Argentine Arrival

We arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina at 7:30 am local time.  Jake had purchased Economy Plus seats on Delta, so instead of sardines we were sardines in an extra-long can for 10 hours.  We were in the middle row of 4 seats.  The other 2 seats were both occupied by people from Minnesota.  One is a corn and soybean farmer on vacation and the other was a young woman, recent grad school grad, who will start working for a seed company in March (one that the farmer buys from!).  First she is spending several weeks in Argentina and Mexico learning Spanish.

Arriving at B.A.'s international airport we stood in line for an hour to get to an immigration desk.  There we found out that we were supposed to purchase our visa first and that my visa for Chile does not have reciprocal status.  On to another line hidden behind the escalators that had just 4 self-service computers and printers where you go to a web site, fill in your personal info, pay $160 with a credit card, and print out your visa.  It took forever for people to figure out how to use the web site and how to type an @ symbol using an Argentine keyboard (its Alt 6,4 should you ever need to know!).  There was a whole lot of griping in that line! Next time we will know to get the visa online before leaving home! Skipped to the front of the immigration line this time, found our luggage which had been put in a pile since our flight had arrived so long ago, and waited in another line to go through customs.  Leaving the airport by 10 am.

Now things started looking up though!  We took a taxi to the Hotel Maison Vitraux, http://www.mansionvitraux.com/, in San Telmo where we got a tour of the spa facilities and had a one hour massage.  Soooo relaxing.....  Highly recommended post-10 hour flight.

Front of our apartment building in San Telmo

The dining room and doors to the balcony

View from the balcony on market day

Not quite stray dogs

Our landlady was waiting for us at the door to our apartment building, first photo, and it was just as it had been depicted - a lovely high-ceilinged, Paris-like apartment overlooking Avenida Defensa in San Telmo (photo 2 and 3).

Sunday is the big antiques and crafts market in San Telmo, so Av. Defensa is very busy on Sundays. We can watch the people go by from our little balcony.  We went out and had a cafe con crema and very good apple pastry at Cafe Poesia about a block away on Chile street then strolled around some (dog photo is from one of the larger streets, they seemed well cared for given the circumstances).  We will attempt to convert to the Argentine schedule of having a light dinner around 10 pm.  I know, you're thinking "good luck with that!".