We spent New Years at 10,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean. The flight attendant handed out flat champagne. The flight was mostly empty, and I spent most of my time looking through the Sky Mall catelogue. You can purchase this:
or this:
from the comfort of your airplane seat.
Argentina from the sky looked like a microchip – patchwork farms, lone mansions surrounded by a copse of trees, pools shining turquoise in the sun, a river and its tributaries dividing the land into many islands.
Buenos Aires was hot but breezy. The streets were mostly empty, with everyone sleeping off their New Year’s Eve hangovers. We walked along the broad avenues for hours, admiring the city’s architecture; if I knew the difference between Neo-Classical or Art Nouveau, I could do it more justice but I don’t. There are balconies overlooking the tree lined streets (and the trees are enormous, with their branches stretching across the street to the top of the buildings) and a cafe on every block serving the Argentinean staples, pizza and empanadas. I would like to do a photo series of the doors in Buenos Aires alone. The doors are tall and imposing, either wooden or wrought iron or stained glass or some combination of all three, and no door is quite the same as the next.
We walked in circles around downtown and Montserrat, the home of many of the public buildings in Buenos Aires in the Plaza de Mayo, ending up at the Puerto Madero, where the old warehouses lining the canal have been converted into fashionable restaurants and bars, and winding back towards the Theater District where we live.
Coming Attractions: Photos! When I figure out how to upload them. Actual descriptions of the places we visited! Interesting stories (like the first purse snatching we witnessed (spoiler: the thief was caught and paraded down the street by the police officer to loud cheers))! My adventures with Spanish!
Until then, buenas noches.
