this one might not be so peaceful.
In the evening Sara and I went for dinner and a Tango show. The food was fabulous, and the show was great. I order my meal in Spanish with a little help. Then I learned how to say carrots and raspberries. Now I have forgotten it. I bought a book that is meant to teach English to Spanish speakers. A little backwards, but I can still learn from it. The shuttle that took us there also picked up two other couples that were American also. One couple was from Wisconsin and had just arrived like us. The other couple I didn't get to meet. They were further in the back of the bus.
We had a good night sleep in the hotel, and ready to start another adventure. The sleep was very welcome because I was up the entire night before. I think I am already used to the new time. The change hasn't bothered me too much.
End of day One.
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