Our Anticlimatic Experience

We started the week off pretty slow. We looked around for bikes for Jen and I. Initially I was looking for a cycle cross bike, but since we've been to 3-4 different bike shops and haven't been able to find any, I think it's time to look for something else. I thing I am going to definitely buy bike jerseys while we are here. You can buy nice bike jerseys here for 20-30 USD. I am so loading up on jerseys. One of the reasons I don't have many jerseys now is because I am too cheap to spend 90 USD a piece for them. Now I have no excuse. I'm surprised with the lack of nice bicycle and camping stores in a city this large. I even have the yellow pages on line and there really isn't much out there. However, on any given day walking down the street I see 4-5 nice Trek or Cervelo road bikes, so I know that they are out there.

Now, most of us have all bought a car at some point in our lifetime. Jen and I always get excited about buying a car. We usually spend weeks, months and some cases a year ie. the Toyota Sequoia, reseraching and making the leap. This time we spent a couple of weeks looking around at cars within the city and trying to decide what would work best for us. I really wanted a Land Rover Defender, however it has poor maintenance ratings and every Porteno that I mentioned the idea of purchasing a Defender to told me in a nice way they wouldn't recommend it. Therefore, we bought a black Renault Kangoo because of its affordability and amazing looks. Just joking. If you haven't seen one you need to, they are comical to look at.www.renault.com.ar/automoviles/kangoo.

Let me equate our buying experience to something that most of us can relate to. Remember back in your single days, or if you are still single, when you meet a beautiful girl ( a man for the woman, a man for the man, or a woman for the woman) and you planned a whole evening together full of fun and excitement. Then the next morning you realize that you would have been better off watching reruns of Seinfield. Well, that was our experience at the dealership. I have to say that the sales rep Juan Harrington at the Cordoba office was great and very personable. However, the car buying experience SUCKED! Who in there right mind came up with this idiotic way to purchase a car. You can't test drive the car, you basicily sit in someone else's vehicle at the dealership to determine whether or not you're going to buy the car. Yes, I said someone else's vehicle because they do not even have vehicles at the dealership for showroom models. All of the vehicles at the dealership have been purchased by someone else and are awaiting pick-up.

We put a deposit down of $1000 Argentino pesos and we were given a hand shake and told the car will be in next Tuesday morning at the latest, Feb 13th. This is great, however, you don't pay for vehicles down here with a Credit card or a loan (generally), you pay hard core cash. So the issue is that our power of attorney for our finances happens to be in Las Vegas for a flooring convention. (It's amazing that every year the flooring convention is in Vegas on Superbowl weekend. Coincidence, I think not!) In other words, unable to have the money go through the international wire service until Monday the 12th and then it takes roughly 5+ days for the money to go into the Renault dealer's account. Once in the Renault dealers account-----it takes two days for them to verify it. Our last day at the apartment is Sunday February 18th. We are cutting things close. We will be lucky to have the car before the 18th. We should have started the car buying process a little sooner. We didn't realize that each step of the process would take so long. Let me tell you, we are ready to leave BA. It is time to move onto the next step of our adventure and we are not city people.
Later in the day, we went to a hotel, Etoile Hotel which is in somewhat of disrepair, across the street from Recoleta Cemetery. This was a great find, because this hotel has 14 floors and on the top floor there is a pool, solarium, gym and outside sunning deck. We walked outside on the 14th floor and immediately were exposed to the most amazing view of the city. We were actually able to see the brown water of Rio del Plata (brown because of the Amazon soil nutrients). Here is a picture of me with La Recoleta Cementary in the backdrop.
Today we went to the oldest standing and working cafe in Argentina, Cafe Tortoni. It was really nice with some nostalgic paintings/pictures on the walls. I've never seen so many people with there Lonely Planet guide books out before. Cafe Tortino is listed as one of the top 5 things to do in BA in lonely planet, so I guess every body marks it off their list when they walk through the door. I HAVE A NEGATIVE COMMENT: WE'VE RECENTLY BEEN TO A FEW CAFES WHERE THEY CHARGE YOU TO SIT AND HAVE A DRINK/FOOD WITHIN THE RESTAURANT. I find this to be very disturbing. Let me clarify this: there is actually a fee just to walk in and take a seat. If we continue to visit cafes that have this charge I may have to forgo the tip; I'm a firm believer in tiping 20% for good service, so this is huge for me!

We also went to an overpriced Tango museum which was just above Cafe Tortino. Jen and Payton liked it, so I guess that means I liked it too. I had fun doing the Tango with Payton on the dance floor. After the museum we walked around once again, but this time we were on an agenda. We went to our favorite pastry shop and bought some wonderful things and then walked to my favorite helado parlor for some vanilla ice cream. (need I say more).

That is all for now........