Howard

Well, such are the vagueries (sp) of travel that we wound up in SA! The woman had wrtitten that a bus for Lujan leaves BA at 9:00. We got to the huge Retiro bus station at about 8:20 and guess what - no Lujan bus until 12:50. Undeterred, though perhaps a bit crabby with each other, we bought tickets for the 9:30 SA bus, which got us to SA about 11:45. It was a short walk of about about 10 minutes to the main square of SA, nicely landscaped, with some modest but nice late 19th century buildings surrounding it, highlighted by a photogenic church at one end.

Unfortunately, that was almost the highlight of SA. Perhpas the highlight was our stop in one of the buildings on the square in a museum/workshop of guacho items.

The town was quiet, especially as much of our visit seemed to coincide with siesta. We did visit two other small (dusty) museums in the town, one of which was sort of a reconstructed estancia (ranch) located in a large park on the edge of town. There is an actual estancia located on another edge of town - Cinecina - that our guidebook didn't rate highly - but it would offer a full day of activity - lunch, a guacho show, etc. for one set price.

Howard

By the time we realized there was not much in town, it was probably too late for the show at Cinecina, and Don in particular was not really interested in it anyway, so we wound up staying not too long in SA, taking the 3:45 bus back, arriving in BA at 5:45.

I would not rec. SA as a day trip from BA - not worht the effort for what it has to offer. However, there are a number of estancias where you can stay overnight, and I think these would be nice if you want a change of pace from BA, though they can be pricey. There are also organized day tours form BA for lunch and a show at one of them, if you like organized tours - neither Don nor I do.

Upon return to BA, we had a nice walk to the Recoleta neighborhood, stopping on the way to hear an army band playing in San Martin park. We wound up eating at a place in Recoleat called Cumana. Highly recommended. It was sort of a neighborhood palce, the kind we frequent in DC. The menu was sort of Italian and very inexpensive. We had a total of 4 empanadas as an appetizer, a calzone and gnochi as entrees, beer and bottled water to drink, and finished up with coffee. All for a totl of $10 US.

Howard

We thought of going to a bar where a cover band was playing Beatle songs, but wound up instead walking back to our hotel from the restaurant. That took over an hour, includng stopping for a very good streen musician group of 3 singers/guitar players. I wound up buying their CD ($5 US). It seems that many of these street performers now have their own CD.

We got back to the hotel about 10:15 PM. It was anotehr long day - we had left the hotel about 7:40 AM. I got right into bed, but Don did about 90% of our packing. Thank you, Don!! Before he started, it looked as though our stuff had exploded around the room.

Today is our last day - time flies. The plane leaves at 10:15 PM, so we have the full day in BA. We have a walk planned for the morning - from the hotel to Mujeres bridge in Puerto Madero, then over to the Congress building, which we have not seen up close, then we plan to go over to the trendy Palermo Viejo area for lunch. We have been to Plaermo, but not that particular section.

Howard

Then, starting at 3, tehre is a travel show open to the public, with exhibitors from all over Latin America. I hope at least some of the brochures are at least partially in English (iffy I know) so that I can read them on the plane. The travel show seems like a good segue to future travel - perhaps we will get some ideas. (Though we already have our next rip planned out) We really like to travel, and if I could pick an job to do, it would be a travel agent.

We need to get back to the hotel by 7 to catch a cab to the airport.

I plan to psot a some point not long after we get home to DC.

Ciao

Judi

Hello, Howard. I hope you and Don had a safe and pleasant trip home.

I enjoyed reading your report. There seem to be a lot of questions about Buenos Aires/Argentina but not a lot of trip reports.

We are looking forward to our trip to Argentina in March. It will be our first trip to South America and we are looking forward to it.

Thanks for posting.

richard58

Hi Howard, thanks for sharing your experience. We'll be off in about 10 days for BA and I have a question. Do either of you speak Spanish? Were you/would you be able to do those excursions without speaking Spanish? Thanks, Richard

travdis

Believe it or not we were on the same plane as the orginal poster. Orginally we were scheduled to leave BA on Friday but our flight was cancelled and were forced to stay in BA another 24 hours. Some of the people that were scheduled for Friday's flight did not get out on Saturday either. They were begging for volunteers to leave Sunday and were offering $600 in flight coupons. Others were bumped because the flight was full (overbooked). United Airlines EZE to IAD.

Look for my future posting Buenos Aires-- the good bad and ugly. The City is a mixed bag for sure!

drdawggy

My dream is to be offered a hefty flight cupon to remain an extra night in BA, a city where I could spend a lifetime.

Howard

Hello yet again...now safely ensconsed at home.

Judi..thanks for the nice note. Richard....both Don and I speak VERY limited spanish. Neither of us can have a conversation, but we do know perphaps 50 or so words each, which if one is innovative, you can do a lot of "logistics" with. Many people in BA speak a lot at least a bit of english, and of course some speak more than a bit. I would not let the lack of spanish be a deterrent for travelling around.

Travdis and drdawggy....when we got to the airport we heard that the prior night's flight was cancelled. When we got to the ticket counter, we were offered the $600 deal to delay the return by a day. They said we could think about it for a while. We seriously thought about it for about 15 minutes, but decided to forgo the day and headed home. The flight was uneventful (a good thing), and after landing about 6:50 AM, we were home by about 8:30 AM in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of DC.

Howard

Back to our last day (Saturday the 27th) in BA, it was a very good day for us. Often on our trips, I think the last day is half-spent spent "clock-watching". We saw new things this day in BA - of course a lot of that had to do with the 10:15 PM flight - we could get in a full day of activities, which is not normally the case.

As planned we walked from our hotel to the Santiago Calatrava designed mujeres bridge in Puerto Madero then then up Avenida de mayo to the Congress building. The only damper was that it was pouring - the worst weather of our trip - but by the time we got to the Congress bldg. about 10:30, the skies were clearing a bit. It got progessively better during the day, and by late afternoon the sky was a beautiful blue.

After the walk, we took the subway to the Palermo neighborhood and went over to the Palermo Viejo area (an area within Palermo) and really liked the area. It is sprinkled with interesting shops and resaturants and is quieter and less trafficked than the other parts of BA we were in.

Howard

We had a very nice lunch at the restaurant Social Paraiso - I had mushroom salad and lamb, Don had squash soup and risotto. Definitely a place to check out.

Our last activity of the trip was to attend a travel show being held in a nearby building. We had no idea of how big it would be or how many people would be there, but it turned out to be very large. At least a few thousand people in attendance at any given time and probably a couple of hundred booths. Not unexpectedly, almost all brochures were in Spanish, but we picked up some of those and some in English, primarily to read on the plane and perhaps get some ideas for future trips. A lot of fun for travel lovers.

While we were in line waiting to buy tickets for the travel show, we happened to be standing next to an American couple who had moved to BA in July.

They asked if we would recommend BA as a travel destination to other people.

Howard

My response was that I would, but with two caveats:

1) I would only recommend it to people who had done a fair amount of travelling. There are no compelling must-see draws that are obvious sights(e.g. Notre Dame in Paris, the beaches of Rio). I don't mean this as a slight to BA, but I think by and large, people first want to see some famous attractions, and perhaps would want to visit a place where a visit would have more obvious things to focus in on.

2) I would only recommend BA to people who like and are comfortable in big cities. There is a lot of traffic (pedestrian and auto), and while it is by no means dirty as large cities go, it is also not prettified up.

We liked BA, and had an enjoyable vacation. I would be curious to see what travdis (see prior post) has to say.

Anyway, I am about to hit the sack. Tomorrow its back to work, and the anticipation of our next trip.

Ciao

Howard

Quick follow-up. I've been back at week almost a week, and I am glad the weekend is almost here. I have brought my pictures in to be developed (Don has a digital), and my tan is still here, but it will probably fade quickly.

AnnieIFL

Hi Howard,

I really enjoyed reading your posts, I think you have an catchy style of writing. =D>

It would be really cool if you copy and paste your report in:

http://www.travelpackers.com/index.htm
or
http://www.travelpod.com/

I think alot of people would benefit from and enjoy reading your report, and you have your trip documented.

Annie

FilmNoir

TTT