12/14/16
Buenos Aries Condensed
We were only 10 minutes late for our arrival into this very interesting city of contrasts. No luggage problems this time around thank God, but it was a challenge finding Aiden, our OAT contact because there was a mob of welcoming parties outside customs and he was shorter than me. But we found him and 5 of us - David, Marge, Sandy, Pamela and I - boarded our comfy bus and headed through the city to the downtown area for our first hotel.
Aiden told us it was a stroke of luck that we could be on our way before the street protests began. Apparently December is the peak month for everyone to get their causes out there before the end of the year. They just gather along the main highways and gradually work their way into the streets where they bring all traffic to a standstill for several hours. The police are pretty passive and pretty useless so needless to say road rage develops very quickly.
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| The protesters start to gather - inching toward the main street and traffic mayhem.
Once everyone got settled in at the hotel, we gathered for an orientation walk around the neighborhood of our hotel. One of the highlights was a stop at El Ateneo, a magnificent bookstore that was once a theater. It reminded me of the Livraria Lello bookstore in Porto where JK Rowling wrote one of the Harry Potter books.
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My first Argentinean beer - Quilmes. Very light lager.
Some of us decided to end the evening with dinner at La Querencia, a nearby restaurant featuring regional food that previous OAT travelers recommended.
Our fearless leader, who usually prefers a stout, posed with a glass of my Malbec.
The absolutely perfect empanada just waiting for some chimichurri and/or hot sauce.
I had carbanado - pork, corn, beans, pumpkin and potatoes
with a small bottle of Malbec (about 2 glasses) .
Shelley's perfectly wrapped meat tamale.
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