And Away We Go

Sunday, October 29, 2023
San Telmo, Buenos Aires, Argentina
A bit of catching up!  When we headed outside on Friday morning, things were looking a lot more normal around town.  Most of the places that had been boarded up were open again, including La Divina Comida, a place in Plaza Simon Bolivar, by the Presidential Palace, that we had eaten at and stopped for drinks at several times.  The name means "The Divine Meal" in Spanish, but is obviously a play on "The Divine Comedy" (especially with the attached El Purgatorio bar and El Paraiso coffe shop).  Still no Canal Museum, though.  We had a good lunch at Al Alma, around in Independence Square, another place that had been boarded up the day before.  
In the afternoon, we tried again to head for the Miraflores Visitor Center in an Uber, this time by a different route, but once again the traffic was blocked solid when we got about two thirds of the way there.  And then the torrential rains came, as we turned around and headed back.  In the evening, after the rains had let up, we found another place just down the street that had opened up again, called The Mahalo Snack Shack, and had some really tasty salads.  We had some entertainment as the torrential rains returned and there is an open patio area between the dining area and the Tiki bar where they were getting all of the drinks from, and had to use umbrellas getting back and forth--a bit of a design flaw.
Saturday morning, the weather was beautiful as we wandered over to Independence Square to check on the Canal Museum, still not open, so we were just sitting on a bench watching the world go by.  Then the rain clouds came rolling in and we headed for the cover of the pavillion in the centre of the square, along with about a dozen other people, where we waited out the storm.
Then back to our apartment to close up our bags and check out, leaving our big bags there to pick up later, as our flight to BA was not scheduled until 9:30 pm.  At the end of our street the little Greek restaurant, Opa, that we had been checking on every day, was finally open.  So we went in and had some very good and filling moussaka and pasticcio to hold us over for our journey and watched the rains come and go again.  We hung around for a couple more hours around the snack bar on the corner and had some drinks, then retrieved our bags and Ubered to the airport. 
Well, it wasn't our lucky day for travel.  After sorting out the 2 gate changes on our flight (from 1 terminal to another) there were several different delays to our flight.  So, instead of a 9:30 departure, it ended up being around 1:30 am, with the last hour+ spent sitting on the plane.  All of this apparently because of a bird migration that was playing havoc with all of the flights in the area.  Our flight was late getting in, but then we had to wait and wait for passengers whose connecting flights were late.
We finally arrived in Buenos Aires around 10 am Sunday Morning.  Fortunately, everything went smoothly on arrival, breezed through immigration, got our bags pretty quickly and grabbed an official Ezeiza taxi and got to our AirBnB in San Telmo by 11:15.  I even managed to get a WhatsApp message to our host from the airport to tell her that we would be late for our arranged 11:00 meeting.  After a very quick nap we headed out to get some money exchanged (I'll have much more to say about the currency situation in Argentina later) and pick up a few essentials at the grocery store.  Now, one of the bonuses of our location is that we are just a block away from the famous San Telmo Market.  And Sunday is the big day for the market, so, despite our sleep-deprived state, we decided to go and check it out and find some lunch.  I think we hit it right at peak time (around 2:30) and it was a zoo!  But it was very impressive.  We ended up finding a spot at a place right in the heart of the market, called The Pincho Bar.  But rather than getting a light bite, we ended up getting talked into their special--a big slab of beef (and fat!) smothered in blue cheese, with some great fries.  Welcome to Buenos Aires food!  Then home for a serious nap.
In the evening we headed back up the street, near the market, and had a pizza a little spot.  One thing about this neighbourhood is that there are wall-to-wall restaurants and cafes all over.  Then home for a drink, a bit of TV and a much anticipated good night's sleep.
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