Tuesday, March 12: We slept until 8:30 and didn't finish breakfast until 10:30. It was another overcast day. We were surprised Carlos hadn't called. Then we discovered that our telephone didn't ring. We got that fixed. In the meantime, there was a message from Ruth Ruda inviting us to dinner at her home on Thursday. Then Carlos called and said we were scheduled for the city tour at two, and that Major Sola' would escort us to the City Hotel at 1:15.

Not wanting to waste what remained of the morning, we walked to the Avenida de Mayo and down to the Plaza de Congresso. In addition to the building where the legislature meets, there were beautiful fountains and sculptures. Across the street was the interesting old Cafe El Molino with a windmill high on its front. We walked back to our room, stopping at a corner pastaficio to pick up some baked (not fried) empanadas for lunch.

Palace of Congress

Cafe El Molino

Darrell in Plaza del Congresso

Major Sola' arrived right on time, and we walked several blocks to the City Hotel, just off the Plaza de Mayo. We were there by 1:45, but no one showed up at the tour office until 2:15. (The correct time for the tour was 2:30.) The bus left the hotel on time, but fought heavy traffic to get to another hotel where we changed buses. The tour finally started at 3:10. Fortunately, the guide described everything in both English and Spanish.

The bus took us by the Colon Theater, the Congress building, the Casa Rosada and the Plaza de Mayo, all of which we had seen before. There was a quick drive through San Telmo, by the Casa Blanca, a tango club. Then we drove to La Boca (The Mouth), another of the old neighborhoods. This south side waterfront area was settled by Genoese immigrants who were very poor. They built their houses with corrugated metal sheets, then painted them with whatever paints they could scrounge from the shipyards. There usually was not enough of any one color to paint the whole house, or even one whole side of it. As a result, the houses were multicolored, often with very bright colors. Many of the old houses remain, scattered among the newer ones. One short street (Caminito) has been preserved intact and turned into an artist colony. The harbor in front of the neighborhood is filled with half-sunken ships.

Artists on Caminito

Old houses in La Boca

Harbor at La Boca

From the poverty of La Boca, we drove north along the river to Palermo, the city's most elegant neighborhood, lined with huge parks, monuments, embassies, and palatial homes. On the way, on the shore of the city center, we passed Puerto Madero, more than a dozen large, red brick warehouses that had fallen into disrepair, but now are being rehabilitated and turned into elegant offices, shops and apartments.

From Palermo, the tour bus drove us through the Recoleta neighborhood we had seen with Carlos. The bus dropped us back at the City Hotel at 5:45. We talked to the travel agent there about taking the tour to Tigre in the delta north of Buenos Aires. We got back to the Condo at 6:10 and called Carlos, as he had asked. He offered to come and eat with us, but we knew he was exhausted and gave him the night off.

We walked over to Le Famiglie at 8:30 for an early dinner. It was raining. We thought we were learning how to order in Spanish, but still were surprised. My cod fish tortilla was cod in an omelet, not a flour tortilla as I expected. Jane's milanesa de pollo was smothered in a thick, rich, multi-cheese sauce. We had coffee back in our room. I even had some cookies we'd picked up at a nearby bakery. The instant coffee Norma had bought for us (Virginia brand) was delicious, nothing like the instant coffee we have in the U.S. We got to bed at 10:30.

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