Buenos Dias to Buenos Aires

Barb and I flew to Buenos Aires on separate flights, on separate days. A casual observer would be forgiven if he or she surmised that this was a sensible and prudent plan to ensure continuity of the Tea Room in the face of some aeronautical disaster, but no, this was not the reason for this curious travel plan.

Barb flew on Aeroplan points, and I flew on Air Miles, and these two organizations were unable to get us a flight on the same day, let alone in the same plane. Hence Barb arrived a day before I did, and endured a misadventure on her own.

We had rented an apartment online from a rentals agency in Buenos Aires, weeks before our trip. Barb arrived exhausted after her 15-hour flight, so she bought a few groceries and then went to bed. On awakening the next morning, she was horrified to find that not only had she not slept alone, but her tiny bedmates had been feasting on her while she slept.

I arrived to discover this state of affairs was already being remedied. The owners of the apartment were suitably mortified, and the rentals agency quickly found us another apartment. The owners of the first apartment drove us to the new one, with many apologies. By 8:30 pm we had signed a new rental agreement, and were settling in to our new place, without any uninvited guests .

The new apartment is larger, more comfortable, and much better designed than the cramped and utilitarian one we had left. The view from our 7th floor apartment is of a treed and well-kept military establishment, across a wide and unfortunately busy avenue.

The area is a bit downmarket, but we're right on the edge of a developing, trendy part of town, where new restaurants, design shops and hip stores are changing the face of the neighbourhood. There's great walking and lots of shopping, both the kind involving windows and the kind involving spending money.

There also seems to be an inordinate number of paint stores. Either Porteños (Natives of Buenos Aires) are great redecoraters, or the paint is of such poor quality it must be redone frequently.