Lynda,

Thank you so much for such a wonderful and prompt report! Yes, you have certainly helped us a great deal, and now we are even more excited about our upcoming trip to BsAs next week! We will be there for about a week or so, and we will also be going to Iguasu Falls and an estancia. Again, many thanks for all your expertise and help. (I also enjoyed and learned from your Africa reports). We appreciate your taking the time so soon after your return home. Thank you.

LyndaS and Eddwarm,

Thanx so much; we booked Marcelo for tourguiding for next week. We are all looking forward to our time with him in Buenos Aires! We appreciate your advice very much.

Carole

Hi LyndaS and Eddwarm!

We are home from our wonderful trip to Bs As. (I have already posted the first part of my trip report). Our day with Marcelo was absolutely great! All 4 of us thought that he was a truly excellent tour guide and a really nice person. I thank you so much for the recommendation! We learned so much from him, and it was a most enjoyable and special day! Thank you.

Carole

A month to date (October 5-10), my good friend and I traveled to Buenos Aires for (unfortunately) a mere five days for me and four for him.

We stayed in Palermo this time in a penthouse condo which was on the 27th floor of this modern beautiful complex overlooking a great majority of Buenos Aires, the greenery in Palermo, the river, the convention center and beyond. My friend and I had arranged our lodging through www.ba4uapartments.com.ar.
A few weeks prior to our arrival, Tomas, the manager sent us an email apprising us of the fact that the owner of the apartment that we'd desired to rent had wanted tenants who would be staying longer; thus he upgraded us to the penthouse, a superb choice. We liked everything that was associated with this 2bd apartment of which both had en suite bathrooms. I gave my friend the larger/master bedroom and bath and I took the smaller of the two. Friends who visited us loved what had happened on our behalf; we loved it as well and intend to make arrangements to stay there again when we're back in Buenos Aires.

Because our days and nights were short, we entertained friends on two nights. On Thursday we took Marcelo to dinner at La Cabrera 5099 @ Thames (4831 7002) in Palermo. Marcelo and we had eaten there previously, and we allowed him to make the reservations for us. We had a wonderful, wonderful time with this now 30 year old (but looking ever bit of 21 or 22) porteno, our friend. We took photos which appeared on both of our Facebook pages as well and ate a sumptuous meal without wine or alcohol. Price wise I don't remember because my friend and I chose NOT to do a budget for this trip. We dined and enjoyed in every venue we went. (After examinining our respective credit card/debit card charges--we now know how much each special dinner cost us while we were in Buenos Aires, Rio de janeiro, Colonia, and Paraty, Brasil!)

On Friday we took our friends to dinner at Cluny, El Salvador 4618/22, 4831 7176. A superb dining experience was had by all.

Saturday was special: my friend and I went to two faires: one in Recoleta and the other in Palermo. From there we were taxied to La Boca where we merely strolled and took photos and checked out how some eateries and shops have begun to spring up outside of the space where we've been previously. After becoming exhausted we went back to our penthouse and rested to prepare us for the evening.

At 8:45P my friend and I found ourselves @ Casa Salt Shaker in Recoleta for a very special dining experience. Check out the website for particulars: www.CasaSaltShaker.com. There were seven guests for a five course dinner. Each served dish was complemented by an appropriate wine. Those who had wine paid $50US; I being the only guest who did NOT have wine paid $35US in advance (reservations which my friend had made for us). It, too, was a superb evening. Although we arrived at 8:45p, we did not leave this intimate and personal dining experience until around 12:30a in the rain; thus we hailed a taxi after having to wait a bit.

Although this is slightly like a report, I posted here mainly to state that we were able to see Marcelo again but in a friend-to-friend situation vs. guide and client.

Since this trip has ended--I truly yearn to be in South America. We lived in apartments in both of our main cities to which we traveled, and it is quite--quite different than staying in a hotel.

Quite a diverse amount of postings, mostly off the topic of the original posters favorite tour guide. But, very enjoyable. Sort of like being at a cocktail party hearing bits of conversation swirl around the room. :)

I have @ least three postings here, all alluding to Marcelo specifically except for my last and most recent post in which I mentioned that my friend and I were able to see him again during our most recent jaunt to Buenos Aires.

condu, I am elated that you did enjoy the readings in spite of some of them being off topic!

kevin57 and eddwarm: Thank you for your recommendation of Marcelo. We used him as a guide today and found him extremely informative and accommodating to our individual requests. We only booked him for half a day, but were sorry that we did not plan on a full day with him. His service was a great value and we recommend him highly to anyone looking for an in-depth introduction to Buenos Aires. We had already taken a city tour, which was good for a narrow overview of a very small part of the city, but nothing like the detail that Marcelo provided.