Airs and graces

Well, Buenos Aires might mean good airs and certainly there's a lot of great things to be said about the Argentine capital. We had a fun few days there and managed to cram in a fair amount, from the tourist spots like la Casa Rosada - which was used in the film Evita, and was the place from which Eva Peron addressed her 'dear' people -- to visiting an Argentine naval frigate that sailed around the world 39 times between 1899 and 1939 and was built in Birkenhead. It was a beautiful boat and am including a picture. In fact, wandering around there reminding me of Grandad because there were maps showing routes across the Atlantic and round South America, and of course the boat was born only a few miles away from where we were. I also managed to get a fair bit of shopping in, thanks to the weakness of the currency and the retail strength of my friend Marcia, who was over for a couple days and works in the embassy in Santiago. I gave up not eating beef, because you can't really go to Argentina and not eat lomo if you're a non-veggie. Actually it was good, but the following morning I rather regretted the fact we had eaten so late as beef does tend to be a bit heavy on the tummy. Better still was the fabulous wine, which was matched only on the tasty front by the men...yummy; nothing like a bit of window shopping. The weather was pretty odd. A couple of the days were almost unbearably hot with humidity like I have rarely experienced and then there were nights of massive thunder storms, incessant rain and quite terrifying noise and light shows. However, it was a great experience and it's much more buenos than malos aires. So, here is a pic of yours' truly outside the Casa Rosada (which means Pink House). And, next posting, I promise I'll attach some more pix of our trip down south over New Year. My feet have stopped being itchy for the moment, which is good news. Hasta la vista.
xxx