Ah, it’s cold (well…not really...60's really?), it’s winter (true), and my wife and I have been working way too long between vacations (also true). So it’s about that time when we’ll leave for sunny warm climes that can be found South of the Border, in Brazil, Argentina and Chile.


We leave tomorrow and start the vacation of well…February 2012...in the most relaxing way possible…a long drive up the New Jersey Turnpike to the even more relaxing environment provided by JFK Terminal 4.

Now, I'm no eightblack, but I'll do my best to entertain you as we travel through part of South America.

Fun starts tomorrow, stay tuned.

Cool.

Buenos Dias! Greetings from the Sumaq airport lounge in the gilded halls of the Lima International Terminal, and where Mrs. Dcstudent and I will be spending a few hours before continuing to Brazil.

Our vacation started yesterday, earlier for me than for Mrs. Dcstudent. She didn´t have enough leave to take the whole day off, ha! But, I did! So, I got the dubious distinction of corraling our children (all furry and four legged) and loading them into our car for the 1.5 hour drive to our boarding facility. You see, we love our furry children, they range in age from 4-14, three beagles and a Shep. And, just like children they have unique personalities: Piper, is a daddy´s girl, Joe is an angry old man, Louise, our oldest, just wants to be left alone to sleep (occasionally broken up by eating), and Shep is a go-along to get-along 55 pound lovebug. (Another advantage of furry children is you can legally lock them in a cage when they are driving you crazy, but I digress.)

After dropping the dogs off at the kennel I proceeded another hour to get to Dulles airport where I parked my car in the long-term car park (for free since I volunteer at Dulles), and headed to National to pick up my one-way rental for JFK.

G-od, the hands of fate, Buddha or whomever had obviously decided my morning had gone to well as when I arrived at National I searched the lot for a luxury car, which is what I had rented (Hey, why not start off a vacation in style?), and I couldn't find any. Not a good sign. So even though I am an Emerald Club member and therefore do not need to have any human contact, generally that is, I headed inside where I found the genial "the man." "The man" confirmed my fears, but graciously offered me any car on the lot (except the fully loaded 2012 Mercedes as evidently that was Specialty Luxury and not for plain luxury peons like me). Sadly, the whole lot was looking rather poor, lots of minivans, an altima, a Charger, a couple impalas, but then I saw it...2011 Ford Explorer Limited. Ok, so not that great but it had leather and heater seats. And over 20K miles. And heated seats. I took it and headed into DC to pick up the ol ball and chain...I mean the most wonderful woman in the World.

(And for those of you Flyertalkers reading this, I will be complaining to National that they couldn't honor my reservation. It's not a huge deal but I did pay for luxury and a Ford Explorer, even a Limited Ford Explorer is not Luxury.)

There´s something about starting a vacation with a long and harrowing drive up the racetrack that is I-95 and the New Jersey Turnpike. Fortunately, I had a rental car covered by American Express Platinum Protection. Also fortunately, we didn´t need the insurance, but we did use the rental.

Having little interest to stay on I-95 the whole way we left DC via New York Avenue, and Rt. 50. We stayed on route 50 over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and then took Route 301 North into Delaware. From there a brief hop on DE, Rt 299 to Rt 1 North to the Delaware Bridge and the New Jersey Turnpike.

We gave ourselves plenty of time, leaving DC at 11:30, but not flying until 11:30pm - or so I thought (more on that later). But, I figured we´d hit traffic or there´d be an accident or something, c´mon, it´s the Jersey Turnpike, but no. A brief slowdown at Trenton, another brief slowdown at the Verrazano bridge, and yet another brief slowdown on the Belt Parkway and we were at JFK by 5pm.

Car return was very easy. I prepaid the gas at IAD for $3.47 a gallon and returned the SUV with less than a quarter tank. I think I came out about even and didn´t have to find a gas station at JFK. We headed to the AirTrain and the fun began.

You see, I got an e-mail from LAN that they were moving to Terminal 8 on February 1st. But all of the AirTrain information signs already showed LAN at Terminal 8, and it was only January 31. This led to an interesting conundrum, do I trust LAN, or the Port Authority. I flipped a mental coin and we got off at Terminal 4, which turned out to be the right decision.

LAN was already checking in folks for their 3 flights this evening (Santiago, Lima, Guyaquil) and we dutifully got in the Economy Class line behind a large number of people that seemed to be ready to send a moving truck worth of belongings back home. Those of you who have traveled to South America know what I mean. We´re talking people checking 5, 6, 10, 15 bags.

We were pleasantly surprised when a supervisor pulled us out of line and put us in the Business Class line because "we don´t want you to wait since you only have 2 bags (total) to check". ^

We were checked in less than 5 minutes after the line switch and then cleared the TSA in another 15 minutes, leaving us in the barrens of the A gates of Terminal 4 for far too long.

To be continued....

Greetings from Iguazu! Our hotel{s wireless is down, with no estimate of restoration so it may take awhole before I can post updates, but >I will!

The wireless is functioning again, whooo...I thought I might be disconnected from the outside world for awhile. Gasp! But, no, we come back from the Falls and it's here. So...where was I...oh yes...JFK

JFK, 9:30pm, January 31. We start boarding our flight, LA 531 to Lima, Peru. And herein lies the rub. When I originally booked the flight, we were scheduled to leave just after 10pm. Less than a week before the flight I got an e-mail from LAN stating that our flight time had changed and we were leaving after 11pm, an hour later. As of the morning of January 31 our itinerary was still showing a departure after 11pm, but we boarded and departed at our original departure time. Whatever.

Oh, and I almost forgot! Our luck continued. We had two seats in Y (coach for those uninitiated to Flyertalk), window and aisle on the Starboard sude where there was no middle. After the doors had closed a flight attendant came up to us and asked if we would like to move to the exit row as it was empty. Wait, enough leg room that we could stretch out without touching the seat in front of us? Of course, we're in! Now, I have no idea how we were chosen (well other than that my wife and I are amazingly smart and attractive...and I'm modest to beat the band! But seriously, I don't have LAN status, and I used BA miles for the trip (and I don't have BA status either) so I don't know why the FA picked us, but we gladly took it.

Sadly, anyone looking for details about the flight itself will have to look elsewhere as I fell asleep sometime during takeoff and did not wake until final approach in Lima.

To be continued....

February 1 is a day that will be soon forgotten. No, not because anything happened that was exciting, horrible, or awesome. But, in fact, because it was a very bland and boring day, filled with airports, immigration and sleep.

We arrived in Lima just after 6am Lima time. We approached transit security for International Connections and we were the only ones in line, yes you read that right, the luck of the Mr./Mrs. Dcstudent pair continues. Unlike in the US we were not made to remove our liquids, our IPAD or our clothes (virtually of course). We proceeded through smoothly and headed to a back hallway near Gate 17 for the Sumaq VIP lounge.

Now, I love anything that says VIP that will let me in. Frankly, it shows they aren't picky, they just want money and as a Priority Pass basic member I pay Priority Pass $54US for the privilege of entry for my wife and I.

At entry the very polite lounge Goddess mentioned that as a Priority Pass member we were only entitled to 4 hours of access which would bring us to 10:30. Our flight wasn't until 1:30 but Ms. Goddess didn't make the rules and Mrs. Dcstudent and I were not going to try for a couple of extra hours. We made full use of our time in the beautiful space, having a breakfast of sweet breads, coffee (Mrs Dcstudent) and fresh-squeezed orange juice (ME!). Speaking of orange juice, the Sumaq lounge has a really cool machine that I need at home. I just had to drop 4 oranges in the top and it sliced, squeezed and filled a glass for me! (I had two!)

At 10:30 our time in peace and tranquility ran out and we headed into the concourse. We were surprised to see that it seemed there were banks of departures by airlines. For instance at 11:00-12:30 it seemed that TACA Peru had nearly 100% of departing flights, but then LAN had near 100% from 12:30-2pm. We boarded at 1pm, and took off on LAN flight 2443 at 1:30pm headed for IGU, Iguazu Brazil.

We flew on a A319, and we were served by three lovely young and spirited flight attendants, who unlike many US arline attendants, were there to serve, and they served very well. Lunch was a Ham and Chees sandwich, so my wife -being vegetarian- missed a meal, but she did get my chocolate for dessert. I had a glass fo wine (gratis) and she had a diet coke.

While waiting for the restroom in the aft galley later in the flight I realized how much my life has changed (for the better of course!) in the past 4 years. While waiting for the restroom I struck up a conversation with one of the flight attendants. I told her all about the trip my wife and I had planned and how my wife was a biologist and was really looking forward to all of the unique species we would encounter on this trip. Basically I talked about my wife. 4 years ago I had a conversation with a LAN attendant on a flight SCL-LAX which ended with me spending the day at Venice Beach and the Getty museum with said attendant. I live a very different life now, and I couldn't be happier. Really, I'm not just saying this because my wife is looking over my shoulder and my mother-in-law is reading this blog.

We landed at 8:30 pm Brazil time and they pulled up stairs to both the front and rear doors so we disboarded quickly. There were only 2 immigration agents working but we still got through in about 1/2 hour. There was no customs staff and the airline staff had lined up all of our bags on the floor for us to pick up and head to arrivals.

We needed a Taxi and approached the "official taxi desk" which was manned by a youngish man who was wearing a polo shirt and khakis with no name tag or other identifying marks. We told him where we were going, he talked to a cabbie and then told us we would pay $80Reals (about $47). Our cabbie was very efficient (read fast...passing slower vehicles across double yellow etc...). He handled our immigration exit in Brazil and entrance in Argentina while we sat in the parked car. Awesome! Best immigration experience ever! 30 minutes after getting in the cab we were dropped off at our hotel.

To be continued....

Our hotel was the Jardin del Iguazu. It is a small hotel with maybe 30 rooms but it is very nice. Simple, but nice. The rooms are on two stories surrounding two beautiful courtyards. One courtyard has a fountain and one has a small pool which features backlit waterfalls.

We entered the lobby and were checked in by a young lady who wasn't sure what to charge us as our confirmation didn't have a rate on it and we booked nearly 11 months ago. She called the manager who came down and asked us if it would be ok if they gave a 10% discount off of the current rates on the website. We thought that fair and accepted. (2 nights = $1000 pesos = roughly $231 dollars for two nights in high season. Sure beats the $300+ the Sheraton wanted from us, per night!

At this point my wife was starving and I never am one to skip food so we asked the staff where they go for good takeout, with a proviso, we needed someplace that served vegetarian options. The manager, a very funny middle-aged man asked us who the vegetarian was and I dutifully pointed to my wife and said that I eat everything. The manager, a very kind middle-aged man then told my wife that he worked in a slaughterhouse for 20 years and couldn't imagine not eating beef and he then extolled the virtues of Argentine beef. A man after my heart, after all, I can't imagine not eating beef either! He ended his good-natured lecture with a laugh, and two alcoholic welcome drinks ! and they sent us two blocks down the street to Misiones an awesome empanadas, coxinha and pizza place.

My wife ordered 2 cheese empanadas, I ordered two coxinhas con carne (a fried potato stuffed with beef). I got a coke, she a water and the grand total came to $26 pesos or $6 US. The food lived up to its billing, we enjoyed our meal at a table overlooking one of the courtyards before heading to bed.

A quick note on our room. We had a standard double which consisted of two single beds pushed together. We had a 24" flatscreen and great air conditioning. The bathroom was sizable with a stand-up shower, bidet and toilet. The room as mentioned above was simple but very very clean.

We were in bed by 11pm Iguazu time or 9pm Washington time and slept very well.

Ok, finally, we got started with the really fun parts of our trip!

We woke up at 5:45 Puerto Iguazu time (6:45 Brazil Foz de Iguazu time, 3:45 Washington, D.C. time), and got ready as we were headed back to Brazil and wanted to get to both the falls and the Bird Park (Parc des Aves) before they got too crowded and the heat became too much for us.

We were up too early for breakfast at the hotel but figured we'd make up for it with a big lunch in Brazil (and we did, but more on that later!). We went to the front desk at 6:45am Argentine time (7:45 Brazil). The clerk called three cab drivers before he found one that didn't already have passengers, and the cab arrived in mere moments.

This cab was in rather poor condition and didn't have air conditioning, but hey, it ran and that was our main qualification. Even given how early it was it was already oppressively hot and humid. Again, immigration at both the Argentine and Brazil side went quite quickly with us waiting in the car while the cabbie went inside the buildings and took care of the formalities.

After crossing the border it was a 15 minute drive and we arrived at the Parc des Aves, perhaps five minutes after the 8:30am Brazil (7:30 Argentina, 5:30 Washington, D.C.) opening time. The cab ride was $120AR or $28US.

We paid our entry fee at the Parc $56R (Reals), $33US, and went inside. This park was absolutely outstanding. The park alternated between zoo like cages and plenty of walk through Avaries. I especially enjoyed the butterfly and hummingbird exhibits, it was amazing being able to stand within inches of brightly colored butterflies and hummingbirds. We also greatly enjoyed the parrot exhibit, where I attempted to converse with them but they weren't having it! There was also a walk-through area filled with brightly colored Toucans which were very curious and would come within inches of us as we walked around. Very cool and well worth the entry fee! Another advantage of arriving so early is we beat the tour buses, and maybe ran into another 10 people.

Our next stop was the Brazilian Falls. To get there from the Park you have a very, very long slog. Kidding! You just cross the road, really. SO, why did the humans cross the road? To get to the Falls. (I know, groaner.)

We paid our entry fee in US dollars as we got a better deal than if we paid in Reals, $41US, and headed inside to catch a bus further into the park. You see you can't drive in the Brazilian Park. Everyone must board buses after entering which make four stops within the park.

Again, being there early it was not crowded and we were able to make it on the first bus that stopped at the visitor center. We got off at stop 2, where we were prepared to take a boat.

To be continued...

We paid 180R ($105US), got two ponchos to wrap my wife's handbag and our camera bag, and headed to a line where we were able to board an electric "safari vehicle." We drove through the jungle stopping at various points where the guide explained about various plant and animal life. The guide gave his speech in both Portuguese and English which we greatly appreciated. After about 20 minutes we arrived at boat landing where we were fitted for life jackets and we were seated in the very front of the first boat!

We headed down the canyon, Argentina on one side, Brazil on the other and were amazed at how beautiful and green the scenery was. As we got closer to the falls we slowed down and took an absolute ton of pictures. Then the boat captain (the boat was a fast Zodiac), motioned that we should put our cameras away. We figured this was because it was time to get close to the mist, just like Maid of the Mist in Niagara. No, not so much. We went under one of the falls, and then back under, and again, and again. IT WAS SO AMAZINGLY COOL!!! After getting thoroughly soaked we headed back to the boat landing at full speed, which was a thrill in itself.

After getting off the boat we got back on a safari vehicle which took us back to the bus station where we bought a video of our boat ride for $85R ($50US).

Our next stop was stop 3, where we walked along a trail giving us plenty of views of the different falls. You see, Iguazu falls is not just one, or two, or even three falls, but, by my count, over 20 falls spread out over a kilometer or so. After witnessing the falls, especially the Devil's fall at the end of the trail we can understand why when Eleanor Roosevelt first saw Iguazu Falls she exclaimed: "Poor Niagara!"

So now it was about 1pm Brazilian time and we were starving so we went to the buffet restaurant at the end of the bus route. We sat out on a shaded deck over the waters of the river just before they plunge over the falls. For $136R ($79US). I had steak, lamb stew, pasta with chicken, salad, wine and water. My wife had a salad, beans and rice, wine and water. It was very good.

After eating we took a bus back to the main station where we caught a cab to the Argentine falls for $80R ($47US).

To be continued.

The cabbie that took us back to the Argentine falls did not skip the lines at immigration as all of the other cabbies we had did. He drove in the regular lines on both the Argentine and Brazilian side and as such we took over an hour to clear both sets of immigration.

We arrived the Argentine Falls at 2pm Argentine time and paid the entrance fee of $200AR or $47. We decided to keep this trip short because it was dastardly hot, amazingly humid and we were exhausted from the hiking on the Brazilian side and the heat. We walked on a trail called the green trail which took us through the jungle to the Cataratas station where we decided to take the paseo inferior (the lower trail). We chose the lower trail because all of the trails on the Brazilian side take you where you can see the top of the falls so we decided to take the trail where you walk towards the bottom of the falls. The inferior trail also is great because it takes you by some falls that you can't see from the Brazilian side or the Argentina high trail.

After the inferior trail we were just plain exhausted. For $120AR we caught a cab back to our hotel where we turned the air con all of the way up and took nice cool showers. We rested until dinner.

Being exhausted, we decided not to explore but just went back to La Misiones and ordered Pizza for take-out. Mrs. Dcstudent got a vegetarian pizza with broccoli, asparagus and tomatoes. I got a ham pizza. The pizzas were excellent but certainly not what you'd expect if you were used to NYC pizza. The crust was very crispy, there was hardly any sauce and tons of cheese and ham. Basically, my pizza was really an open-faced hot ham and cheese sandwich. Which, frankly, was awesome. Total cost $76AR ($17US).

After eating we collapsed by 9pm Argentine time and didn't wake until 7am Argentine time.

The Iguazu Falls were absolutely incredible, and the wildlife viewing opportunities were spectacular as well. Bit the Brazilian and Argentinian side of the falls are crawling with coatis, which resemble but aren't related to (I don't think) raccoons, just with longer noses and thinner tails. They are all over the place, capitalizing on the fact that humans A)love anything that looks cute and cuddly, and B) we as a species tend to border on the slobbish in terms of throwing items away, thus creating a coati smorgasboard around visitor centers and other attractions in the park. Both parks strongly discourage visitors to touch, feed, or otherwise molest the coatis since they are wild animals (although they are extremely habituated to humans and will walk right up to you) and can bite and/or transmit diseases. These rules, unfortunately, seem to be widely disregarded. People were feeding the coatis (by hand!), petting the coatis, and small children were chasing them around trying to cop a feel while their parents videotaped the whole thing (way to set an example, MOm and Dad). Even if you try to avoid interacting with them (other than the odd photo), they will seek you out. I was sitting on a bench in the shade (high heat and humidity does not bode well for a fair blonde of Western European heritage), and from the forest right behind me, a family of coatis started spilling out. The bench was built into a wall, so I was instantly swarmed with coatis. Since I didn't want to risk surprising them and perhaps getting bitten, I sat still and pulled out my camera and filmed the whole thing. I have to admit, it was pretty cool, but I do not advocate intentionally trying to go afer a coati like a lot of the people in the parks were doing. DCstudent and I actually encountered what appeared to be a sick coati (tail down and acting very suspicious) in the middle of the trail. I told DCstudent to give it some room as we went around it and as we approached, it neither acted curious or tried to run away; it just hunkered down where is was, a tell-tale sign of a sick animal. So, please, PLEASE, if you go to the parks, LEAVE THE ANMALS ALONE!

Iguazu has a lot to offer nature lovers. It's a beautiful area with lots of parks and nature attractions (the Parque des Aves was also really neat and highly recommended). Of the two sides of the park for Iguazu Falls, I'd have to say that the Brazilian side was my favorite. Yes, it was more "touristy", but the prices were more reasonable for items like food and water, and it seemed a lot cleaner than the Argentinian side. Granted, we were in the Brazilian park right when it opened before a lot of people arrived, but there seemed to be a lot less litter and more "green" practices (labeled recycling containers, use of zero-emission vehicles) on the Brazilian side, which is a big plus in my book!

After our ecological adventures, it was time to say good-bye to Iguazu. We headed to the small international airport not far from the city. We were booked for a 2:30 flight but when we checked our baggage around noon (the prescribed time on our reservations), we were told we were too early for our flight's check-in time, but they had room on an earlier flight and would we like to take it? We jumped at the chance to spend more time in Buenos Aires (our flight's destination and our next stop on the trip), and switched flights. We were told that our new flight left at 1:40 from Gate 3 (FYI, only three gates in the entire airport) and that there would be two passport checks (yes, even though this was a domestic flight). We went upstairs to head through security, but were told about ten minutes after everyone had "lined up" (read: a hodge-podge mass of people; you'd thinks adults would be capable of something more more orderly than a gigantic mass, but there you go) only to be told that our flight was delayed forty minutes (meanwhile the flight departure board had us as on time). Flash forward another forty minutes and we once again herded en masse to go through security, which was a two- or three-step process. You walk up to a desk with two attendants and go to the one on the right first. He checks your ticket and takes what appears to be a cursory look at your passport and then (perhaps) passed it to the guy on the right who looks at the passport with much more scrutiny before handing your passport back to you and allowing you to go through the detectors. We were able to watch this process multiple times through groups of other tourists and so when our moment arrived, the first guy handed our passports back to us. We then moved to the left and offered them to the other attendant, but he waved us through to the detectors. We then took a seat in the lounge and waited for our plane to turn up. Meanwhile, another airline employee was going through the lounge and checking EVERYONE's passport AGAN. The whole process was completely confusing and inefficient. About a half-hour, forty-five minutes later, we were finally on our flight. This was around 2:30, so for those of you keeping score at home, our "early" flight wound up leaving about the same time as our original flight was scheduled.

So, continuning the saga that was our flight to Buenos Aires, we were told tha the reason for the delay was a problem in the flight control tower in Buenos Aires which put the flight behind schedule. When we arrived in Buenos Aires, we were told that our luggage would be arriving on Carousel 3. So, a plane-ful of people that could not form a line now had to crowd around a luggage carousel. With carts. And small children who inexplicably could not stay with the one parent who was, like me, waiting in the receiving end of the bag collection from the carousel, and instead had to be with the parental unit making a mad grab for their luggage while simultaneously holding on to their kid. Fantastic. DCstudent stood by the carousel to grab the luggage while I stood behind (and I thought/tried to be out of the way), dodging luggage carts and people pushing, to receive and keep watch on our bags.

While we waited and watched an endless parade of luggage, we started to notice quizzical looks on our fellow passengers. None of these bags were ours. As it turns out, the flight after ours (our original and later flight) had been hot on our heels from Iguazu and had landed at virtually the same time. The board said that their luggage was on Carousel 2. These people had equally confused looks on their faces. Apparently none of the luggage on their carousel looked familiar either. So, now we had two planes-worth of confused and travel weary passengers trying to made the mad dash that is luggage retrieval oscillating between two luggage carousels. After two rounds of switching between Carousels 2 and 3 trying to get our bags (which in the end took around an hour) we were in a taxi and o nthe way to our hotel. In the cab, I made two requests to DCstudent: 1) a very, VERY large drink, and 2) that the next time we fly into Buenos Aires, we only bring carry-ons and they buy clothes, etc., here. I. Never. Want. To Do. That. AGAN. Ever.

Despite the traffic, the drive to the hotel was very relaxed compared to the chaos at the airport. The city is beautiful and the weather is very pleasant. It's hot, but it's not nearly as humid as Iguazu and there's a bit of a breeze every once in a while that is very refreshing. We checked into the Sheraton where we found out we'd been upgraded to a suite. We also chatted for a few minutes with the very nice young woman who checked us in. We told her we were planning to do some shopping on Avenue Florida (a popular pedestrian mall) and Galleria Pacifica (a mall in an old 19th century building that is absolutely gorgeous) and eat. She gave us some very good recommendations for shopping and directions to the restaurant that had been recommended to us by a coworker of DCstudent.

Our suite was located in the 21st floor with a view of the river and a port. The suite itself was very nice and spacious. We dropped our bags and headed off for Avenue Florida and Galleria Pacifica.

As my wife mentioned in her posts above AEP was a third-world zoo. We arrived and disboarded via air stairs. When we got to the tarmac we were loaded into buses and disgorged into what can only politely be called a zoo. We were told to head to baggage claim three but when claim three started moving there were bags for the later (read: the flight we were supposed to be on) flight from Iguazu.

A LAN employee told us to go to Baggage Claim two, where everyone waited for many minutes while nothing happened.

Then the same LAN employee told us to go back to three after all the bags from the "later" Iguazu flight had been offloaded and collected. Another change of venue led to much angry whistling and shouts of F"#$ing h#$l, bull#"ks, bl#$dy H$ll, etc....

Oh, wait, the fun wasn't over yet, our bags finally started coming out, about 45 minutes after landing...you guessed it...back on carousel three.

Our cab ot the Sheraton Conference Center on San Martin cost $45AR ($11US). Our bags were collected from the cab by the bell staff and we were warmly greeted by a young lady working the front desk. She checked us in very efficiently and let us know we had been upgraded due to our platinum status to a corner suite on a high floor with views of the city and the river!!!!

She also told us what the local amenities were but in her opinion the points were the best option and we agreed. Finally, as she was also in her 20's my wife started talking to her about places to buy handbags...more on that later.

Cost for the hotel on Cash+points: 2800 points + $45US!!!!!

Our room was indeed fantastic. A true one-bedroom suite with separate parlor room with a power room from the bedroom and a full bath. Awesome.

From the hotel we walked the short distance to go shopping on Florida. I went to Casa Lopez (on Plaza San Martin - thanks to a recommendation from a colleague who grew up in BA) and got a new wallet and two nice belts. My wife went to Prune, a very nice handbag and shoe shop that was recomended to her by the front desk staffer at the hotel as being more "young" than the handbags at Casa Lopez. My wife was very happy with her new handbag and matching wallet.

After shopping we returned to the hotel to drop off our purchases and walked down Libertador for dinner at San Juanino, a restaurant recommended by the same colleague mentioned above. It was indeed quite good. My wife had a salad and a couple of corn and cheese empanadas and I had a huge, make that HUGE steak with fries. The steak was so amazing, you could cut it with a fork. YUMMMMM. We had a "grande" pitcher of house red wine and two bottles of Mineral Water. Total check: $136AR, only $31US. If only I could get food that good, that filling, that cheaply in the US!

After eating we wandered back to our hotel where we quickly feel into a deep sleep.

Yesterday was a nice, relaxing, lazy day. We awoke at 7am Buenos Airs time (5am DC time), and showered and prepared for the day ahead. As the lounge in the Sheraton was under construction we were invited to head over to the Park Tower (a *wood Luxury Collection hotel) next door for a complimentary breakfast in their St. Regis restaurant.

Breakfast was amazing. Fresh squeezed orange juice, tea, coffee, eggs, quiche, bacon, yogurt and tons of pastries and fresh fruit. Ah, to be platinum and staying at a hotel outside of the US where platinum status means something.

After breakfast we headed back to our room for awhile before catching the 93 bus on Libertador ($1.25AR each or $.29US each) which dropped us off a block from the Recoleta Cemetery, final resting place for Evita. Mrs. Dcstudent enjoyed all of the crypts (I did too but having been there before it wasn't quite as exciting), and then we headed off to the D line of the Subte to head to the end of the line, Catedral, near the Casa Rosada. A ride on the subway is $2.5AR each or $.58 each.

To be continued.