3:50am meeting time = no fun!!!! (Even less so when the drinking team was right outside your window screaming until late at night!)
Today we had our flight to Buenos Aires!!!! So exciting!!!! But waking up so early was no fun at all :-( The whole group except the drinking team and... The guide were missing! I had to go and knock on Darryl's door to see if he was coming but no answer... As a CEO he should have been the first one at the meeting spot and most importantly be on time... But I guess he had one too many beers last night and was extra hard to wake up this morning!
Once we were all ready we left for a short drive to the Salta airport! When we got there all the counters were closed and we decided to sleep on the floor until the counter opened at 5am!
I was the first one to check in and the lady at the counter said that our plane was delayed an hour for "descanso de la tripulación" (so the crew could rest)... Hmmmm... What about us?!? :-(. So annoying! We had to wait for ages but on the bright side... We are going to Buenos Aires!!!!!
Once in buenos aires we got to our hotel and then walked one block to calle Florida which is a very touristy street with lots of shops! On calle Florida we saw tons of guys screaming "cambio cambio" and trying to get tourists to exchange their dollars with them. Argentinian pesos have suffered from inflation so people there are desperate to get tourists dollars. If we go to a bank and exchanged dollars or withdraw from an ATM the exchange rate is about 8 pesos per dollar, on the "black market" the exchange rate is at least 12 pesos per dollar... An automatic 33% discount on everything (or at least that's how I see it!)
In the afternoon some of us went for a free walking tour of Buenos Aires. While walking to the meeting point we had our first taste of Buenos Aires and it looks like we are in Europe, most specifically Paris!
We started the tour at the national congress.
Our guide was really funny and he said that we should walk and look up to see the buildings but also look down for dog shit since there is a lot of that and we don't really want to step on it (less so with flip flops!)
We then proceeded to walk down Avenida de Mayo where we had many stops to appreciate the architecture of the place and get more details about the history of Buenos Aires (BA) and Argentina in general.
We then stopped to look at a building with Evita facing "the rich" part of BA and criticizing them for not giving more and thinking of the poor.
Fernando, our guide, said that Argentinians are very proud people and any time that an Argentinian does something big that person becomes their hero and suddenly every body has a connection with such person (most time a made up one). The Pope is all over and we even passed by his haircut place where they had a sign that they cut the pope's hair for so many years. Then Fernando proceeded to talk about the Pope's soccer team and how it became super popular once the Pope was elected.
We stopped at Cafe Tortoni, the only cafe in Buenos Aires that looks like it did when it first opened! it really felt like walking in a cafe in the 1960s!
We ended ended the tour by the pink House (presidential palace) where Evita came out to the balcony and talked to the people of Argentina. There was a big protest going on and apparently many protests happen right there.
At night a group of us went for dinner to a highly recommended steak house... Don Julio...
I decided to go because I didn't want to miss out on the whole Argentian steak house experience. The restaurant was very nice and i actually liked the picture on the wall that show you the different cuts of meats:
The ambiance was great, the service was nice and quick and they had pasta for this happy vegetarian! (Although I did try a bite of everybody's meat... When in Argentina...)
By the end of the meal we were all stuffed! I barely touched my pasta because we had so many starters and sides: 2 salads, roasted veggies and French fries. Like I do in SF, I asked them to put my food in a doggie bag to give to somebody on the street and when we were ready to go a little girl approached the restaurant window and looked at everybody eating, she looked hungry, dirty, and sad and I made some signs to see if she wanted the food and she was thrilled! Neil got up and went out to give her the food... I believe that small actions can make a big difference!
After an amazing dinner we went to a tango show at Cafe Tortoni. The show was nice but there was too much singing and not enough dancing! Plus, we were super tired so I kept falling asleep! :-( and the fact that the drinks and churros were not amazing didn't help!
Haha here we are goofing off after the show:
No comments:
Post a Comment