We have Arrived in Buenos Aires

La Boca: Famous Football Player, Evita, and some other dude.

La Boca Neighbourhood

We left Calgary at 9:30 am on Tuesday, and arrived at 7:45 am on Wednesday. Air Nance booked us a very smooth journey through San Fransisco, where we only had about 30 minutes to wait for our flight to Lima. After landing in Lima, we went straight to our connection, which went smoothly. We were lucky to secure seats for two all of the way, so we had room to stretch out, and get up without disturbing anyone. Brent slept quite a bit, but I only slept for about an hour.

Our VIP car service met us at the airport, and wisked us to our apartment. It took a good hour to get through the city, as it was rush hour, and we passed through three toll booths, and slowed for the traffic. We were both sitting there wondering how we would have navigated the traffic on our motorcycles, deciding it would have been very stressful to do.

We are very pleased with our accommidations, a beautiful new apartment building, with full security, a rooftop pool, a gym, air conditioning. We are the first to stay in the aparment, and there are even suites on our floor that are still being worked on. The gym is not open yet, so I negotiated a reduction in the rent, and the pool is not open yet, as it is still "spring" here and apparently too cold for swimming!

I am having issues connecting with the wireless system in our apartment, so we have had to resort to going to McDonalds for coffee so I can get on their wireless system here. Not like at home, as we are sitting in a private cafe, drinking Espresso Largo, which they serve with small cookies and sparkling water. There is even a private guard in this area!

Once we had rested up from our flights, we have been touring the different areas of the city by foot, discovering that there are many neighbourhoods close by for shopping, dining and stopping for coffee. Most of the shops we have seen in our area are very high end, with an abundance of men's stores, which Brent has enjoyed going through. I truly have never seen so many men's stores, and all upper end. My shoulder is holding up pretty well with all of the walking, and on average, we have been doing about 10 km per day. The coffee stops help, and the pain fades quickly after a good shot of esspresso!

Yesterday, we met our friend, Roy, for lunch. He is a wealth of information on BA, and helped us to buy minutes on our cellphone, which we can use to call him or text him. The lunch was also an experience, with three different yummy cuts of beef (ribs, steak, and something else) which we shared, with some side dishes. We will be meeting Roy tomorrow to go on a tour of the Market area, that only happens on Sundays.

Today, we took a 3 1/2 hour tour of the city through the company we rented the apartment from. It was very worthwhile, and helped us to decide on which areas of the city we would like to return to see. We took the subway down to meet our tourbus, and it was easy and safe to use. Oops, maybe not that safe. On the way home, we experienced our first unsafe moment. We were getting on in a very touristy area, and the subway platform was not busy. When our train arrived, we went to get on, and all of the sudden there were 5-6 other people pushing to get in the same door as us. I just figured that they all push to get in, even though there was lots of room on the train. I heard Brent say, hey, hey! And turn around. As the door closed, there was a large man looking at Brent, holding his hands up, as if to say, "what?" The other people who were trying to get on, did not, and disappeared on the platform. So, here's what happened. As we were getting on the train, the big man stopped in front of Brent and 3 others pushed against him, as if trying to get on the train. One person picked his back pocket, even opening his zipper that closed the pocket, and took out his "mugger" wallet. This is a "fake" wallet that he was carrying, that had fake credit cards in it (they all say, your name here on them) and a small amount of cash. (less than $20) Even though we weren't concerned about the theft, we still felt violated, and realized how quickly something can happen in the middle of the day. We do not carry our passports, or any large amounts of cash on us, and always put the money in separate pockets and areas on us. Even so, we will be uber dilligent in the future about our belongings.

More photos to follow! I'm having computer issues again.