Day 1 in Argentina

We are safely in Buenos Aires, though it took forever to get here.  Who knew that the flight here from Miami would take 8 1/2 hours--4300 miles--which is almost as long and far as Hawaii from the East Coast!  We are way below the equator of course.  And then there was the shock of 85-degree temps--the end of the Argentine summer as Washington´s winter near its end.  

BA might as well be Paris--everyone European in appearance with only the slight hint of something else.  Architecture, roads, clothes, shops all very European in feel.  It is clear that properity visited here--and maybe hasn´t departed for good.  Our hotel is in Recoleta, a swanky part of town, but our hotel is more like a boutique type, and somewhat faded at that.  Still we are comfortable and the room is a nice size.  We are still not sure if the tap water is drinkable--the hotel and restaurants .have been giving  us bottled water.

Before a nap, we took a long walk through the massive Recoleta cemetery filled with mausalea dedicated to big shots buried here since it was founded in the early 19th C.  Eva Peron.is one such.  Nobody eats dinner till at least 8 PM so we filled our post-nap time shopping--fascinating leather shops appealing both to the fashion-conscious and the polo set, with neat gaucho silver, stirrups, saddles, etc.  Suddenly the rains hit and continued through our dinner at a lovely Italian restaurant recommended to us.  Off to bed!