JDPFu.com 2025

Oddly, Monday was a recovery day in many ways.
Rafe and Alan went to class.
Jim and John slept in a little.

Because John followed drinking rule #1 and #2, he didn’t have any hangover, but was just a little slow.

Around 10am, Alan called and said that he’d walked out of the Spanish class. He needed a pure beginner class and that wasn’t available so he was placed in a 2nd week class. Rafe studied and with his Italian language background was already on his way. Rafe stayed in the class.

The other 3 did a walking tour with short shopping stops. 6 miles later according to my pedometer and we stopped for lunch. Alan has this habit of ordering a beer with lunch and getting 985 ml worth – almost a quart. The place was recommended, the pasta was fantastic, and the walk home pleasant. Traversing through the music store section of BA – about 5 blocks of stores with instruments, music to play and musicians getting their stick fixed.

I haven’t mentioned the weather – for me it has been wonderful. The first day here, it was almost 80 deg. A cold front came thru and it didn’t reach 60 deg yesterday, but it is very sunny making for weather where a coat is nice, but there’s little chance of overheating. The other guys are from warm climates and would like it to be hotter.

The afternoon saw a longer than expected siesta followed by shopping on Avenue de Santa Fe (another 3 miles). My knee was screaming from overuse.

Change for dinner with Jim’s family around 9pm and back out for our reservations at a nearby pasta place just 2 blocks from our apartment. A mix of English and Spanish is spoken at the table – then add in Rafe’s Version of Spanish – La idioma de Capitan. It is a complex dialect with s added to make a plural word. Nine of us exchanged tales until midnight. Then is was kiss-kiss (once per cheek) and we headed home.

The hospitality shared with us by the family was tremendous. There was always a kind word and even when we couldn’t communicate due to poor Spanish, there was always a genuine smile and nod. Here we are visiting their country and occasionally someone would apologize for poor English.

• Gaucho tour is the plan for today. Everything is included in 1 price except things from the store.
  • Drive there. First we walk about 2 miles to a hotel to meet the tour mini-bus. Then we head north out of BsAs into the country. It feels a lot like Nebraska, except slightly flatter. 2 hour drive if my memory is correct.
  • eat a pastry. When we arrive at the tour-farm, it isn’t a working farm anymore, they have a small reception. Pastry and …
  • drink a cup of wine. Argentine wine is fairly good as wines go and reasonably priced for us.
  • horse and/or buggy ride; The other guys went horse back riding, but my knee was hurting, so it didn’t feel needed. Seeing parrots in the wild was strange. They are considered pests – like rats here. Their nests are larger than you’d expect and seem like bundles of crud.
  • chase geese; there was a small pond with some geese and swans. I needed to chase them.
  • art – they sell paintings and other locally made art in a little shop. Some of it is odd for American culture/expectations, but most of it is cowboy-like.
  • lunch – BBQ – eh; you always here about Argentine beef. I wasn’t impressed, but the Europeans were. Personally, I like my beef with meat, not half fat.
  • gaucho games riding a horse and using a stick to get a ring; it was getting colder and drizzling a little so they did 20 minutes worth. It was enough. Galloping at full speed trying to put a pencil-like stick into a ring tied from a pole by a string. Only 2 out of 10 tries seemed to work. It was windy and the ring was spinning.
  • art – they pushed the artwork again … Al bought some balls.
  • ride home – 2 hours more. We shared a matte; that’s a drink shared throughout South American cultures. It is a tea-like drink that is drunk from a special cup through a special metal straw. The sharing is important. Uruguay, Chile, Argentina cultures all drink matte. Paraguay may as well. If offered, you should accept the matte cup. You will probably be offered it.
  • get caught in a downpour walking; Since it is Sunday, local artists have a flee market on the edge of Recoleta. We have the minibus drop us off a short walk away in hopes of picking up a few trinkets. 30 seconds after getting off the bus, is downpours. We are still closer to our apartments here than at the official drop off point. Punt on the art idea and grab a cab back to the apartments.
• Siesta – as usual, we need a nap to make it to dinner around 11pm.
• Pizza dinner – fantastic Done around 12:30a and head to …
  Shamrock Irish pub with Al, Jim and me; We had a good time, so the receipt implies. *I believe that was a bunch of alcohol. This bullet point is the understatement of all time. I think Al left before Jim and I did, but neither of us recall that. I vaguely recall Jager-bombs, martini, LITea (my favorite), and probably 10 other drinks for me. We bobble home around 5am and I keep 1 foot on the floor to stop the bed spins. Much thanks to Luna, Chicago and the other bar tenders. Al, you suck for telling all the bar tenders that I thought their drinks were weak. I think the total cost for that tab had to be AR$400+ (US$130).

Saturday morning rolled around a little too quickly. I was up around 8am having some tea and an apple then started the upload of photos. A few hours later the other guys started moving and we met a the corner cafe for croissant and cafe. we left that nice place and walked a few blocks for another cafe. This time, I had a decaf while the other guys went for full strength.

Walking home, we stopped by a larger grocery store – Saturday morning at the only reasonably sized store for blocks was busy. Fruit, nuts, eggs and we’re ready for the week.

Showers and we’re out again … to a chain establishment in the USA looking for t-shirts from the local place. They have none, but we eat shrimp, chicken wings and I have quesadillas. A few photos taken, the larger-than-normal bill paid and we’re walking on the riverway – near The Mother’s Bridge.

There’s a 100+ year old sckooner and with Rafe being el Capitan, a tour is necessary. We spent about an hour on that boat. A very interesting history with upgrades over multiple wars and trips around the world.

Home for a siesta so we can go out late into the evening.

I’m awoken around 9pm, we’re out the door quickly and headed to an italian restaurant 15 blocks away. Fantastic food all around – I’m not hungry and have the Al Salmone salad. Wine, pasta, people watching and we’re on our way to Recoleta for some night life.

We stop at the family’s cafe for coffee, then wander into a bar that seems to have a good mix of locals. A few of us are immediately approached as we are ordering drinks. The language barrier actually helps since we now recognize the type of place this is. We finish our drinks, enjoy the interactive dance between those inside and quickly leave. We walk around the area looking for the right bar, go into a few others, but find them lacking. Along the way, we picked up a man who seems interested in us for some other reason – as though we were tagged in some way. Rather than have any excitement, we get into a cab for the short ride back to the apartments and call it a night.

Gaucho tour tomorrow.

Rafe and Alan arrived this morning. They checked into their apartment and needed a few hours to get settled after the overnight flight. Quite understandable. Jim and I were off to the grocery store for some essential items. Plans for a city tour, lunch with a relative and late afternoon meet the family in place. Through a communications mixup, we needed to reschedule everything. It worked out that the city tour was do today. Too many sites and too much history to list them all here. I didn’t take notes either. We did see the Olympic torch runner go by. Actually, we were stuck in a traffic jam about 5 cars back from the torch route, so by standing outside the car, I snapped a few torch photos. We saw much more of the city than listed here. Check the gallery for lots of photos.

We stopped for a late afternoon snack – that turned into 90 minutes then finished the tour in a barrio near the apartments. The snack we ate at Aires de Patagonia in Puerto Madero was very tasty – see the photos.

We’re back at the apartments for a few hour siesta before dinner and going out this evening. The Porteños (people from Buenos Aires) don’t eat dinner until 9-ish and don’t go to clubs until midnight or later for dancing.

Dinner was at a steak house – we had water (con/sin gas), beer, wine, steaks, potatoes and a server who didn’t know what was actually in stock from the steak, beer or wine menu. For each of those items, she returned saying they were out of the cut or beer or wine that we’d ordered. Jim’s Spanish was very helpful. According to some tests that he’s taken, he’s at the high-intermediate level. I find that easy to believe. The steaks were tasty and the potatoes (fries and chip-like) were ok.

After dinner, we headed to a cafe owned by a part of Jim’s family a block or so away for some caffeine. Al and Rafe were off to meet some girls at a club as previously arranged earlier in the day, the other two had a good walk back to the apartment.

Due to the 12pm caffeine, we were up until 4am.

Thursday morning and we are met by Jim’s relatives (Leo and Matt) who drive us to the apartment we have reserved for our stay – Google Map Link. It is rush hour and the traffic follows different rules than we in the USA are used to. If there is room and you can fit your car there, then it is fine. The motorcyclists are crazy. They swerve in and out of traffic, appearing between cars where I wouldn’t expect them. Leo doesn’t seem to mind and we get to the apartment very quickly to meet the manager.

The list of items already in the apartment is very extensive. Jim goes of the list with the cute leasing agent while I connect the laptop/wifi router to the internet to ensure it works. This home has almost everything already in it including sugar, but no potable water or food. My little router hasn’t been plugged in since before Hong Kong. All the settings are gone, so I just plug the laptop directly in – working.

Somehow my name is on all the contracts, so I get to sign them. Leave everything as we found it. Simple enough. We schedule maid service for each Tuesday morning.

First, a walk around the block to get a feel and some eggs, water, fruit. A man walks up to us in the little grocer and starts talking. I look stupid and Jim asks if he speaks English. That gets him to walk away and we check out. $6-ish.

Nap time.

After the siesta, we took a walk around the barrio and saw Louis Vitton and other famous stores. We visited the huge cemetery in Recoleta When it was time for dinner, we headed towards our apartment and made a wrong turn on a major road – Santa Fe – then walked 15+ blocks in the wrong direction. My left knee began to hurt and I became extremely hungry, so we compromised on a place to eat. Jim was able to order a Calzone that we shared. It was huge, very rich and delicious. However, I don’t need any more cheese for a few days. As we were walking home, me with a limp, we hit a few shops and an ice cream store. None for me, thanks. Finally around 10pm, we were home.

Wednesday, we left my homestead around 4pm and headed to midtown to park and catch MARTA down to the airport. Our flight wasn’t until 8:40pm, so really early doesn’t quite cover our timeliness.

We check our bags at the airport and decide dinner is a good idea. After a false start, we end up a the Budweiser Cafe. A few beers later and nachos (vacation!) and a hot dog for Jim and a chicken Caesar salad for me and we have $35 less in our pockets. It is still really early, so we wander from terminal A back to T and sign up with the gate agent – Jim is flying standby (there were 70 seats available, so it wasn’t a problem).

With so much time, we wander to the other end of the T-Gates and find a bar. $23 later and 1 drink each, we overhear that over 800 American Airlines flights were canceled today. Over 500 yesterday. We’re on Delta – non-issue.

The flight boards and leaves on time. To me, it appears that nobody is sitting in their correct seat – I know I’m not. This is an overnight flight – 9pm – 7am.

We arrive and go thru immigration fairly quickly. Very efficient. Then the baggage. According to the chief baggage guy, ours is on the plane. Mine is almost the last bag off the plan and Jim’s appears to be the very last 5-10 minutes later. Next is customs x-ray – no issue and we walk out of the uncontrolled area to meet some of Jim’s relatives from BA.

I still have packing to do for the trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina. My attempt to get an extra camera battery today failed, however, my haircut, lawn mowing and laundry went well. Check the gallery for the normal photos.

Going:

• The Architect
• Mr. MIT
• El Capitan
• me

2 have learned basic Spanish or better and 2 others have signed up for classes while in BA.