Buenos Aires I

We came to the Retiro bus station in Buenos Aires in late morning and spent an hour in the bus station waiting with our things before getting  a cab.  I read The Fountainhead.  I didn’t enjoy it; in fact, I thought it was horrible, but I was too far in to stop.  Around noon we took a taxi to the intersection of Thames and Guatemala in Palermo Soho, where the apartment people were waiting for us.  The streets were lined with sycamores.  We crowded into the small room and realized that there was no air conditioning, but it was okay.  There was a loft-style bed and a small kitchen in the same room.  The shower is too small to accommodate both of my shoulders at once.  All in all, I quite like the place.  It is white and quiet.  We paid the deposit and they told us when the maids would come.  After drinking some water, we set out to walk across the city center to the South American Explorers clubhouse in San Telmo, where Borges lived.

It took us about two hours to cross the city.  We walked through the neighborhoods of Palermo, Barrio Norte, Centro, and finally, San Telmo.  One of the stranger sights along the way was the huge and brightly colored Palacio de las Aguas Corrientes, or Palace of Running Water.  I believe it actually houses the waterworks mechanisms of the area.  We also walked by the congress building, which is modeled after the U.S. Capitol building, but has a green copper roof.

Eventually we came to San Telmo with its lovely antique buildings and cobblestone streets.  I sat on the couch in the clubhouse and read a letter from my mother.

~ by vergentorix on February 24, 2008.