Gene drew this picture to symbolize our travels. What do you think he's trying to tell me? He's the one that came up with the title for this year's travel blog, too. Like it? Feel free to comment on it or on any of the blog entries to come.

Bienvenidos a Costa Rica - Welcome Home!

So far we've been welcomed home by friends, rain, an eartquake, and numerous aftershocks.

Our Last Sunday Nite in San Telmo

Nice that it's only 2 blocks to Plaza Dorrego - and Gene decided he was feeling much much better - enough better in fact that he wanted to walk up to the plaza and enjoy some empanadas and watch the tango dancers. Once all the antique dealers fold up their booths on Sunday evening, the music starts and everybody starts dancing. Amazing. Actually at one point, there was a tango band, another band, and a guitar player - all in different corners of the plaza but clearly audible to us. Confusing? Well, yeah, a little! But a lot of fun. I was desperately trying to get close enough to get photos of the dancers' feet. Dancing with a gorgeous woman wearing those gorgeous 4" - bright red no less - was a guy dancing in flip flops! A couple of other people were trying to dance in sneakers. We even saw one guy dancing in hiking boots. There are always great scenes in the plaza! Sad that this was our last Sunday here. We've enjoyed it.

Life is what happens while you're making other plans

Right after New Years, Gene started feeling sick. For a day or so we were afraid that he was seriously ill. I was tracking down information on where to take him to get emergency medical care while shoving water at him, trying to figure out to do and giving him "poor babies." All of you who know me also know why I didn't become a nurse.

New Years Eve

"Everybody" knows that everything in Buenos Aires is closed on New Years Eve. A few places open back up later in the evening. Everybody knows that if you want to eat out, you make a reservation in advance. And of course dinner is sometime 11 pm or after. But we just never knew what we wanted to do in advance to actually make a reservation. And we knew that Gene couldn't walk far. And we knew that public transportation would be close to non-existent. So we did what we do so well - play it by ear. Bonnie and David had invited us to start the evening at their apartment with some friends. They were making pizza. We really wanted to go. But even those half a dozen blocks sounded like a challenge with Gene's walking problems. So ultimately we walked the two blocks to Plaza Dorrego - after all it's one of our favorite places. We ate a couple of big steaks at one of the two places that actually was serving food. Outside only of course. The inside tables were reserved. This was fine, except for the first time since we've been here, it felt chilly. So while Gene waited for the wine, I ran back to the apartment to get our jackets. The evening from then on out was great. Bonnie and David showed up just before midnight, along with a bunch of friends. There was champagne and beer flowing freely. There were flamenco dancers. There were fireworks being set off in the middle of the plaza. I ignored my fear of fireworks and stood under them taking pictures! (Interestingly, none of the pictures were later to be found on the camera. In a champagne and beer buzz, did I forget to turn it on or what!) Feeling like very boring people, we quit at 3 am - just when everyone else was getting geared up to get partying! But we had a great time doing New Years Eve in Buenos Aires!

Afternoon in the Plaza

Nice Way to Spend an Afternoon

Our Apartment in Buenos Aires

La Boca

Many Spanish and Italian immigrants who arrived in the booming 1880's ended up working in the meat-packing plants in this port area. Left-over paint from the barges was used to paint their corrugated siding of their houses, creating the unique colorful style that is still "La Boca." Along El Caminito, the area's most famous and most colorful street, there is a street market on weekends. There are street vendors and artists of all kinds. Music. Dancing. Sidewalk Cafes. So we tried it all, wandering the streets, drinking beer and sandwiches at a cafe, watching the dancers, enjoying the music. What a great afternoon. We plan to go back before we leave. It's an intriguing area.

Scenes from Home

I was talking to Gail last night and she said I should post some pictures of our apartment. I thought I had already done that, but I guess not. So now I realize I don't have many. I'll have to remember to take some during daylight hours tomorrow. Meanwhile, you can see everything that we knew about the apartment when we rented it sight unseen over the internet:
Our Apartment

Ines-My Favorite Tango Singer

Bar El Chino

There's way too much to tell about Bar El Chino. Since the first time I read about it, I knew I had to go there. I've been watching the video about it for months before this trip. It makes me cry. It was my new favorite film. Now it's my new favorite bar.
Click on Read more below to read more and watch the video

The Foot - the Latest Theory

So our landlady comes over with her husband in tow to fix the leak in the bathroom. Such a multi-tasking husband she has. He's brain surgeon by day and a plumber on the side.

Salami & Cheese Cart

Did I really need a two-foot salami from Cordoba? Well, probably not really. But how many times in my life am I really going to have the opportunity to buy salami off a street cart? The cheese was great, too - yeah, you get to sample - but I didn't buy any because I was running out of cash and was in search of a working ATM machine at the time - a major consumer of time in Argentina - searching for cash.

Tango in the Plaza

The Amazing Walking Stick!

So later in the evening, Gene decides he should take his new cane for a walk! So we walk up to Plaza Dorrego again and enjoy a glass of wine. Sitting on the plaza with a couple hundred other people, listening to a jazz combo, we suddenly realize they are playing the same songs we used to listen to at Sushi Blues in Hollywood, Florida where we met! We order a mini-pizza and more wine and tell each other how amazing it is that we are actually sitting in a plaza in Buenos Aires listening to music at midnight. The combo stops playing and the musicians join a big crowded table next to ours. They're all talking and drinking and laughing and having a great time and I want them to be my friends. One of the men at the table - a big guy in his 60's starts to sing and after a couple of motions across the table, a couple stand up to dance. Someone at their table hands them a handkerchief. I am not sure what to call the type of dance they do with the handkerchief. But they are indescribably fabulous. The music is magic. A while later we hear Peruvian pan pipe music coming from the other side of the plaza. It makes me want to cry...

Don't Cry for Me - Argentina

It took us forever to figure out where to go to get Gene a cane. We actually found a very cool place by the plaza that sells beautiful antique canes of all kinds - in the $US 600 range. Oh, well, we finally figured out that the block after the hospital that we went to before is the place to go. Once we were there, we realized there are something like a dozen medical equipment places in that one block. No problem. A real cane, adjustable, properly designed and weighted and all that, decent looking - 68 pesos - $20. Good deal! Hopefully it will help. So before you start feeling sorry for Gene hobbling about on his cane, go ahead and look at our photos for the day. Just a casual afternoon in Plaza Dorrego - 2 blocks from our apartment - tapas, beer, tango... Don't Cry for Us!

Scenes from My Neighborhood

Gene's Foot - Another Statin Side Effect?

It doesn't seem to be getting any better. Actually it seems to me that it keeps getting worse and worse. This theory about a sprain getting bad 2 months after the fall and then continuing to get worse to the point where he can't walk just isn't hacking it to me. There has to be a different answer but we can't figure out how to find out. Then Gene is talking to friend Michael on Instant Messenger and Michael asks him if he is taking statins (cholesterol medication)! Turns out that Michael's father had a similar reaction to statins and many months later is still not completely back to normal. We know that many people have had really bad reactions to this medication (google it). This thing never occurred to us. It certainly is possible. Nothing else makes any sense. Gene does not have extremely high cholesterol - just slightly high. He decides it will not be a risk to stop taking them. We will see what happens. And tomorrow we will find a cane - come hell or high water.

Buenos Aires - Tour of the City

We did this 3-hour tour of the city on a bus today. We figured it would be a good way to get an overview of the city without Gene having to walk much. From that point of view, it was ok. Our tour guide was good, but spent a lot of time pointing out the various embassies and telling us how much the real estate sells for in the expensive parts of town. It would have been more interesting to hear more about the history of the city and the people. After 2 hours Gene's foot/legs were really bothering him, so we blew off the end of the tour when it passed through our neighborhood. We'll go to La Boca neighborhood on our own another day. It's walking distance (or normally would be) from our apartment anyhow.

New Friends

We had dinner last night at the charming apartment of our new friends Bonnie and David. They served the most amazing ravioli which Bonnie buys fresh and ready to cook at a local place called La Leonesa, which is very close to where we are staying. I am dying to get over there to check out their offerings and do pasta at home. This stuff was incredible. Spinach pasta stuffed with calabaza (pumpkin). And Bonnie says they have many more pasta offerings, all of which are delicious and cheap. Bonnie and David are fun people who came here from the states to experience Buenos Aires. They were both already fluent in Spanish (David is a Spanish teacher) and Bonnie plans to go to law school when they return to the States next year. We had originally met them through couch surfing when Bonnie offered to check out one of the apartments we were considering before coming down. The 4 of us are planning to get together again for a night out at Bar El Chino and Bonnie has offered to give us mate lessons! More on both of those subjects later!

Becoming Carnivores!

Gene decided he could walk some tonight, so we walked down to Plaza Dorrego (2 blocks) and then continued another block or so to a little restautant called Vieja Rotiseria for dinner. More good steak. But the fun part here isn't the great food. It's the character of the places. I loved the neighborhood feel of this place, with its checkered tablecloths, wine stored on the walls, friendly waiter and even a bit of conversation with the couple at the next table. In spite of being in a very touristy area, it really seemed like just the place on the block where people go on Saturday night. Most people there seemed to be locals. It's interesting that even when there are people lined up outside to get a table, no one rushes you to leave when you're done. It's a very comfortable place. Gene still says my steak always looks better than his! I had a conversation with the waiter about which steak cut is more flavorful and ended up ordering the Bife de chorizo again. Gene keeps trying different things and then being disappointed that mine is better, even though he knows that I'm ordering the best cut again. Anyhow, it's nice that someone is being adventurous! This was one of our more expensive meals. We ordered a nice bottle of Malbec, a roasted red pepper appetizer, 2 steaks, coffees and desserts and our ill was 101 pesos ($US30). I love this place and want to go back.

Demonstration on Avenida de Mayo

So we were actually out and about. After our lunch at Cafe Tortoni, we had a coffee at a sidewalk cafe and enjoyed the actual on the famous Avenida de Mayo. It's still hard for us to believe that we are really here! We were enjoying ourselves so much that we didn't realize that it was rush hour already. We were in el centro and it was impossible to get a taxi. So we went back into Cafe Tortoni and enjoyed a bottle of wine while waiting for the traffic to let up. But then we heard a lot of noise outside and realized there was a huge demonstration going on in the street. Must have been a hundred thousand people or so banging on things. We eventually gave in and started walking in the direction of our apartment, although we really didn't want Gene on his foot. Eventually we caught a taxi home and had something to talk about over dinner. There's always something new going on. When I asked the taxi driver about the march (which apparently was about the ongoing dispute with the government about taxes on food exports), he threw up his hands and said that they are always demonstrating about something!

Cafe Tortoni

Stepping into Cafe Tortoni feels like stepping into a place in history. I just knew that someone at one of the little marble tables was working on the next important South American literary work. I love this place and want to go back. Of course Gene says I always like "old things."

We had decided to pick out a cafe from the guidebook and take a taxi there so that Gene wouldn't need to do any walking while we see some of the famous places. Founded in 1858, Cafe Tortoni has always been known as the meeting place of intellectuals, politicians and artists. The walls are filled with history. The same marble tables that served the literary giants and revolutionaries of the past, and in recent years, Juan Carlos, King of Spain, and Hillary Rodham Clinton are there waiting for us.

We went wandering up to Plaza Dorrego this afternoon and came across a Flamenco Dance performance. Pretty amazing finding something like that 2 blocks from where you live! We love flamenco - almost as much as tango!

Parque Lezama

Another nice walk and fun park for me to discover. Hopefully I will soon be able to show Gene all these places I'm discovering! He still has his foot up!

Sunday Afternoon - Plaza Dorrego

Gene gets to stay at the apartment with his foot up, but I get to explore the famous Plaza Dorrego Sunday antique and art fiesta. Music, dancing, art, antiques of every kind and a lot of people! What fun! Hope that Gene will get to see it next week!

Buenos Aires - What a Beginning!

Our first few days in Buenos Aires haven't been exactly what you would expect. We arrived Thursday morning at 5 o'clock and drank coffee at the airport until 9 o'clock when it was time to check in to our apartment in San Telmo. After more coffee and pastries at the coffee shop on the corner, we spent most of the day sleeping or resting. Our little apartment is very cute and comfortable, fully equipped with everything we could need. There are probably at least a dozen cafes and restaurants within a block of the apartment. We quickly discovered the the medias lunas (croissants) here are cute little things instead of the huge ones we had in Lima. They are also sweeter. You get a cup of coffee and 3 medias lunas for as little as 7 pesos (about $US2) and they are delicious.
A good part of Day 2 in Buenos Aires was spent at the hospital. You all know how much we enjoy checking out hospitals in foreign countries. Hospital de Clinicas San Martin is a large teaching facility with every known type of specialty and a walk-in clinic. Gene decided to check it out! Back on September 15th (Independence Day in Costa Rica) while walking in San Jose, Gene tripped over something and fell. He hurt his foot, but it didn't seem to be anything serious. As time went on, it was still bothering him, but it didn't occur to him that it was anything serious enough to seek medical attention! So then on November, we start traveling, and of course, doing a lot of walking everyday. And the foot hurts worse and worse. By the time we get to Buenos Aires on the 4th of December, he can hardly walk! So on Friday, our second day here, we head out to research the local medical system! The conclusion seems to be that he has a bad sprain and that continuing to walk on it for 3 months was not the correct thing to do to get it to heal. I'm still questioning this conclusion. I mean it's been 3 months for crying out loud! But he was seen by 2 doctors and a bunch of other people. He was x-rayed. He got a shot in his ass (just for pain apparently). And he has been sent home to rest with his foot up, icing it every 3 hours and taking some pills for pain and inflamation. At least it's not like it was with me in the hospital in Madrid for 2 weeks! [By the way, medical costs were 10 pesos for the consultation at the walk-in clinic, 14 pesos for the x-rays, no charge for the injection and second doctor, and 12 pesos for the medicine. Total, I guess of about $US 11] It is now Sunday and we haven't seen much improvement. That may be because we decided that it wouldn't hurt him to walk for a few blocks yesterday (ended up being about 10 blocks) and then later out for dinner. He was doing ok on the way to the restaurant for dinner (about 4 blocks), but on the way back he could hardly walk and I didn't think he would make it to the apartment. So I don't think we'll try walking around for a few days at least. I will go out later today and walk down to Plaza Dorrego to check out the Sunday market. But he is definitely not going! Pobrecito! Will keep you posted on his progress. Oh, by the way, the steak last night was fabulous!

San Telmo - Street Scenes

Our Time in Peru Draws to an End

As always, we finally start meeting people once we are about to leave. On Sunday we decided to have lunch at the Sunday afternoon take the family out for some great food place - Rincon Chami. As usual, it was packed and we ended up taking an inside table rather than wait. This turned out to be a lucky move as we sat next to a really cool group of people who gave us advice, insisted that we call them if we need any help at all, etc etc. They were a lot of fun to talk to - and were amazed at all the different foods we have tried! Meeting them and having a real dinner table conversation made our day.

Then on Tuesday we stopped back in to the bookstore to tell Sandra about our trip to Barranco. We wanted to let her know that we had followed her advice and spent the day in her town and that we like it. Sandra works part-time in the bookstore but is an artist who says she lives in Barranco because it's a nice quiet town and it's where all the artists live. She has a 1 1/2 year old daughter. We got talking about art (of course!) and other things and she offered to bring in some of her work on Wednesday (our last day here) to show us. So on our last day, we did a whole show-and-tell thing on the floor of the upstairs room in the bookstore. She ended up giving us one of her awesome paintings, so I have to make sure it makes it home in my backpack safely! I sure hope that we get to see Sandra again.

And our favorite coffee shops now know what we want when we walk in. Like I said, once it feels like home, it's time to leave.

My Last Lunch - Rosa Nautica

Gene keeps laughing at me because I keep having "last" things: my last lunch in Lima, my last ceviche, my last dessert, my last night in Peru. "You would think," he says, "that I was taking you to some terrible place, not to Buenos Aires!" OK. It's true that it was Buenos Aires that I wanted to go to in the first place and Peru only happened because it was on the way. But I love this place. So for our "last lunch," which isn't really the last one at all since we will still be here tomorrow, we decide to try the bar at Rosa Nautica, a beautiful expensive place which sits way out on a pier. We do the bar because it sounds like a fun place, the restaurant is too expensive and we could never eat all that food anyhow. We order the 4 Piqueos specialty. We get to select 4 different appetizer items to share. We choose conchitas a la parmesana (scallops), brochetitas de corvina (sea bass), tempura de pescador (fish tempura) and, of course, ceviche. We expected a little appetizer plate. We were served this enormous platter of scrumptious food! And of course the pisco sours. Nice way to spend our "last afternoon!"

Things We Still Can't Get Used to...But Would Like to

• Taxis that don't aim for you. Even at crosswalks with a "walk" light, we look at each other, wondering if they're really going to sit there and let us cross - or if they're going to jack-rabbit at us as soon as we step into the street
• The amazing variety of food
• The low prices of food
• The fact that it never rains
• Fresh, breathable air
• Restaurant service

Huaca Pucllana ***

Somehow you don’t expect to find a huge pre-Inca adobe pyramid mound in the middle of a city. I don’t know why it seems odd. Of course the most desirable sites are used by one culture or group of people and later, after they’re gone, that same site is still seen as desirable by a future group of people. So of course they build there. And they grow and build a city. And they don’t care about the earlier people, so they just destroy the earlier buildings – or build on top of them. Hundreds of years later, while leveling the land for yet another culture’s building expansion, things are found from the first one. Broken pottery. Bones. Pieces of broken tools. What will they find when they unearth pieces of our culture hundreds of years from now? Plastic Coca-Cola bottles? Microwaves? Laptop computers?
We walk the ten blocks from Parque Central to the site. It strikes me as a beautiful place – all brown adobe bricks. The people now referred to as the Lima people built the pyramid in the 5th century AD, and abandoned it in the 7th. It was later used by the Wari culture. We don’t learn a whole lot of history today, but we do learn that these people clearly knew something about building design, building their structures with the adobe bricks stacked vertically, looking like giant bookcases, to better withstand seismic disturbances. We also learn that they made human sacrifices, but always sacrificed only young women, and very important ones at that. So clearly it would have been a good idea not to be very important. When the leader died, the pyramid was filled in and another built on top of it, so that it became successively higher. After these early cultures disappeared, the area was pretty much built over and forgotten until twenty or thirty years ago, when an agreement between Miraflores and the National Cultural Institute enabled research, conservation and restoration to begin.

*** A “huaca” is a burial mound. Pucllana is the Quechua name used for the site in the 16th century.

Things Not Here

We're constantly hit by new things. There's a discovery to be made around every corner. But it's often the things that are not there that make a place feel different. Suddenly you realize you haven't heard a dog bark - in days - or:

• Most people on the street are not talking on their cell phones
• No one sleeps or passes out in doorways or on the sidewalk
• There is no trash in the streets
• There are no potholes
• There are no refrigerator-sized holes to fall into in the sidewalks
• You don't see bare midriffs on the streets

And about those dogs - many people walk lovely dogs in the park - there's even a designated dog potty place - but apparently they've all had their voice boxes removed. Lovely.

Gene Takes a Flying Leap

...& the Kindness of Strangers

So we’re walking along the sidewalk by the park minding our own business and the next thing I know, Gene is lying face down on the sidewalk beside me, sort of on his side. Groaning. How did you get there? I ask. At least half a dozen people, including park workers and police and lunch takers from the nearby cafes, surround us wanting to help. There is blood dripping from somewhere on his head. Someone brings a chair and once we decide nothing appears to be broken, three or four of us get him up off the ground and into the chair. He is an amazingly hard person to lift. A backpacker appears from the café with a fully equipped medical emergency kit. He’s a hiker from British Colombia and travels fully prepared. He supplies bandaids and antiseptic wipes. Turns out there is a small gash on his eyebrow. That’s all. The EMT’s who have now arrived want to take him to emergency to get a stitch. He doesn’t want to go. There’s a doctor trying not to interfere with the EMT’s, but hanging back and watching in case it appears that he is needed. He is indicating to me that a stitch is not needed. We decide to go to the hotel and get cleaned up. Can’t remember where we were going now. Probably to lunch.
It’s amazing how easily Gene can draw a crowd. We have done a similar performance several times now, trying to entertain people wherever we go. Later in the day, Gene discovers that the did wound himself elsewhere. His big toe is ugly and bloody and clearly it going to lose it’s nail. Gross! We wander around trying to buy some bandaids or bandaging and tape or something. None of the farmacias seem to have any such thing. We know this because we have searched before when Gene developed blisters on his feet. How on earth does anyone deverlop blisters wearing old broken in shoes? We now determine that they also don’t have hydrogen peroxide (peroxido hydrogeno), except, as one clerk informs us, in a crème! What? Finally we find someone in a pharmacy who understands what the hell we’re talking about and manages to find us some gauge pads (gaza esteril), tape (cinta quirurgica) and hydrogen peroxide. It’s amazing how difficult such a simple thing can get in a strange country where suddenly the terminology is all different even if you do speak the language.
Several days later, finally fully equipped with various medical supplies, we have decided that he definitely is going to live to travel another day. And he’s not going to lose his toe. His face still looks a bit like I’ve been beating him up again, though!

Things I Love About Peru

• Fresh Breathable air
• Sidewalk cafes
• Architecture - balconies
• Food variety
• Low prices
• Walkable sidewalks
• Parque Central
• Artists in the park
• Street food
• Lack of rain
• Daylight in the evening
• Clean streets & parks
• Beautiful clean fruit carts on the street
• Markets
• Variety of fresh fish
• Restaurant service

Sunday Morning in Search of Coffee

Or Please – Just a God Damned Cup of Coffee!

I am very pleased with myself. I can now get angry in Spanish. I didn’t think I could do it, since usually I get so frustrated I can’t speak in any language. Actually