Vacations

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Update — Kind Of

Well, for those who have written to ask why I haven’t been posting to the blog, as I haven’t done anything since the couch was out on the street, a lot has been going on. This will not be a full update, but just to let you know why I haven’t been posting.

Taken by Cecilia from the balcony

 

These bottles of champagne dressed for the occasion!

Anyway, the couch is now in situ and I love it! A couple of weeks after I moved in, I had a few of my best women friends over for a house warming — champagne and picadas. (Picadas are cold cuts, cheese and other nibblies that go down well with champagne — as what doesn’t?) We had a fun night. Cecilia stepped out onto the balcony and took this photo, which shows the girls as well as the living/dining room with the open kitchen in the background. Cecilia brought the lovely red roses. I think I’ll be having lots of parties here!

Internet

I moved in mid-March, but was told by the company I couldn’t get internet installed until Monday, April 1. Cecilia called them then and they said it would be installed on Thursday. When she called Wednesday night to confirm, they said no, it would be Monday between 8 am and 2 pm. So I figured a few more days using the cafe internet would be ok.

Monday morning, I asked Cecilia to call them to confirm — they had absolutely no record of me, my installation or anything else. She argued with them on the phone and got nowhere, so she got on two buses and went to one of the company’s agencies in the next town to hers. After she made a big noise, they finally agreed. She called me from there and told me to stay home as they were coming. Within an hour, the guy was here and installed it in ten minutes! It was painful, but I’m now online and the world looks sunnier!

My tango teacher, Alejandro — who is Argentine — told me his theory. Everybody makes everything so difficult and puts you through so many hoops that when things are finally done you feel so happy you think you’ve been given a gift — welcome to Argentina!! Never mind, I love it and I can put up with all the stuff — it’s fodder for the blog!

Punta del Este

Punta del Este is a very posh, upscale vacation resort in Uruguay, just across the Rio de la Plata from Buenos Aires. Venetia met a woman who has an American friend who has a house here and two dogs. She was looking for someone to house-sit and look after the dogs for a week, and we jumped at the chance.

The season is over now, so everything is very quiet (except the dogs!) and many places are closed now as the summer people have gone. But it’s still fun being here. I’ve been put in touch with a woman who is going to take me to a milonga next Tuesday, the night before we leave, so I’m looking forward to that.

I have a business Skype call in about ten minutes, and Venetia has gone ahead into Punta itself. After my call I will put the dogs in the living room and join her there. We are going on a walking tour of Punta, which will also give us ideas for things we might want to do the rest of our time here. I’ll post some photos and sketches soon.

La Barra

Yesterday we went to a place called La Barra, half an hour from here by bus. There is a beach where the Atlantic meets the Rio de la Plata, and it’s quite fascinating as you can almost see the dividing line. I couldn’t take photos as my iPhone is acting up and keeps running out of juice, but Venetia took some. I’ll ask her for copies and post here tomorrow.

I must go now to get ready for my client call. Thanks for continuing to be interested in my doings here, and I’ll get back to regular posting soon.

Ciao!

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Miramar — finally!

Well we finally arrived in Miramar in the middle of the afternoon yesterday, after a longer trip than we had expected.

There was an accident on the highway, but at first we didn’t know that. All we knew was that we were moving v-e-r-y slowly. There were two lanes on our half of the highway, but as only Argentines do, they gradually expanded that to three lanes by everyone moving onto the shoulder. I told Cecilia that if she did that in Canada nobody would let her back in, which she thought very strange!

As we sat on the shoulder, at a stop, we suddenly realized another lane was forming on the right, as people drove on the grass! So of course Cecilia, being Argentine, thought it was a good idea and joined them. I thought the next stage was going to be into the farmer’s field with the cows, but fortunately it didn’t come to that!

Unfortunately, in the end we found it was a double decker bus that had gone off the road, but there was no sign of any passengers so we think they all got off.

 

 

 

 

Anway, Cecilia’s family were waiting for us and we had a long-awaited lunch. The house we have is great, and personally I think it’s great fun being in a house with ten people! We all went out to explore a little last night, and this morning we went to the beach. Venetia did a lovely video of the ocean, which I will try to upload via YouTube and post here.

Apparently tonight we are all going to watch the Oscars. I’m having fun in Miramar!

 

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A Very Argentine Vacation!

A few weeks ago my friend Cecilia asked me if I’d like to go to Miramar. As I’ve said before, the only thing wrong with Buenos Aires in my view is that it doesn’t have a beach, but there is a series of ocean resorts on the coast about five or six hours from here that are very popular vacation spots for Porteños. Cecilia and I went to Mar Del Plata a couple of years ago, but I’ve never been to Miramar, so I was up for it.

Her cousin, Carlito, was coming up from Neuquen province to join us, and I also invited Venetia. So that was it originally — four people. Then there was the possibility that Carlito’s daughter would come. But that was it — five people.

Then we started to look for an Air BnB house. It had to have an asado so that we could have the traditional meal at least one of the nights. We needed three or four bedrooms, depending on the distribution of the beds. Venetia did the original Air BnB research and sent some suggestions to Cecilia. Apparently none of them suited, for various reason, and she and Carlito took over the search. They booked us a house, two blocks from the beach with its own asado — and big enough to sleep twelve!

Apparently the word spread, and first Carlito’s daughters and one of their children were added. Then someone else — who the heck knows how it all happened. Anyway, we now have a house that sleeps twelve and it’s a full house. Twelve people — that’s definitely it. If anyone else joins us they’ll have to sleep in the garden.

When I told a few people the story, they all said the same thing. “Oh yes, that’s typically Argentine!”

I don’t know these people yet, but since they are family and friends of Cecilia, I know it will be a riot!

We’re leaving at 7 am tomorrow. I’ll post here to let you know (and see) how it’s going!