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.