Bienvenido á Buenos Aires!


| 21-Apr-2017 |   So today for us actually started yesterday with a flight from Seattle to Houston, then on to Buenos Aires overnight. The sun was coming up as we paralleled the Andes along the west coast before crossing the entire continent into Buenos Aires.  We landed about a half hour early at 9:25am, navigated customs and immigration then met our driver for the 45 minute transfer into the city.  I figured most of that would be wait-time in traffic, but in fact the international airport is way outside of town.
 
We’re staying in the Palermo Soho neighborhood, known for great boutiques, bars and restaurants and only a few minutes walk to the metro to get anywhere else in the city.We rented a killer apartment and met our hosts this morning for the local lowdown. Our building is one of many in the neighborhood that is actually from France. As in built and occupied there, torn down in the mid-1800s, shipped to Buenos Aires and reconstructed in the Palermo and Recoleta neighborhoods.
 After settling in we took off to get the lay of the land and find an ATM that would take our MasterCard debit card to get some cash.  We weren’t able to pre-buy pesos so we’re roaming around with nearly useless credit cards (NOT widely accepted here) and USD (actually somewhat accepted here) – go figure.

 Our wanderings took us through one of the HUGE city parks and adjacent neighborhoods. Already seeing some fab urban art.
 Crashed for a break early this evening as we can’t go to dinner until the first “happy hour” seating at 7pm. Our hosts recommended nearby La Cabrera for the discounted full menu at the 7pm seating and the outstanding beef served. Our first real meal of Argentinian beef and malbec as everything we’d hoped. Meat coma, anyone?

Wrapped up the evening with coffee at a local cafe followed by a less-than-direct route back to the apartment. But we did get to more fully scout our neighborhood and it has much to offer over the next few days.Pleepleus approves!
 More adventures tomorrow including our “puerta ceada” dinner!