Un Departmento en Palermo

Hola. Llegamos en BA y esparamos por un rato (un rato largo) para neustras maletas. Steve found the remis taxi stand with our name on it and a very nice Porteño named Walter (whose Spanish I could barely understand) took us to our apartment in the neighborhood of Palermo.

The apartment, which Steve found online, is in a great location. Close to the zoo and the Plaza Italia, and in a section of BA that Steve and I have both been to the neighborhood a couple of times, but never spent any time getting to know.

Paco had taken a 3-hr nap on the plane and was all full of life when we arrived. He chatted with Walter in Castellano (I keep forgetting to point out here, Spanish is called “castellano”). On the drive in, we drove by several verdulerías, or vegetable markets, and all 4 of us in the car looked for cucumber. Walter proudly announced, “Ahí está.“ None of us have had much in the name of vegetables or fruit since leaving Bariloche. No one was here to let us into the apartment, so while Steve and Walter waited, Paco and I walked the half block to the verdulería on the corner. We bought cucumber, carrots, strawberries and peaches. And oh my goodness, all were delicious! By the time we came back, Steve and the guys from the agency (and Walter) were loading our luggage into the apartment. The apartment is just huge. Paco was thrilled to have his own room and immediately we all seemed to have our tired, stinky spirits lifted. Paco proceeded to put all of the fruit into the fridge and helped me core the strawberries.

After an hour or so, we decided to see what time the grocery store closes and stopped at a café called El Pengüino de Palermo for dinner. It was fine, we had a chorizo, I had a very blue cheese 4-cheese Sorrento pasta (filled with ham and cheese, of course) and Paco had a omelet (ham and cheese). Steve had a pizza with anchovies that was so strong I could not eat it. The amazing thing is that Paco ordered for himself in Castellano and seemed to have lost all of his shyness. It was quite strange and Steve and I wondered if we swapped children in Ushuaia. He also kept kissing me all during dinner.

After dinner, we headed to Disco, a large supermarket to get some things for the week. Unfortunately, during the excursion, Paco’s sensitive constitution could not handle the sudden change in diet (the peaches were really, really good and we overdid it) and I had to carry him back to the apartment for a bath. Also, the Laundromats are not open on Sundays, so I ended up doing a bit of laundry as well. But both he and I were both happy to have our own space to take care of things.

Steve brought home he groceries and helado from the corner place. We sat around and chatted before getting Paco to sleep. Paco kept asking us what we wanted to do tomorrow. As much as I miss Ushuaia already, it is nice to be in a big city where everything is at your fingertips and I don’t feel like such a tourist.

I have never been to Argentina in the summer and it is warm and sticky. I have always thought of BA as very cosmopolitan and have never seen people wear shorts. Even when we were here 3 weeks ago, I was wearing Capri pants and felt out of place. But it is as if Mother Nature took off layers of clothing from everyone in the city. Everyone is in tank tops and t-shirts, short skirts and shorts. Steve is shocked at the shorts. Everyone is in sandals or flip flops.

I took all of our dirty clothes and the pile was rather huge. Fortunately, much of our hot weather stuff is clean, so I only had to wash a few things by hand. I put all the fleece and rain stuff in the corner and it is quite a large mass of things barely worn. There is a window Air Conditioner that is doing its best to cool down the apartment, that and the nice Trapiche wine are making for a nice quiet evening!

Love, Erin