Here we are in Buenos Aires, sometimes called the Paris of South America, getting ready for our flight to, well, Paris. The plan had been to spend a week or even 10 days here, but a few days ago we decided to push our flight up a week so ultimately we spent just three days here. BA is a great city, one of those rare places where you feel like you could be in New York or London or, well, Paris. But it’s getting cold here, we’re getting tired of huge, glorious steaks, and it’s spring in Paris. So off we go.
There’s not too much to say about our limited time here. It’s a great city for walking in and we walked a lot. It’s a great city for eating and drinking in, and we ate and drank a lot. Of course, by the standards of Porteños (what the people of Buenos Aires are called) we’re rank amateurs. On Saturday night, as we were leaving our restaurant at 11:30 – since you wouldn’t dream of starting dinner before 10:00 – there was a substantial line of people waiting for seats. At 11:30 at night! For us the night was pretty much over, but for many it was just getting started. In fact, when I woke up a little after 6:00 AM, there were a number of boisterous revelers on the street finally going home after the clubs had closed. A strange way to live as far as I’m concerned but it makes for a lively, vibrant city.But OK, that’s pretty much it; now it’s time to go to Paris. It’s going to be an ugly flight – we start by going two hours in the wrong direction, as we’re routed through Santiago, Chile, and then it’s nearly 14 hours in the air – but tomorrow morning we’ll be in Paris. In the spring.