Dia 1.5 y dos

It was a long, long day indeed. We arrived at the Boise airport surprisingly on time (thank you Brian), given the chaos of that a.m. Made it through baggage check, global entry, TSA, and I think we had to take an SAT test too.

Then it was a matter of eating before boarding our flight to Atlanta. We did manage to find our way around the massive Atlanta airport, grab something to drink, and still were able to board on time with only a two hour layover. But then came the long flight south - over 5,000 miles and 9+ hours in the air. Plenty of time to watch the flight progress on the screen in front of me. And play a little trivia…

We were fed twice. First time was about 90 minutes after take off. I must have been really hungry (it was about 10:30 p.m.). I ate every last kernel (and a few second lieutenants) in this undefined army of vegetables.

Paid extra to get more leg room. I think it came to about $100/inch.

What do you get when you have only two International Airports in a city that is almost 50% larger than the Big Apple? You get long lines and tense moments, like when the young man in the Customs Booth saw me taking pictures and directed me to cease and desist.

We made it through customs about 9 a.m. and walked hither and yon through an ocean of taxi and limo drivers holding signs with the name of their fare spelled out across a note pad. Ours, however, was the only driver who had our name in lights! (Big red letters across an iPad screen! Nice touch) Buenos Aires is a huge city (one of the largest in the world.) It’s an ancient city (founded in the 16th century) with an eclectic mixture of architecture and art.

Now this is a horse of a different color!

We’re staying at the Savoy Hotel, which is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year. The dining hall is huge, with vaulted ceilings and ornate chandeliers, art befitting a museum, and the food was okay. (It was actually very good.)

I love the old photos at the end of our hallway. An homage to days of yore. The Savoy has been very accommodating. We arrived here about 9:30 but couldn’t get into our room until the 3 p.m. check-in. So they held our suitcases and let us crash in the restaurant off and on for four hours, then got us moved into a room as soon as they had it cleaned and readied.

The stairway was a work of art in and of itself. The ornate banister, floor to ceiling curtains at the outside walls, and a dizzying spiral descending five levels.

I came across this years ago, in Spain. The entire room is wired through a disconnect switch that requires you insert the magnetic-strip card in the slot in order to turn on even a night light! The second room “key” serves as the work-around when you need to leave electrical devices on chargers while out of the room.

The walk-in shower with unusual drain was reminiscent of Spain also.

Nice double vanity has room enough for all of Alicia’s items, if she just had time to unpack before we checkout in the morning.

This has to be the world’s tallest headboard

… and the world’s skinniest balcony!

Looked like someone was about to learn about a new Girl Scout knot!

The choices of cuisine were truly International, and we even found three Kentucky Pizza parlors and this good-old-boy haunt.

… and this pastry shop

I had made several trips to the bank in the last couple of weeks to “upgrade” to a card that would allow us to get indigenous currencies at an ATM without incurring fees. The problem proved to be deeper than bank fees however. The banks were all closed by the time we wandered out into the world after our nap so we wandered into one of several bank ATM vestibules. Cards worked just fine but our lack of skill in navigating the local-tongue screen instructions proved to be prohibitive. (We brought Brazil reals and Uruguayan pesos with us. But the economy in Argentina is a disaster, apparently, with huge fluctuations in exchange rates occurring daily and inflation out of control. So most U.S. banks won’t sell you Argentine pesos. They rather you pay the fee than they get burned with an unfavorable exchange rate.

And, in closing… this one is for my brother, Tom. We saw this picture of his favorite author in the window of a book store as we walked by, so on the way back I stopped and took this picture and we reJoyced!

Tomorrow is check-in day at the pier. Our excursion is planned to explore the ship and all that it has to offer. Film at 11 (or actually tomorrow is the 24th).