Our first impression of Buenos Aires

Hello!

We just wanted to touch base with you guys and let you know how things are going for us.   We're settled in our apartment and for the most part we have become familiar with our neighborhood.    I don't know if anyone is familiar with the city of Buenos Aires but we chose to live in the Palermo Soho area.   This area reminds me of a cross between Highland Village and the Montrose area (for my friends back in Houston).   The area is filled with stores (furniture, clothing, shoes), tons of restaurants (bistro style outdoor sitting), and we're a few blocks from Plaza Cortazar where there are tons more stores, restaurants, and coffee houses.  The few blocks around this plaza are pedestrian areas only.   It's fabulous here.  

The city has wonderful vibes and often compared to Manhattan New York with a Spanish flare.  Major difference between the two cities is attitude.  People are nice here.


We walk daily down different streets each time exploring new terrain.   And of course we're big fans of the public transportation system utiliziling the bus, subway and an occasional cab.  The only thing we have not ridden yet is the train.  But we do plan to do so as soon as we figure out where it goes.  

We spent 2 days looking for an apartment in this huge city.   Enough time?  Not really.  We do enjoy our area but after exploring the city at greater lengths, we've found there may have been other areas more attractive to us.   


With all the restuarants nearby, do you know we have not eaten out one time since we've moved into this apartment.   I'm enjoying my kitchen and cook all our meals.   One day we'll get out there and enjoy all the parrillas "grilling" this town has to offer.   Steak...Steak...Steak!  Supreme beef here.

We did walk to the golf course one day.  That was about a 5 mile walk one way.   We found out it was a municipal course and dirt cheap.   $5.00 for a round and $18 for club rentals which includes a pullcart.   The weather is starting to warm up and we'll be out swinging away soon.   

This city is full of high rise apartments.  In fact we've probably only seen 2 or 3 homes tucked in between the apartment buildings.   When we were researching for apartments we had our choice of thousands of places and it became very overwhelming.

Looks like a great place to live but I'm betting the road noise is as bad as ours.   We chose to live on a busy intersection too.

A view of Libertador street from a Pedistrian bridge.  

We really enjoyed walking around this barrio called Recoleta.

(Museums, parks, malls and cinemas).

This is an usual piece of art called the Floralis Generica.

A metallic flower in the middle of a park and the pedals

open and close base on the amount of solar rays that are absorbed.

We had to check out the Cementerio de la Recoleta.  Love visiting cemetaries as much as I love seeing churches.   No, I'm not a freak!   This cemetary was one of the coolest ones we've seen.  

This is like a small town with streets and alleyways

filled with thousands of Crypts.

It is also a prime attraction for the tomb of

Evita Peron.

So many different styles of crypts, some more

eleborate than others.

Forkway in the road. 

We'd say this family has some prime property

being in the middle.

This is the inside of crypt.  Most of these crypts

had mantles that displayed family photos, plants,

and the caskets.   Many stored several family members we saw as many

as 10 caskets in one crypt. (see picture below)

Other crypts weren't taken care of. 

The walls and caskets were in pretty bad shape.

This one was home to the soldiers lost in the war against Paraguay.

Protected by soldiers.

Other things to report...

We did find 2 "Expats" bars; Shoeless Joe's and CasaBar.  Why is this important?   It's football season and it's so hard to find a bar that shows Futbol Americano.  This past 2 Sunday's we've been able to watch the Texans and Cowboys (I call them Cacagirls) but they're Bob's team and we watch both teams.  We've meet several Houstonians who now live here.   Do you know how often we meet a Texans fan?  I actually don't think we had till last Sunday.  It's been fun hanging out.   

Just like any big city there's always something going on.  We plan to take in a tango show and maybe a lesson or two.   There are plenty of bike rental places around here and nice routes to explore,  we'll catch a few movies, hang out at squares where art/crafts are displayed weekly, find some Texans Holdem tournaments and check out the casino boats.  My Mom will be visiting us in November so, we'll make sure to figure out all the things to do by the time she arrives.  Can't wait to see her.  We're hoping my Aunt Minnie will join her and visit us as well.

As you can see we're enjoying our time here.   We haven't taken many photos but we'll get around to that soon and publish when we do.

Hope everything is going well for you. 
Much love - B&B

Cusco, Aguas Calientes and Machu Picchu

Hello!

After this blog we'll have you caught up thru our travels in Peru. Last blog we left off with Arequipe. From Arequipe we made our way to a city called Cusco which was a 10 hour bus ride.

Cusco is the starting point for any one making the journey to visit Machu Picchu. There are two ways to get into Machu Picchu from here. One is the Inca Trail where tourist travel by foot for 2-4 days making their way into the park. That option is for the serious trekkers and for those who need to physically challenge themselves. Now does that sound like us? Darn right it doesn't. We opted for the less strenuous second option which is an overnight stay in Cusco & up early the next day to board a train for a 3 hour journey to Aguas Calientes. We spent a night in Aguas Calientes and up at 4:30 the next morning to board a bus by 5:30 a.m. The bus ride to Machu Picchu is only 30 mins to the front gate. We were told to get in line for the bus as early as possible if we wanted to climb Waynapicchu Mountain. They only allow 400 climbers a day and they start giving out tickets when the gates open at 6:00 a.m. After our day in Machu Picchu we boarded the train in the afternoon and made our way back to Cusco for the night.

Cusco was a beautiful colonial city. For obvious reasons, this city is a major tourist destination. Thereby it was clean, had tons of restaurants, great nightlife and so many hotels/hostels to choice from. We only stayed for 2 nights in this city but we would encourage anyone to stay longer and explore more of this place than we did. Basically, the altitude of 11,000 ft killed me. I couldn't hang in this town and that sucked cause of all the places in Peru, this city offered a lot.

                                                                     Plaza de Armas.

Restaurants, shops, hotels and a 2 churches surround this square.

Besides the clean city, crisp cool air...The scenery was beautiful.

Mountains surround this city.

Plaza de Armas at night.

Cathedral of Cusco

Hotel located around the square. Did we stay here? No! Not in our budget.

The Guinea Pig otherwise known as Cuy and I'm very sorry to say but this is a traditional Peruvian favorite for special occasions.

It actually high in protein and low in fat.

We've seen it fried, grilled and slow cooked over a rotisserie. It is said that young Peruvians are given a mating pair

when they marry. The couple raises them till they are nice fat and fury.

When the time is right; its a roasting my friend.

I admit we did want to try but never got around to it. We kept thinking we'll order it next time.

The meat is said to taste like rabbit and dark meat chicken and

texture of quail. Actually this sounds really good. Wish we hadn't piddled around and missed our opportunity to sample. They have been found in restaurants in the states mainly in New York,

New Jersey and in Florida. And I've read that Houston will be serving

it up one day soon.

Bob & I en route to Aguas Calientes via train.

The PeruRail offers 3 types of train transportation.

1. Backpackers (the economical way) costing $48/pp/one way 2. Vistadome (Panoramic views) costing $71/pp/one way

3. Hiram (Luxury line) costing $334/pp/one way

Backpackers worked for us. Aguas Calientes is at the foothills of Machu Picchu. This was a really cute town filled with restaurants, hotels and shopping.

It's one of the fewest cities in Peru that actually protect the environment by

separating trash (Organic vs Non-Organic) and buildings can't exceed 4 stories.

There's not a lot to do in this town so most tourists stay

one night in order to board the bus early for Machu Picchu.

There is a Thermal Bath located 5 min walk outside the city.

Train tracks run thru town.

Nice backdrops.

Rio Vilcanota separates where the locals live and where the "tourists"

hang out. There were several bridges that connected the two areas.

On the "local" side you can find a Mercado and the new train station.

The city was really cute.

Before heading to out to Machu Picchu,

I decided to try the coca leaves for altitude sickness.

The locals swear by this stuff.

I put a few leaves in the cheeks of my mouth and let the saliva

make a tea. You only keep the stuff in your mouth for 10 - 15 mins at a time.

It's said to numb your mouth but I never felt that sensation.

I don't like tea at all so this was horrible.

We woke up early, had breakfast at our hotel and we were standing in line

for our bus by 5:00 a.m. Other tourist had been in line since 4:00 a.m.

(mind you; the 1st bus leaves at 5:30 a.m.)

We got to the entrance of the park and

had no problems getting Bob a pass to climb Waynapicchu.

We were shocked at the bus fare though. There's only one line that runs back

and forth and they take full advantage of tourist. For a 30 min bus ride they

charge $14/pp/roundtrip. As you know we've been riding buses

all thru South America. For instance a $14 route in Ecuador would last about 14 hours.

Anyway, just a tourist trap!

We got to Machu Picchu in time for sunrise.

What an amazing site.

Watching the sun rise over the Andes Mountains.

Here it is folks, Machu Picchu referred to "Lost City of the Incas".

Declared one of the 7 wonders of the world in 2007.

The Incas started building here around 1430 AD but was abandoned

about 100 years later due to the threat of the Spanish Conquistadors whom had

destroyed many of the other Inca scared sites.

The Spanish were known to destroy Inca sites to build Catholic Churches.

Fortunately they never found this remote city.

However, the ruins had been taken over by the jungle.

In 1911 - An 11 year old boy took an American Historian from Yale - Hiram Bingham to

the ruins. Hiram Bingham studied the archaeological sites and surveyed the area where

he went on to write numerous books.

Incas are said to be the best stone masonry.

It's a mystery how they moved and placed these enormous stones.

It is believed that it took more than 100 men to push them up inclined planes.

The stone walls were all cut to fit together without mortar.

What's even more amazing the construction is able to

with stand earthquakes.

A stone compass. We had 2 guys in our tour group and they

just happened to have a modern compass. The Incas were dead on. The stone points exactly due north.

There are 140 structures: temples, sanctuaries, parks and

homes with thatched roofs.

More than 100 flights of stone stairs.

A masterpiece of architecture and a testimony to the

Inca civilization.

Now, Bob's journey to Waynapicchu. Nope, I didn't take on this

mountain. The stairs are extremely narrow and very steep.

Billy Goat Bob was on his own. Well not really.

You can see a small portion of Machu Pichuu in the background.

(Bob's portion of the blog) Earlier in the day we came across two young Israel guys who were interested in sharing a tour guide. That worked for us as we didn't want to be herded around as part of a large tour group. I had been working an English speaking tour guide earlier to get us a private tour at a rate we would be satisfied with. OK, I was being a tight-ass as always. So I went & found the guide, told him I had found 2 other folks & that we would like him to be our guide for the price he had offered me earlier. Well, it wasn't that easy as he wanted to add 6
more folks that were soon to be coming off the Inca trail. Yeah right, whatever. A few minutes later we had won our negotiation battle & we had our semi-private tour of just 4 people. Our guide was great, very informative, spoke English very well & was overall very excited about sharing his knowledge of the Incas & Machu Pichuu.

For the first time that I can remember in a long time, we actually followed the rules & did not take any water or food with us. Why do
they even have these rules, cause they sure aren't enforced. Lots of folks had a big plastic bottle of water & some had snacks stowed away in their daypacks. So after the tour, all 4 of us took a break at the snack bar located just outside the site. Now I can understand paying a small surcharge just because of where we were, but the Peruvian government is just basically ripping off the tourists. Come on, $7 emapandas, $5 small bottles of water, $10 sandwiches, etc... I settled for the tiny yogurt for $2 & tiny chocolate bar for $3.

So after the nourishing & refortifying lunch, me & my new buddies head off to climb Waynu Picchu, about 1200' ft above Machu Pichuu. At times the climb was quite steep & it did took a toll on this old body.
I did my best to encourage the guys to leave me behind so that I would not hold them up. But they were very nice to let me rest at times before we moved on. I can tell you that I would for sure had taken much longer if I did not have them to "push" me harder than I would had I been on my own. & thankfully they had some water that they insisted on sharing (for which I'm forever grateful) as I' m not sure I could have made
it without their genorocity. Approx 45 minutes after our start we had made it to first area where we could gaze upon the remearkable feat that the Incas had created in this very remote area. The toll on my heart & lungs was well worth the views. Then we ventured further on to the peak & from their you could see the entire valley. Just amazing.

Coming down was not uneventful. Somehow we were headed in

the wrong direction toward the Great Cavern, which is like a

2 hour hike. Not to brag, but it was I who made the observation that

the trail did not look familar to the trail we had taken on the ascent.

The path we were now on had too much of an incline & I knew

that I didn't want to do anymore climbing than what was absolutely

required. So we back tracked & in about 10 minutes we found the trail

mark that clearly marked for us to veer left, but somehow it was

missed by our trail leader who took us to the right.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH !!!!!

Overall it was a great experience & I highly recommended it if you

ever make it to this magnifiect part of the world. Now

here's Bonnie again.

While Bob was off climbing, I spent the 4 hours at the restaurant meeting

all kinds of people. After our day in Machu Picchu we took the bus back to town

& after a few minutes of shopping for a little souviner we came across our new

little buddy who we've named "Machu".

His head is from the horn of a goat, his teeth are from an Alpaca, his hair is

Rabbit & he is holding a tooth from an unknown animal.

We boarded the train around 4:30 p.m. and made our way back to Cusco for the night.

The next morning we flew to Lima, spent the night in a hostel which was 3 minutes

from the airport. Our flight left at 8:00 a.m. to Buenos Aires.

We spent most of our time at the hostel "surfing" the internet for probably 6 hours

in search for a hotel in Buenos Aires. Those hours were also spent looking

for apartments. We didn't lock in on one but sent some e-mails

to set up appts to look at some as soon as we arrived. As soon as we arrived

we spent our time looking at a few apartments & figuring out an area

where we wanted to hang for a month or two.

This is our new home. Small living room but very comfy.

Woohoo, a kitchen.

Can't wait to dirty it up. We we will be here in Buenos Aires for a little over a month. We have many

plans to see as much as possible, so stay tuned for what our adventures

here may bring.

Much love,

Bonnie & Bob