Writings By Date| Buenos Aires: First Impressions | 1 | 2 | 3 |
Well, I tried my best to forget about it during the $42 taxi ride to our hotel, and seeing the hotel helped quite a bit. We're staying at the Hilton, and it's huge! This is certainly the most modern and luxurious hotel we've been at yet, and with the hotel being only two years old, the amenities are outstanding. We have a giant walk-in closet, a mini-bar, free shampoo and kleenex, room service...hey, this may sound like no big deal, but after weeks of electric showers and concrete floors, it's like checking into the Ritz. We even have high-speed Internet access from the room (unlimited, even, but for $16 a day), and the bathroom has separate little glass "cages" for the toilet/bidet and shower. It's just the cutest damn little place, it's a shame that we can't afford more $99 nights here.
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| Puenta de la Mujer |
We dropped off our stuff, then headed out to explore a little bit. The city — at least, Puerto Madero, the very new part of town we're in — is extremely modernized, with huge skyscrapers, glisteningly clean sidewalks and bridges, and sophisticated transport, including an underground subway. (No wonder this country is so far in debt.) However, things are so expensive — at least, compared to the rest of South America — that I feel like I'm in Orlando or something. The dollars, the food, and the people all don't seem to fit into what I've come to think of as Latin America. Now, with this advanced civilization before me, I'm almost regretting that we're only here for two days.
We grabbed a quick lunch next door, then I hopped in a cab for the Oracle office, about a mile away. The receptionist found a random person to babysit me, and he was helpful enough, but generally just did his own thing, which was fine. I borrowed some space on a PC, and made copies of all of our photos, which I then got a colleague from home, Ivo, to pick up and burn onto CDs. When that's done — hopefully in a day or two — we should have every single photo from our entire trip backed up to a safe place, so we won't be too far up the creek if my laptop dies or gets stolen. Having fretted about this only flaw in my recovery plans, it's a great burden to be lifted off our shoulders knowing this is out of the way.
I was kicked out of the Oracle building at 7 when my babysitter was leaving, so I just walked back to the hotel in about 20 minutes. Erin was just getting out of the shower, and showed me her accomplishments for the day: she found a French dictionary and phrasebook (decent enough to get me through French Polynesia), and a (slightly old) Lonely Planet book for Chile and Easter Island. We decided that our day was triumphant (and stressful) enough to warrant a nice dinner, so we got dressed up, and went to a Japanese restaurant by the water that our concierge recommended. I started craving sushi, since I hadn't had it since we left home, and now we were in a city where it was safe to eat it. I would be lying if I said it was the best sushi I've ever had, but it was probably the most welcome sushi dinner I can remember for a long time.
It also was far from the cheapest, costing $100 with wine and dessert, but it was totally worth it. After all, we're back in the world of modern civilization...it wouldn't be the same if it were cheap!
-- Keith
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