Sunday April 29, 2018

Sunday April 29, 2018

Blog time 0800 sitting in hotel in downtown Buenos Aires

Once again playing catch up

Friday April 27,  spent day in and around the resort town of Bariloche, Argentina with snow capped mountains and alpine lakes.

It was cool today with temps in 30s but with clear sky and sun.  In Patagonia the wind blows constantly but have not seen one windmill.

First thing this morning we had a lecture on the Nazis in Patagonia.  The speaker was a third generation citizen of Argentina.  His family immigrated from Germany.  His father was a member of the Hitler youth group in Bariloche.  Some members of the Argentina/German community supported the Nazis.  After the war a famous German war criminal lived undetected in Bariloche for 30 years.  Very interesting talk.

After the lecture we got on bus and headed to the Patagonia steppe to visit a large working ranch.  Patagonia is both a temperate rain forest and a arid steppe, not unlike western and eastern Oregon.  We had a lecture on the daily life of the Argentine Gaucho (cowboy).  The ranch did raise beef cattle but their main income was from raising merino sheep for their wool.

We had a BBQ lunch prepared by the staff of the ranch.  I elected to go on a raft trip down the Lima’s River.  Nancy did not go.  Always amazed to see a fast flowing river in middle of a desert.  Noted a lot of fly fisherman on the river.

We had dinner on our own.  Nancy and I were both nursing colds so we elected to have a sandwich in the hotel’s bar.  Surprise! nearly our whole group had the same idea.  A lot of folks have caught a cold.

Saturday April 28,  today is a travel day.  We are going to our last stop on the tour, Buenos Aires.  We took the local Argentina airline to BA.  The flight was a little under 2 hours.

After we checked in we attended a lecture on Argentina’s recent economic and political history.  The talk was give by an expat American citizen who has lived in Argentina for the last 33 years.  Volatility described the economic and political environment.

For dinner our group was divided into three sections. We were driven to a small apartment where a local family prepared dinner for us.  We had the Argentine version of Shepard’s pie.  We had a local wine with our meal. Our host explained her life style.  She is a teacher who commutes to work on a bike.  She had very strong political opinions.  It was a good evening with spirited conversations and plenty of wine.  As soon as we got home we were in bed.

Sunday April 29. 2018:

First full day in BA. After breakfast we took a bus tour of the city. Although the temp was in the high 60s it rained constantly.  We visited the cathedral where the current Pope served.  We were able to watch a service underway.  We also visited the cemetery where Evita Person was interned.  First skyscraper cemetery I have ever visited.  We also visited a local shopping area.

As soon as we got home we got out of our wet clothes and headed out to visited a shopping areas within walking distance of our hotel.  I did buy Nancy a tee shirt.

To warm up after our wet walk we stopped at the hotel bar for a glass of wine.  We were soon joined by three other members of our group.

Took a short nap and then we attended a Tango lesson.  After the lesson some folks headed to a Tango show and dinner.  Nancy and I elected not to go.  We instead walked to a local pizza restaurant for dinner.  It was a great evening for a walk.  The rain had stopped and the streets were loaded with folks out for a night on the town.  Monday is a national holiday so most folks have the day off.  

The pizza joint was jammed but we did get a table with little wait.  We shared a small pizza and had a piece left over.  Great pizza.  It was 2200 when we left the restaurant and the number of pedestrians seems to have increased dramatically.  We headed to bed as soon as we got to our room.  Every hotel on our trip has had a TV.  We have not turned on TV.  What does that tell you?