Welcome to Buenos Aires. Thursday Jan 31

·        Extremely long arrivals line and wait -- 2 hours and we're tired.  Multiple flights had arrived at the same time. They had all lines open.  The new thing -- they took a picture of us at immigration (we’ve had this other times recently)

·        Mob scene outside.  Left MJP with luggage and wandered and found driver.  A guy older than us!  Luggage barely fit in car…

·        He calls hotel so when we pulled up staff opened the door and welcomed us by name!

·        At check in we're advised that “we take care of you in here but outside...”  Don’t wear jewelry or watches.   And hotel has ATM

·        Room not ready and we’re invited to use spa to shower.  By the time we’re back at the spa entrance area front desk staff meets us to tell us that room is ready and our big pieces of luggage have already been put up there.

·        Nice room.  L'Occitane bath products…  International brands

·        Security guarding the elevator banks.  You see this in Vegas too.  Gets to the point where he recognizes us.

·        Unpack and go to lobby restaurant for lunch.  “Best burger in BA”.  Quite good. 

·        We come to see that affluent places in BA (like hotels) try to be all things to their guests (good food, ATMs, car services)

·        We get advice from concierge on route to visit cemetery and Recoleta neighborhood.  He also inspects us and verifies no watches or jewelry.

·        Cemetery worth going to.  On the walk saw some possibly interesting shopping but truly not that much in Recoleta neighborhood...  Saw Eva Peron’s grave. It was a challenge to find -- no obvious signs for tourists at a cemetery.  Many extravagant sites.   Was free but closed at 5:30. BUT, how long are you going to spend at a cemetery.  COULD see coffins inside glass doors. Some had been vandalized.  Some still in use and others family had abandoned.  Creepy to see extremely small rooms with steep staircases to go down (how do they even get the coffin with body down them)

·        Tried 2 different ATMs because we’d been told to rely on cash.  First one out of order. Second said it would speak to us in English but not really.  Asked for USD equivalent of $300=12000. Think it was saying that was too much or we were asking in the wrong way.

·        Back at hotel use ATM that they have for guests. Interesting that they have one.  

·        Dinner=UBER ride to “On Tap Recoleta” which has 20 taps.  6 resto chain. Beers fine but nothing exciting.  Waited way too long for our fried food “I’ll tell you when the kitchen calls and then you can go downstairs and get it”.  Eventually they admitted that POS printer had stopped working so no food had been prepared in over ½ hour.  We were frustrated so got a refund and left.  Spend A280=$8 for 2 pints of local craft beer. Credible IPA and Export Stout.  Also Pilsner and honey ale.

·        Ended up getting pizza. Pleasant experience sitting outside.  Waiter misunderstood us and it worked better for us.  We thought we were both ordering our own pizza but he understood it such that we each got ½ pizza with our own toppings.  Then artisanal ice cream from a place that had bulletproof glass.  Then UBER home.  So cheap and seem safer.  But UBER guy on outbound had told us were illegal in BA.