DAY-03: Buenos Aires
DAY-03: Buenos Aires
Day – 03: Thursday, February 20, 2020
Starting Location: Hotel Emperador, Buenos Aires, AR
Ending Location: Hotel Emperador, Buenos Aires, AR
It's Thursday and a free day to roam the city. We eased down to breakfast about 10 AM, not the greatest hotel breakfast we've experienced but since it was included in our room rate who could resist.
The breads and pastries were generally good and the fruit and cereals similar to what we would expect at home. The bacon, fried pancetta was okay but not what we think of as bacon, it was very chewy and looked like thinly sliced SPAM, maybe this isn't typical for Argentina.
Sheila struck up a conversation with another Oceania cruiser, a gentleman from Los Altos, CA. This will be an interesting dynamic if we meet again as it may develop into a full-fledged "top this" stand-off. The hotel is the home for KLM flight crews, we've seen many pass through over the two days. While at the buffet, I chatted with one of the pilots about layovers in Buenos Aires; he was a big fan of Buenos Aires and was kind enough to offer a few tips for walking in the area, things to see and do and his take on life in the city.
After breakfast we planned our day and around 11:30 headed out into the city. We walked the 9th of July Avenue along the tree lined streets. Thinking it to be a good idea to have a bit of local currency I stopped by an ATM for a few pesos, let me place emphasis on the word "few". I placed the debit card into the ATM and punched a series of buttons and out popped Argentinian cash, I put the cash in my pocket and we were on our way. What I hadn't paid much attention to was the currency exchange rate, nominally 60 pesos to the U.S. dollar. Remember I mentioned a "few" pesos, what I had withdraw was 200 pesos, the equivalent of about $3.35 in U.S. dollars. Seems that the peso uses the $ sign so you have to be careful to distinguish U.S. $ signs versus Argentinian $ signs. So for $3.35 in currency I had paid a bank service charge of about $8.00, not my best financial move of late.
Around noon we came upon the Colon Theater and decided to take the tour. Before entering we walked around one for the central plazas adjacent to the theater passing the ministries of justice and education. From the plaza we took some pictures of the Obelisk mentioned earlier before heading back to the theater.
Back at the theater we purchased two tickets for the 2 PM tour and with about an hour to wait sat down for drinks and pastries, coffee and Pepsi with cheese cake for us this day.
The tour started right on time, our guide being very informative about everything related to the theater including stories of design and construction, shows, performers, composers and the nature of attending the ballet and opera. We took a lot of pictures and for me it was more than tolerable as there would be no opera or ballet performance until March 21st, two days after our return to home. The theater was patterned after theaters in Europe. We sat in the good seats and learned that the pricing for shows ranges from $2 to about $200 dollars (U.S.) equivalent. Not sure $200 will get you in to a New York or Washington theater. Here are pictures from the tour.
After the tour we headed back into the crowds of walkers, traversing the many lanes of traffic to amble along what would have once been a Central Park walkway. Over time the increase in traffic has resulted in converting park space into car and bus lanes. I think Sheila counted 16 traffic lanes along this central boulevard. Sheila finally found a place with Agapanthas, unfortunately not in bloom at the moment.
And of course it's a city, what would it be without a pigeon or two, make that 2 or more thousand.
The Royal Pink Poinciana trees were in bloom, magnificent flowers.
One thing that was obvious and as I remember typical of South America, is that they tend to build nice attractive plazas and buildings but the ability and will to maintain the infrastructure is not economically achievable. The streets and walkways are pitted with concrete cutouts having been repaired leaving 3-4" drops from the walkway. Walkway tiles are broken and wobbly; there is little to do but be careful as you walk.
As we returned I took another shot at the ATM, this time opting for real money $2,000, that would be pesos $, about $30 (U.S. equivalent). Though that seems to be small, one thing we've found is that prices in Argentina are much lower than expected. As an example the drinks and cheesecake mentioned above for the two of us was about $14 (U.S.) total. In most major cities that might have covered my two cups of coffee.
By 5 PM or so we were back in the hotel. and soon thereafter headed to the bar for a bite to eat, our dinner for the night. For Sheila it was a margarita pizza and a veal short rib dish for me. This was topped off by a dish of chocolates delivered to the room as a late night snack, best plate served by the hotel to date.
That was about it for the day. I worked on this diary, and Sheila read and slaved away at puzzles. So ended day two in Argentina.
It's Thursday and a free day to roam the city. We eased down to breakfast about 10 AM, not the greatest hotel breakfast we've experienced but since it was included in our room rate who could resist.
The breads and pastries were generally good and the fruit and cereals similar to what we would expect at home. The bacon, fried pancetta was okay but not what we think of as bacon, it was very chewy and looked like thinly sliced SPAM, maybe this isn't typical for Argentina.
Sheila struck up a conversation with another Oceania cruiser, a gentleman from Los Altos, CA. This will be an interesting dynamic if we meet again as it may develop into a full-fledged "top this" stand-off. The hotel is the home for KLM flight crews, we've seen many pass through over the two days. While at the buffet, I chatted with one of the pilots about layovers in Buenos Aires; he was a big fan of Buenos Aires and was kind enough to offer a few tips for walking in the area, things to see and do and his take on life in the city.
After breakfast we planned our day and around 11:30 headed out into the city. We walked the 9th of July Avenue along the tree lined streets. Thinking it to be a good idea to have a bit of local currency I stopped by an ATM for a few pesos, let me place emphasis on the word "few". I placed the debit card into the ATM and punched a series of buttons and out popped Argentinian cash, I put the cash in my pocket and we were on our way. What I hadn't paid much attention to was the currency exchange rate, nominally 60 pesos to the U.S. dollar. Remember I mentioned a "few" pesos, what I had withdraw was 200 pesos, the equivalent of about $3.35 in U.S. dollars. Seems that the peso uses the $ sign so you have to be careful to distinguish U.S. $ signs versus Argentinian $ signs. So for $3.35 in currency I had paid a bank service charge of about $8.00, not my best financial move of late.
Around noon we came upon the Colon Theater and decided to take the tour. Before entering we walked around one for the central plazas adjacent to the theater passing the ministries of justice and education. From the plaza we took some pictures of the Obelisk mentioned earlier before heading back to the theater.
Back at the theater we purchased two tickets for the 2 PM tour and with about an hour to wait sat down for drinks and pastries, coffee and Pepsi with cheese cake for us this day.The tour started right on time, our guide being very informative about everything related to the theater including stories of design and construction, shows, performers, composers and the nature of attending the ballet and opera. We took a lot of pictures and for me it was more than tolerable as there would be no opera or ballet performance until March 21st, two days after our return to home. The theater was patterned after theaters in Europe. We sat in the good seats and learned that the pricing for shows ranges from $2 to about $200 dollars (U.S.) equivalent. Not sure $200 will get you in to a New York or Washington theater. Here are pictures from the tour.
After the tour we headed back into the crowds of walkers, traversing the many lanes of traffic to amble along what would have once been a Central Park walkway. Over time the increase in traffic has resulted in converting park space into car and bus lanes. I think Sheila counted 16 traffic lanes along this central boulevard. Sheila finally found a place with Agapanthas, unfortunately not in bloom at the moment.
And of course it's a city, what would it be without a pigeon or two, make that 2 or more thousand.
One thing that was obvious and as I remember typical of South America, is that they tend to build nice attractive plazas and buildings but the ability and will to maintain the infrastructure is not economically achievable. The streets and walkways are pitted with concrete cutouts having been repaired leaving 3-4" drops from the walkway. Walkway tiles are broken and wobbly; there is little to do but be careful as you walk.
As we returned I took another shot at the ATM, this time opting for real money $2,000, that would be pesos $, about $30 (U.S. equivalent). Though that seems to be small, one thing we've found is that prices in Argentina are much lower than expected. As an example the drinks and cheesecake mentioned above for the two of us was about $14 (U.S.) total. In most major cities that might have covered my two cups of coffee.
By 5 PM or so we were back in the hotel. and soon thereafter headed to the bar for a bite to eat, our dinner for the night. For Sheila it was a margarita pizza and a veal short rib dish for me. This was topped off by a dish of chocolates delivered to the room as a late night snack, best plate served by the hotel to date.
That was about it for the day. I worked on this diary, and Sheila read and slaved away at puzzles. So ended day two in Argentina.
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