last days in B . A.

Another botanical garden, this time Japanese. You could be in Japan with its little fish ponds and bridges. Another museum..Eva Peron's private museum full of her propaganda.

Dinner at a neighbourhood restaurant. Finally some cooler air. It feels refreshing.

I spend all night looking at my watch because we have no alarm clock and Michael's flight is an early one.

I finally have the bed (it's a double) to myself. Then I treat myself to breakfast including cafe con leche (it's frothed) which I have come to love, at the cafe restaurant at the corner. I feel like a local reading the Spanish paper and watching the ladies walking their dogs. A person could get really fat having a breakfast like this one...toast with marmelade and real cream, freshly squeezed orange juice and those wonderful buttery medialunas (croissants). Lots of calories, but I'll be hungry in a short time.

Although the people could be from Toronto, since they all come from European roots, they seem to take their time lingering at cafes and the pace of life seems less frantic here.

I pack my bags and head to the airport 3 hours before my flight is to leave.

The adventures of flying to different airports at this time in light of the increased security is enough to fill another blog at another time.

Hasta la vista Argentina

swimming

Since the weather is stiflingly hot again, we head to a giant sports complex. There are soccer fields, tennis, and several swimming pools at Parque Norte. You have to be examined by a medical doctor before entering and paying for your lounge chairs and umbrella and entrance fee.

People come with picnics and sit in the sun all day. I thought tanning was passe. Not here.

Women of all ages wear bikini thongs. Why don't men?

I sit by the side of the pool for 5 minutes and get completely sunburnt. Apparently, there is a hole in the ozone layer here.

We decide to splurge again for dinner at a fancy restaurant recommended by Daniel. He is the guru of gourmet. This one, however, is awful. The steaks are tough and they charge heavily for a few slices of not great bread and olive oil. It looks great, but looks are deceiving.

End up at another milonga place recommended by the waitress. It's a funky environment in a remodelled church. Very crowded, and very very hot.

I really don't do well with hot stuffy places.

Tigre

We decided to take a trip out of town to Tigre, a small town on Rio de la Plata about an hour from B.A. At the confluence of 5 rivers, Tigre is a mix of grassland, forest, swamp. A 2-hour boat ride took us along the river to see campgrounds, hotels, individual cottages, wrecks of old boats. No one was swimming in the dirty brown water. But people have properties there surrounded by parklike grass. There are some neo-Gothic and Tudor style homes because British people were in charge of their construction.

I've never felt more uncomfortable in the 33- degree heat and humidity of the day. Then we had to go to the casino (not a smoke-free environment). It was definitely a 2 shower- day for me.

Michael, on the other hand, said he felt quite comfortable. Costa Rica is even hotter, he admitted.

museo

We had to go to B . A . to see an Andy Warhol show. It wasn't the show that we went to see. It was the Museo de Arte de Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires. The museum is home to one of the largest collections of Latin American art in the world. A very popular place to be. There was a huge line to get in on an ordinary Sunday afternoon.

Not a lot is open on Sunday afternoons. So we got on a city bus and just said to the driver that we wanted to go to an area where there were restaurants. He didn't get it, so I couldn't pay because you pay for your destination.

We got dropped off in an unfamiliar barrio and found an empty restaurant(it was only 7:00 p.m.) and when we came out of the restaurant, the street was no longer empty and the stores had opened up.

There is a lot of garbage on the sidewalks in B.A. People , some sporting nice clothing and cell phones pick through the garbage and recycle what they want. Some guys haul it away in carts, others just carry it with them.

Friday night service

We went to Bet-El Synagogue in Belgrano barrio (suburb) where Eli and Ester Bard met and drew their inspiration from. I took an outside photo, but was stopped from taking any others by a guard. It's a very simple sanctuary with minimal decoration. The rabbi Dany Goldman came to introduce himself to us.

It's amazing to me that you can walk into a synagogue anywhere in the world and still know the liturgy and melodies of the service and consequently feel at home. The congregants did turn around when saying the Amidah prayer ( I don't know which direction the synagogue faces).

After the service, we met an older couple who accompanied us to a local restaurant and we spent the evening socializing and learning about Jewry in Argentina from them.

cemetery

One of the must-sees in B . A . is the Cemeterio de la Recoleta. The very fact that it is in Recoleta, an elegant and ritzy residential and shopping district speaks to illustriousness of the citizens buried there. Of course, everyone flocks to Eva Peron's tomb. It has fresh flowers and crowds around it. Hers is not the most over the top memorial by any means. As many as 18 graves can be laid on top of each other. A funeral was actually going on when we were there.

Around the cemetery area, there are many restaurants . Not a surprise! We had grilled vegetables, not the different parts of the cow that were being cooked over huge fires indoors.

The homeless and the wealthy are side by side in this area. B.A's most expensive hotels surround a park where homeless people live under plastic wraps.

We spent New Year's Eve watching people strolling along the waterfront of the man-made canal. All the women were dressed to the nines, but the guys were wearing jeans and T-shirts. Probably designer jeans and T's. But what a contrast!

Michael was upset because the taxi driver who drove us home didn't want to speak to him, saying he didn't understand English. Except Michael was actually speaking Spanish at the time!

shopping in B.A.

People eat out all the time in B.A. The sidewalk cafes are overflowing. One of the oldest areas to eat and shop is Galerias Pacifico. It's an upscale mall with wonderful murals, skylighted dome. It's adjacent to the pedestrian shopping street of Calle Florida. Here one can see street performers and shop in regular stores filled with shoes and leather goods. I didn't really see anything to buy. So I saved a lot of cash.

We took a guided tour to the Boca area and San Telmo areas where European immigrants first came to live in colorful corrugated houses and started the melancholy dance known as the tango.

Puerto Madero is the recreated waterfront where you have American style restaurants and high-end condo buildings. It used to be where ships docked, now it is man -made canal with artwork that looks like ships.

Ended the day with Daniel's suggestion of a Swedish restaurant where we lied about dinner reservations (which you must have)and they accommodated us at a low coffee table in the garden for dinner. But it was worth it!

A cultural note...everyone smokes. The six women who were sitting near us in the garden of the restaurant were smoking non-stop. (at least it was outdoors). And, everyone sports tattoos, lots of them, and rings in every imaginable place on the face and body. Also, the women I just mentioned were all talking and texting on their individual phones. I don't think they spoke to one another the whole night.

I guess that just shows my age.