I knew I hadn’t been keeping up with my posts, but I was surprised to see it had been a couple of weeks since I’ve been here. Combination of work, lots of social dashing about and yet another summer cold!

I’ve continued to visit the bares notables with various friends. Here are a couple of shots from one of the most interesting, Los 36 Billares. There aren’t 36 billiard tables, but I think I counted about twenty, some in the main cafe area and a bunch downstairs.

These next three photos are of the oldest, and certainly among the best kept of the Notables, Cafe Tortoni. Definitely a tourist trap, often with a lineup to get in, but well worth it. I always enjoy soaking in the ambience in Tortoni with its pictures and its lovely art deco ceilings.

Cecilia and I, and her Peruvian friend’s daughter Nicole, went away for an overnighter on Good Friday to Chivilcoy, a provincial town a couple of hours away from Buenos Aires, to visit Cecilia’s daughter Macarena. Summer made a spectacular return — sunny and very hot the whole time we were there. This was a bonus, and allowed us to have a real mini-vacation. We sat in the plaza on Friday evening and drank mate, and then joined the Good Friday procession into the cathedral. Then we went home and retired to the backyard with malbec, where we played cards until two o’clock in the morning!

Now it seems it actually is fall, and we are getting a bit of rain. But it’s only a month till I go back to Canada, so I’m determined to make the most of every day and evening — rain or no rain!

I’ll try to keep up the blog better for the remaining weeks of A5. That’s “Argentina 5” if you haven’t read my book yet — and if you haven’t yet, you can get it at http://amzn.to/2oddkmF !