Finally... The Posting for our First Week in Buenos Aires

Welcome to Apartment 5J

Upon arrival around 3-3:30 pm, and after greetings and apartment tour by the building manager, there is a map left for us with the location of the grocery store, so we buy essentials for the evening and the next morning. There is cable TV, so after sandwiches for dinner, we try to watch TV before retiring for the night – by 7:30, we can’t keep our eyes open any longer and go to bed.  

View from our bed

The next morning (Monday) around 9:30, I wake up, make some tea and wait for John to get out of bed.  Around 11:00am, we get organized with our list of the first things we need to do to find the way through our first day…  We discover Starbucks to download John’s NYTimes on his Kindle.  (There is only an Ethernet connection here).

Obelisco on av. 9 de Julio from Starbucks

We explore Av. Corrientes, cross the roundabout that circles the Obelisk of Argentina and walk up and down Av. 9 de Julio and Lavalle.

Av. Uruguay looking
towards Av. Corrientes

On Corrientes lookin
 toward the Obelisk

 

The next day, more shopping – meat, produce and home supplies and a router so we can both use the internet and download onto our Kindles.  Now we set up our "work stations" in the dining room.

Work stations ready to go...

Wednesday turns out to be laundry day – set up laundry room to hang the laundry, then find a lavanderia down the street to take send some of our laundry out. We work at our computers and then out again to explore the area. We have our first Argentine steak from the market – quite good and cheap $17 AR pesos (about $4.00 US) for two T-bone cuts that are tender and tasty.

Blanched broccoli, smashed potatoes and T-bone steak
We haven't had a steak in a looooong time

For the next few days, we find ourselves settling in by reading and writing on Kindles and computers in the morning and then in the afternoon going out to find things like the post office, more grocery and produce markets, a gym for John and just where we are in this urban city.

We find that we are only blocks away from the Plaza de Congreso and then make a couple of trips to the Plaza de Mayo to visit the Museum at the Casa Rosada, the Cabildo and the Catedral Metropolitana. The Plaza de Mayo surrounds the Piramide de Mayo where every Thursday, the mothers of the disappeared - "Madres de la Plaza de Mayo" march with photos of their adult children who were kidnapped by the armed forces and paramilitary gangs during the 1970s.

Plaza de Mayo and Casa Rosada

 

Catedral Metropolitana

Modern-day Banks

"Madres de la Plaza de Mayo"

Christopher Columbus stands behind the Casa Rosada

During the next few days there is thunder and lightning - it rains on and off during the weekend.  With the rain, our internet is compromised and we make occasional trips back to Starbucks to check email and get the NYTimes.  For some reason, I can't get into my aol account, so I check in with gmail and Facebook.  The days are not lost for I occupy myself going thru the Buenos Aires Tour books and photographing through the bedroom windows and around the building…



Distant view from a window

Leaded window stairwell
and the cage elevator

It's still raining on and off on Sunday and still no internet  – street is quiet because it’s Sunday – A good day for exploring the neighboring streets.

Av Uruguay looking
toward Av de Mayo



Av de Mayo

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Next week - getting our internet back and finding city tours...