Our flight arrived on time, actually I think it was early. Customs and immigration was relatively easy. The only hitch was when the immigration officer asked us where we were staying in BA. Unfortunately I didn't remember the address since Jim made all the arrangements for the apartment. I tried to search through emails to find it -- which is a challenge when your wifi connection is intermittent! It took me about 5 minutes to find it and I was worried the immigration officer would say, "You don't know where you are staying? What's the matter with you?" (I eventually found it by looking at the history of locations I researched in my google maps on my iPad.)
Jim arranged for an apartment for us to rent and the owner of the apartment, Luis, was there to pick us up at the airport. We were able to identify him because he had a sign with my name on it He speaks some English and Katie speaks some Spanish so we were able to communicate effectively. We had plenty of time for conversation because it took us about 2 hours to go about 12 miles. I was amazed by the volume of traffic on the roads! It was pretty frightening to see cars tailgating and in no particular lane and motorcycles weaving through cars!
The apartment is Recoleta neighborhood of BA. It's on a relatively quiet street and is only 2 blocks from the famous Recoleta cemetery (more about that tomorrow). After we unpacked and cleaned up a little we walked to see where Nicola lives.
Her apartment building is only about 15 minutes away from our apartment. She is on the 11th floor. She will be staying with us while we are here. I think technically she is on the 12th floor, because the apartment is on the 11th floor but Nicola's room is on the second floor of the apartment and she goes up these windy steps to get there.
From the looks of it everyone in BA lives in apartments and they all have a terrace with lot so plants! You have to be careful when walking because people water plants and all of sudden you can get drops of water on your head. However, you never see anyone on their terrace. The girls and I can't quite figure that out.
We walked to Nicola's school which is on Avenue Florida. It is a pedestrian street full shops, vendors and tons people! Many people ask you if you want "Cambio?" which means to exchange money. There are two ways to change money, officially and on the street. On the street you get a much better exchange rate!
The school is in a Mall building on this street. It seems like an odd place for a school but in this metropolitan area there are lot of things in odd places. (Nicola has an elementary school in a building next to her apartment.)
This is the beginning of Nicola's break week which is why we chose this week to come here. We got to meet the director of the program who gave us lots of tips on places to visit and see.
After visiting the school, we walked to the Puente de la Mujer, an amazing footbridge that crosses the Rio de la Plata. This river is narrower here in BA but widens and becomes part of the estuary between Argentina and Uruguay. It eventually feeds into the Atlantic Ocean.
Even though it was a sunny day, it was still pretty chilly here. It was in the upper 50s with a light breeze down by the water.
We ended our day by having afternoon "high tea" at the Alvear Palace Hotel. I must say it was very palace like. Katie found it online and thought it would be a lovely way for us to relax after our long flight.
It was am amazing assortment petit fours, pastries and desserts and of course wonderful tea! It was incredibly elegant! Also having tea was a large group of middle school girls. It must have been a school outing because they all had on catholic school uniforms. They are typical middle school girls -- they walked back and forth to the bathroom numerous times, with cell phones in hand!
We decided to call it a day early since we didn't get much sleep the night before and we have a big day planned for tomorrow.