Adios Buenos Aires

We left Buenos Aires on the night of April 19 at 1120 PM on our LAN flight to Miami. The departure was over an hour late due to radar problems at Ezeiza airport. Their main air traffic control radar was damaged by a lightning strike just after we arrived in February, and was still in the process of returning to normal operations.

The delay was a minor inconvenience as we originally had a connection time of one and a half hours in Miami. As a result, we had less time to wait around, and boarded our American flight from Miami to Los Angeles. After another 5 1/2 hours of flying, we arrived at LAX. We gathered our luggage and made our way through a light rainstorm to catch our US Airways flight from LAX to Phoenix.

After approximately 28hours of travel, door to door, we arrived home in Phoenix. Thanks to the help of our outstanding neighbors, Therese, Gary, Sally, and John, the house was exactly as we left it.

While it is nice to be to back home and into our "normal" routine, our goodbye to Buenos Aires was at the same time bittersweet. We were there long enough to get to know some great people, and had begun developing some fine friendships. I know that I can speak for all of us when I say how moved I was by the outpouring of kindness and generosity we received on the last few days before our departure.

I (Steve) will especially miss the friends I made in my Taekwondo classes at Evolution. I came in to their group as an inexperienced white belt, and the only North American. Muchisimas Gracias to instructor / sensei Alberto Lettiere for your hospitality, kindness, and talent as a teacher. Also, I would not have learned as much and progressed so well without my friend Ricardo and my frequent sparring partner Martin. I will miss the intensity and variety of Alberto's workouts. But I will definitely return in the future to visit.

Sensei Alberto Lettiere


Ricardo S. - Black Belt and Pan-American Champion

Martin G. - Friend and Mentor

Robert D. - Medical Student and Receptionist at Evolution

During our stay, as well as our week in Buenos Aires last October, we relied on Nora of Lavanderia "Nora" for all of our laundry needs, and also got to know her son Paul and grandson Walter. We will miss them all for their local advice and conversation. It was always fun to stop in and chat with them, whether we had laundry to do or not.

Nora E.Walter E.Paul E.

It would be a great error not to mention our favorite pizza and empanada place across the street, Mi Taragui. We consumed our share of Calabresa (Pepperoni), and Jamon con Morrones (Ham and Red Pepper) pizzas, not to mention their excellent Jamon y Queso , Cebolla y Queso, and Carne empanadas. Juan Carlos and Javier, the Mezo brothers, run the place. Thank you for your friendship, and we will look forward to getting together next visit for an asado (cookout).

El maestro - Juan Carlos

The kids' last day at school was particularly touching. Both of their classes had their own sendoffs for Diego and Bianca. They were both weighed down heavily with gifts, mementos, and photos from their friends and teachers. Thanks so much to Diego's teacher Miss Andy, to Bianca's teachers Patricia (Spanish) and Nora (English). They were instrumental in giving the kids a great experience that they will never forget.

Miss Andy and Diego


Patricia - Profesora de Castellano

Nora - Profesora de Ingles

Bianca's Last Day

Best Wishes to all of the fellow students and parents that we had the pleasure of meeting during our stay. Obviously, to list everybody off would be very lengthy and bordering on the impossible. Let it suffice to say that we are honored to have met and shared a short portion of our lives with all of you. Thanks to modern innovations such as email, we will be able to keep in touch for years to come. And of course, our Argentine friends will always have an open invitation to visit us here in the US, if the opportunity presents itself.

It would be an embellishment to say that every minute of our stay in Argentina was perfect, or that things always went smoothly or as planned. But what I think made our trip the most memorable was the exchanges that we had with other people. The love, kindness, and hospitality we encountered truly gives us hope that all is not lost on this crazy planet we live on. Beyond all borders, languages, and prejudices, it all boils down to the fact that simple human contact and friendship are the things that matter in this world.

Roberto N. - Encargador / Caretaker of Our Building

Don Miguel - El mejor peluquero de Buenos Aires (Best Barber in BsAs)

We've Got Company!

Hard to believe, but we are into our final week here in Buenos Aires. Silvia is on the road to recovery, and we have been able to get out and about more often. After so many days inside, it was nice to take her out for a nice café breakfast and a movie with the kids. She also made it to her Arabian dance class on Friday.

The highlight of the last few days was the arrival of Silvia’s sister Lorena from Los Angeles. She will be spending our last week here with us and flying back on the same flight. Her flight arrived last Thursday morning on time, but unfortunately without her baggage. Apparently the TSA decided to screen connecting bags to her LAN flight, which resulted in the flight leaving without her bags, as well as the other connecting passengers from LAX. The bags were eventually delivered to our apartment, one later that day, and another the following morning.

We have been doing our best to show her some of the local sights, and some of our favorite hangouts. Xoana, our babysitter, was available on Friday night, so we were able to leave the kids and have an “adults night out,” which was very enjoyable. We decided to go back to the Las Canitas restaurant / bar district and eat at Las Cholas, a classic Argentina parilla. It was the place that was recommended to us on our last visit to Las Canitas.

Some Pretty Mexican Girls I Found On the Street

For dinner we decided to order one of the house specialties, a combination plate of different meats from the parilla. It was touted as being able to feed two, maybe three people. My observation was that what we were served could have fed two or three NFL linemen. Combined with our grilled vegetable spread we ordered, it was an incredible amount of food - too much for one guy and two skinny girls! Fortunately for us they had a takeout box for us.

A Meat Eater's Dream --- A Vegetarian's Nightmare

After the dinner we walked down the street in search of a watering hole. The bars were still relatively empty when we arrived at Jackie O’s at 11 PM. It was nice, because we were able to get some choice seats at the bar as the place started to fill up. It was an interesting mix of people, generally an over-30 crowd. The music videos they were showing were a good eclectic selection as well. A local production company had put together some “remixes” of sorts, kind of like a greatest hits video for several groups. The one for Jamiroquai sticks in my mind for some reason.

Nena's Newest Friend

Typical Airline Pilot

Another highlight of the weekend was our Sunday visit to San Telmo, an older and historic part of Buenos Aires just south of the downtown microcentro area. They have a street fair every week featuring wares for sale, live dancers and music. We were hoping to see some live tango dancers, but being that the weather was a bit grey and windy at times, I don’t think they were out in force. We did get to listen to a couple of excellent tango musical groups, and a duo playing one of my favorite styles, a bossa nova combo of guitar/vocal and saxophone. All of us managed to find some items of interest to buy, ranging from BsAs souvenirs and shirts to a head massaging tool for Silvia.

Mc Donald's Tango Style

Diego's First Tango Partner

(Above - Various San Telmo Scenes)

It was quite a long day of walking, subway rides, and exploration. However, we had made plans earlier in the week to take our friend Robert Diaz to dinner. Our entire group of six piled into a cab, and we had dinner at Cabrones, a Mexican restaurant. The food wasn’t very spectacular (I.e., not very spicy), but we had a nice time hanging out and chatting with Robert. He is a 23-year old medical student from Peru who we met working the desk at our Tae Kwon Do / Danza Arabe gym across the street. He is planning on doing some of his residency in Houston in the coming year. Hopefully we will have the chance to meet up again next spring.

Cabrones Dining at Cabrones

Planning to get another post out before we leave on Thursday. It is getting to be “crunch time”, trying to get as many things in as we can before we have to head back to the USA.

Mister Mom

Yes, folks. About time we get another post out. My excuse this time is actually a valid one. I have officially been “Mr. Mom” for much of the past week. Unfortunately, Silvia has been battling an ear infection. It began with a mild sensitivity in her ear, which she thought might have been a mosquito bite. But day by day, the blockage and pain in her ear worsened to the point that we had to seek out a doctor. However, our timing was not very good. By the time we had made the decision to find a doctor, it was late afternoon the Thursday night of Easter weekend. Eventually we found a community health center in our neighborhood, but they recommended she see an ear specialist who would not be available until two days later.

Her examination confirmed our fears that she indeed had an ear infection. The worst part was that the infection was acute enough that it would be two or three days before she would see any improvement. I did my best to get the kids out of the apartment for several hours each day so she could rest. We managed to keep pretty busy with trips to the local parks, restaurant play areas, and such.

The kids especially enjoyed our trip to the Museo de los Ninos, at the Mercado Abasto shopping center.http://www.museoabasto.org.ar/ Silvia had planned on joining several other moms and kids from Diego’s kindergarten class, so I was named substitute Mr.Mom for the day. It was actually a nice afternoon. The Museo is not really a museum at all, but a three level play area for kids set up like a miniature city, with a bank, post office, supermarket, gas station, Mc Donalds, etcetera. The also had a cargo ship with a working crane to load cargo in nets. I enjoyed chatting with some of the other parents (I was the only Dad present). The fact that I had already met most of them while dropping off Diego at school made it a lot less awkward.

At the very least, I have gained a better understanding of what Silvia goes through when I leave on an airline trip for three or four days. In keeping with the “medical” theme of this post, I have finally gotten a taste of my own medicine!

Eating Well (Again) in Bs As

Well, another week has passed since we last posted any updates. We have been so busy that it is hard to sum up the entire week’s events. And, unfortunately, we have been pretty lazy about taking the camera with us. I have been trying to remedy that the last few days. I need to start documenting more things on camera and video- the things we see every day around here: our neighborhood, schools, favorite restaurants, our friends. It is hard to believe that we have to leave it all behind in two weeks.

After last week’s more “realist” posts, we have gotten some interesting feedback from family and friends. A common thread has been “Oh, I bet you are really looking forward to getting back to your regular life in the States!” Well, yes and no. Silvia and the kids and I have actually talked about that sentiment. Obviously we miss our friends and family in the States, and the many amenities and conveniences that we enjoy as Americans. But it is an interesting transformation that takes place when you live and interact in a new place for a while. Silvia was teasing me yesterday about taking so many photos while we were walking around. She said “you look like a damn tourist.” I had to think about it for a second before I responded, “well, actually I am!”

The Neighborhood - Calle Dr. Julian Alvarez

In some ways, though, we feel like locals. We do most of our business within about an eight block radius of our apartment. We have our favorite cleaners, grocery stores, restaurants, ice cream shops, barber, etc. all nearby. The real pleasure has been in getting to know some of the people we interact with on a personal basis: our building caretaker, our cleaners, the guys at the pizza/empanada place across the street, all the gym trainers, dance class and Taekwondo friends, and of course the teachers and families we have met through the kids’ school. They will be the part of the trip we will miss and remember most.

Now to bring things up to date on our last week’s activities. One of the less appealing aspects of last Monday through Saturday was the grey rainy weather. We got some extensive use of our umbrella and raincoats, something new for people from Arizona. The upside was that the weather was still warm. And, the last few days here have definitely made up for last weeks rain - spectacularly clear blue sky and lots of warm sun, temperatures in the mid 70’s F.

As usual, we have been enjoying a lot of cafes and restaurants, while managing to cook some meals and make most of our lunches at home. One of the highlights of the week was the first chance Silvia and I had for an adult’s night out. We had been dragging our feet about finding a babysitter, and finally asked our landlady about it. It turns out that Joanna, the girl that cleans our apartment once a week, lives in a family of 11 children. As Patricia, our landlady, put it: “I don’t think you will find anyone more qualified to take care of your kids.” The best part is that Joanna’s aunt is married to Roberto, our building caretaker, who lives on the 9th floor. When she babysits in the building, she can just go upstairs and spend the night with her relatives.

On Saturday night, Silvia and I took a cab to Las Canitas, a nice area about 15 minutes from our place. It is a very popular restaurant district, with probably 40 restaurants and bars within a four block radius. We went there with no specific plans, and, ironically, came upon another Mexican restaurant, Cabrones. Since we have already been to two other Mexican places, we just stayed for an appetizer and a drink before moving on. Our next stop was a great sushi place, Sushi Club. A small, intimate place with a hip, interesting mix of people. We enjoyed some California Rolls, sake, and beer. Very nice, and not too expensive.

To continue our “restaurant hopping”, we asked the waitress at Sushi Club to recommend another “don’t miss” place in Las Canitas. She mentioned Las Cholas, one of the traditional Argentine parilladas (grills). There was a line of people waiting to get in and eat - at 1130 PM! We had been running around all day, so we caught a cab home instead of waiting.

We did manage to get our parillada fix Sunday night. We went out at 8PM with the kids since Monday the 2nd of April was a holiday, Dia de las Malvinas/Malvinas Day (Falklands to you Brits). Our restaurant of choice was Don Julio, http://www.guiaoleo.com.ar/detail.php?ID=802 a really nice place in Palermo Viejo. We had walked by it a few weeks ago, and it was full of people, both at the inside and outside tables. I took that as a good sign, and I was right. Silvia and I had some of the best steaks we have had on this entire visit. The kids shared some grilled chicken, and even Diego finished his. The staff were very friendly. We were among the first guests of the evening to arrive (at 830.) I wasn’t familiar with all of the items on the menu, and asked the waiter to explain some of the different items. He had us all stand up and walked us over to the large parillada/grill. He introduced us to the chef, Hugo, who opened the cooler and laid out out all the cuts of meat for us to see. What a great variety, from ribs to T-bones to juicy bifes de chorizo and bifes de lomo. Enough to make even a vegetarian think twice.

Parillada "Don Julio"

We had delicious meal with bread, salad, and the meats and chicken brought directly from the grill to the plate. Another nice touch was the two ice buckets at the end of the table, to chill the sodas for the kids and my ¾ liter Quilmes beer. It ended up being one of our more “expensive” meals so far, about $35 USD with tip. An added benefit, especially after a large steak dinner, was that the restaurant is within a nice eight block walk of our apartment.

Not So Much Time to Explore

Pizza Dinner at the Pad

Two posts in the same day, you ask? Well, not really. The last one - Reality Check was written about a week ago. I finally had time to put the text and some photos together.

I am finding out that it pays to keep up with a web log every few days. We have been so busy with our school routine and day-to-day operations that it can be hard to remember what we did three days ago. School days typically go the fastest. The kids are up by 7 AM, and I walk Bianca to school at 0740. Back to the apartment to get Diego ready, and he is off to Jardin at 835.

When we first arrived, Silvia and I had some lofty plans of sightseeing and checking out other areas of the city, but we have found ourselves to be limited to the times between 9 and 12 when Diego is in school, and from 1320 to 1620 when Bianca is in her afternoon session. While we don’t regret putting the kids in school, it definitely has cramped our style on the exploration front. By necessity, it has put us more into a normal living routine, rather than a vacation-style outlook.

We did manage to get down to Puerto Madero last week on one of our morning jaunts. Puerto Madero is the revitalized dock and warehouse district east of downtown Buenos Aires. After languishing in neglect for about 20 years, the area was brought back to life in the early 90’s. It is now the location for a nice yacht harbor, offices, loft apartments, and a slew of upscale hotels and restaurants. Also nearby are the quays for the high-speed ferries to Uruguay, operated by Buquebus. Time and finances permitting, we may take one of the ferries over to Colonia, Uruguay on the other side of the Rio de Plata.

Pictures (Top to Bottom) Puerto Madero and Buquebus Ferries

We stopped for coffee and a pastry for about 45 minutes before we had to make our way back to Palermo. While the Puerto Madero area is very nice, neither of us have much desire to return later. We don’t see it as a very accurate reflection of the essence of Buenos Aires. I am sure there are plenty of nice restaurants, bars, and such, but all of them are geared (and priced) towards tourists and the wealthiest 1%. Since we have been here, the places we have enjoyed the most are what you might call the “local hangouts.” We tend to pop in and eat at any place that looks interesting to us.

Not to say that we don’t sometimes plan our restaurant outings. We found a nice website - http://www.guiaoleo.com.ar/ , a comprehensive online restaurant guide to Buenos Aires. You can search by type of cuisine, restaurant name, and location. If I find somewhere interesting, I plug the address into my interactive map website: http://www.cybermapa.com/ . Put in the street name for Calle and the number in Altura and the map comes up. We have used it to find a few places in the immediate area. Since we usually eat a lot of local Argentine food, we have been going more for the “ethnic” foods: a Chinese restaurant and two Mexican places here in Palermo.

We wish everyone our best. We have been lazy recently about taking photos, and plan to post some new ones in the near future.

Reality Check

Thanks everyone for the comments and emails on the blog postings. Time has been passing quickly down here in Buenos Aires, and for the most part, everything is going well and we are enjoying ourselves. However, I have decided to make a post to provide a more “realistic” view of spending an extended period here away from our home, friends, and family. Silvia complained to me that out blog tends to “sugar coat” our experience, and ignores some of the trials and tribulations we go through day by day in Argentina.

One of our major concerns is one of personal space. We are used to country living, with neighbors out of sight and out of earshot. Our square footage for living space has gone from 2400 to 850 square feet. The kids, accustomed to their own bedrooms, have been sharing a small room with two twin beds. When Bianca arrives home for lunch or after school, the kids tend to be at each others’ throats. Our best defense is to go to the park or to a restaurant with a play area so we can let them wear themselves out.

Kitchen in Our Apartment

Living Area in Our Apartment

As adults, Silvia and I have our own occasional tensions due to lack of space. There are few places to hide in a small apartment. It has been an adjustment for both of us, since we are used to having several days a week apart due to my airline schedule. The good news is that we have managed not to strangle each other yet! We do manage to take some personal time to go to Tae Kwon Do class, the gym, or out to explore or shop on our own. Silvia and Alejandra, the mother of one of Diego’s classmates, had the chance to go shopping together last week.

Buenos Aires is a city of many dogs. Each day, one can see professional dog walkers, known as paseoperros, exercising a large group of dogs, sometimes as many as ten or so together at one time. Between the paseoperros and other owners walking their own dogs, obviously a large amount of “doggy do” and urine is generated. All of it is deposited on the sidewalks, and about 1 in 50 owners will take the time to clean up afterwards. Walking the sidewalks always requires an extra awareness of where you are putting your feet.

Paseoperros in Action - Watch Where You Step!

To their credit, most building caretakers and business owners perform a morning ritual each day. At about 8 AM, they emerge en masse with hoses and squegees to clean their respective sidewalks. But, 24 hours later, the sidewalks are ready for another rinsing.

Mosquitos have been an issue as well. Since we arrived a month ago, we have encountered a day or two or rain each week, which probably contributes to their breeding. Because there are no screens on our apartment windows, we have all received our share of mosquito bites. They seem to favor Silvia the most- they must like Mexican blood. We finally got an anti-mosquito product for the apartment, and it seemed to work pretty well last night. We have turned the tide in the bug battle.

Weekend Fun and Games

This weekend has been a fun, although busy, break from the weekday school routine. Diego and Bianca finished up their second full week of school Friday. I think everybody enjoyed to opportunity to sleep in on Saturday morning.

Saturday afternoon we hailed a cab in front of the apartment for a 10 minute ride to Palermo Viejo (Old Palermo), the location of Yaos, (http://www.yaos.com.ar/) the event hall hosting a birthday party for Bianca’s classmate Joaquin Cora. The majority of the children were dropped off by their parents, but because of the distance from our apartment, Silvia and I decided to stay for the duration of the party. The kids enjoyed themselves with the the basketball hoops, slot car racing, and other games. The pinnacle was the magician, including a couple of real white doves.

(Magician at Joaco's Party)

(Diego Driving his Slot Car)

We had a nice time at the other end of the hall with the other adults, mostly the immediate family of Joaquin. The staff kept us well supplied with coffee and sodas, a great selection of sandwiches, and some incredible cakes. Marcelo and Laura, Joaquin’s parents, were extremely gracious, and a lot of fun to talk to. I would venture to say Marcelo’s English is much better than my Spanish!

We headed back to the apartment after the party ended at 630 PM. Next on the agenda was to get Silvia her Mexican food fix. Like many of the restaurants here, our restaurant destination didn’t open until 830 PM. We grabbed another cab ride back to the Palermo Viejo area, and arrived at the Mexican restaurant Xalapa at 840 PM or so.

The food was quite good; good enough to impress even the skeptical Silvia. She had Enchiladas de Pipian, and I had Carne Tampiquena. The kids were satisfied with some quesadillas. Being that we were running very late with young children, we headed home soon after the meal, just about the time the restaurants were starting to fill up.

The Palermo Viejo restaurant scene itself is worthy of its own web log post. However, any good Buenos Aires guidebook or travel website can give more detail. Suffice to say, Palermo Viejo, with its subdivisions Palermo Soho and Palermo Hollywood, offers some of the most interesting and varied dining in the city. Anything from traditional Argentine parillas to just about any ethnic cuisine you could ever want is available. The only drawback is that the prices are a bit higher than the standard B.A. eateries, but still a good deal by U.S. standards.

Continuing on with the weekend festivities, today (Sunday March 18) was our day at the Zoo. To add to the enjoyment, today featured outstanding weather, which is forecast to continue through midweek: Sunny, light winds, and about 80 degrees F / 28 C. This marked our third trip there since October. Always a fun time. We made a point of arriving at 1230 PM, since our last visit two weeks ago was late in the afternoon, and we didn’t get to see everything.

(Plaza Italia - Near Zoo Entrance)

(Zoo Fountain)

(Diego at the Snack Area)

(Bianca and Diego at the Snack Area)

(Feeding the Zebras)

(Family Photo inside the Rainforest Building)