More Buenos Aires

It's Saturday evening on a hot summer day in January--strange to have summer in January. We haven't checked the rotation of the toilet flush in the southern hemisphere but that is supposed to be strange as well--in the opposite direction--the Corioli's force for the scientist.

Anyway, we have been busy walking and eating--hard to say but we think eating is winning out. BA is gorgeous and architecturally inspired by waves of European immigration - Spanish, German and especially Italian and financed obviously by massive exploitation. One large Italian building was designed with Dante's Divine Comedy in mind--each level represented by different features. Very beautiful and sly. The Italian owners even planned (tried?) to steal his body from Italy during the war so it wouldn't be harmed. He never made it to BA--hopefully he's still resting in Paradiso.

We visited Recoleta Cemetery where real estate prices for 10 sq feet are more expensive even than New York's upper east side, and which has gorgeous mausoleums similar to the Paris cemetery. Even here, intrigues abound among the dead, as bodies have been kidnapped and held for ransom, and then exchanged for other dead personages, including Evita Peron, who had been hidden in Europe for some time.

We were talked into a Tango Palace evening where sexist octogenarians hang out. Esther was absconded by a tango-isto and gave a flawless performance - in running shoes. We were also lured into the Bocca area, a working area that has been revived with amazing wall murals and brightly coloured slums. We survived.

Simon and Esther are talking up a storm with the natives. Annice and David remain the Americanos. Last night we celebrated Misha's (Esther and David's son) passing of the Bar exam with an extravagant dinner by choosing the restaurant with the largest and cutest outside cow--apparently a sign that they take their meat seriously...try ordering vegetarian... We also visited the Jewish museum and learned that Jewish immigration began with 12 families in the 1800s, settling lands bought by Baron de Hirsch--similar to David's family's immigration to Canada in 1929. Except the Argentinians stayed on the land and became large colonies of Jewish gauchos, and some of them went to Israel after it's founding to put their hard-earned agricultural experience to use in another dry and inhospitable climate.

We are here

After 24 hours of travel we finally arrived in BA. Esther received the first Geezer award of the trip for her organization with Christine, our landlady for the week. Even though we were several hours late Christine had a taxi service arranged for us and was waiting for us at the apartment to pay the driver since we had no Argentine pesos.

The 18 hour (due to a variety of delays) plane ride to Buenos Aires made us wonder why the CIA bothers with water-boarding - an Air Canada economy flight to BA with a few strategically placed crying babies would be much more effective; and has the added benefit of not yet been banned by the Geneva Convention. But all was redeemed - since our arrival we have been treated like royalty, arranged by our apartment owner who had us picked up and the airport and escorted to our lovely Recoleta abode.

(By the way, David's hope to remain a vegetarian on the trip is being severely tested, especially after being served scrambled tofu for breakfast that tasted more like shredded squash balls)

Our first day was devoted to taking in the warmth, organizing money and a walking tour of our district. We walked around the ritzy areas of BA, generally characterized by beautiful old architecture obscured by high black wrought iron fences and leafy trees whose names we have no idea about. But they have very large canopies and provide lots of shade for the campesinos who actually use the sidewalks.

Below is a picture of our place for the week... just kidding, it was the only house without a high fence in the most exclusive neighborhood in BA where we walked today.

We're now resting at home w/ tea and wine, gathering up our strength for going out to dinner, at the ungodly hour of 9pm (and that's the early-bird special). As the portenos say, "ciao ciao"

South American Dreaming - introducing our blog

The four geezers in Petra

After months of planning (and paying) we are just days from taking our actual first steps. Although we are leaving our good friends and family behind, we hope to keep you all very close. We have setup a blog, ¨Geezers in Motion¨, to chart our progress over the coming two months at http://shpatzir.blogspot.ca/

Please ignore all the annoying ads - it`s the price of a free blog. Also, if you get desperate-sounding emails that we need money, please ignore them as well (although they may be true).
Here`s a rough outline of the itinerary. First, we probably should tell you the one place where we are not going - Iguazzu Falls. Yes, we know that it is one of the wonders of the world. We could say that we are saving it for another time but, in reality, we just ran out of time and money so here`s a link to the one place we are not going (enjoy): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymLoZOjKzwI

Anyway, back to where we are going. We land and defrost in Buenos Aires for about a week. Then it`s off to Valdez Peninsula which is Argentina`s answer to the Galapagos Islands. Although Darwin by-passed the peninsula, the locals insist that where he did land in Argentina, the landscape and fauna are identical to Valdez. Then we bus west to the lake country of Bariloche (great biking). From there we head south to the Patagonian heartland for two weeks of hiking through the glaciers. We then leave Argentina and sail up the coast of Chile to another wilderness trip through Chiloe Island. From there we fly far north to the Chilean-Bolivian border to venture through the high altitude deserts. Finally we get back to Santiago and Valparaiso from where we fly home.
Please stay with us as we fill in the details. Also, please let us know how you are doing as we hope to be well-connected.

All the best for healthy and happy New Year from the intrepid geezers,
Annice, David, Esther, Simon (in alphabetical order)
Question of the Day: How did Argentina get it`s name? (Answer on the next blog installment - stay tuned)