My list

Good evening friends and family!

It´s evening in Buenos Aires, and my hotel is a-buzz with artistic folks. They have an art gallery in the ground floor, and tonight´s the opening of their latest exhibit. As a ´resident´, I´m invited (of the unwashed and touristed) and how could I say no? Free wine and bread with cream cheese, and modern art. I can appear to appreciate the art while not understanding a word anyone says to me, no problem. Who says I´m not a woman of this world?? This place rocks!

This morning I was chagrined to have to pay 14 pesos for my simple sliced bread and coffee breakfast so I made the most of it with 5 pieces of toast, 3 cups of coffee, and 2 thingies of marmalade. Leaving my hotel, I think I could have leaped tall buildings. I toted my bags to my hotel for the next 2 nights, the Art Hotel (hence the gallery), ditched them with a very friendly staff, and bolted onto the streets with an ambitious itinerary.

First on my agenda was the Recoletta Cemetary, so beautiful. I circumnavigated the friggin cemetary first (thanks to my exceptionally bad sense of direction) and can attest, the exterior wall is really dull compared to the inside. Anyway, Evita´s grave is simple and had lots of flowers, and the cemetary itself is both historic and poignant. I took snaps.

Next I headed to Once district, lesser traveled by tourists-- advertised in my guidebook as having a blend of Korean, Jewish, and South American cultures. Seriously. I found, it´s kind of like the Meat Packing district of NYC. Every block had a specialty: I passed the chinese food block, the fabrics block, the hair accessories block, the scarves block, and really weirdly enough, the mannequins block, before I finally found the pizza block (a main street). There I lunched.

I had visited only 2 of the planned 8 stops on my itinerary and I was beat. I splurged on a taxi back to my hotel and siestaed for a few hours before resuming my trek of Buenos Aires' most beautiful sites. I found the subway which expedited my travels to the rest of the items on my itinerary, including the Obelisk, a famous opera house turned bookstore Murray recommended, Congresso, and finally to Florida street, where I was overwelmed by the copious quantities of high quality tourist crap to add to my bulging bags.

And now I´m at an art gallery opening in the lobby of my hotel. Excuse me, but I must dash, to get another free glass of exceptional wine and admire art :-)

At this moment, may I say with all humility, I´m the coolest person I know!

Love T

PS What´s all this about flint something in Rock Creek? Someone give me the 411!