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| Mini-mart next door to a small apartment. |
Over the past few days, after taking a lousy stumble and injuring my knee on the uneven sidewalk in Palermo Soho, Buenos Aires, as we began winding down our last few days until leaving for Ushuaia.
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| The Argentine people love color, especially on the exterior of their buildings. |
Tom’s packing is almost completed, and by tomorrow, we’ll be able to bring down the bags and boxes we’ll store at the hotel during our time away on the cruise.
I’ve been obsessively following the R-I-C-E protocol; rest, ice, compression, and elevate, which is recommended during the first 72 hours of an injury, switching to heat if needed, and forgoing the ACE bandage.
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| The hotel along the boulevard. |
From the time we’ve made our way down to the hotel lobby in the past two mornings to work on the day’s post until bedtime, I’ve faithfully iced my knee for 20 minutes once an hour, except for the few hours we were out to dinner last night at Rave Restaurant.
I was fine while walking, albeit gingerly, the three long blocks to the restaurant and back. While there, sitting on a banquette with no one else in the restaurant, I was able to elevate my leg during our leisurely dinner. It’s improving with this diligent protocol.
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| An apartment building with shops o ground level. |
Last night, back at the hotel, we moseyed down to the bar to lounge in the big comfy booth with more ice on my knee while we sipped on wine for me and beer for Tom. We’re trying to use the last vestiges of the beer and wine we have on hand.
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| Pigeons are everywhere here, on the street, standing on outdoor dining tables and chairs, hoping for a dropped crumbs or food residue on tables. |
It seems that each night as we’ve dined in restaurants, I wasn’t able to finish my half bottle of Malbec. We’d cork the bottle and bring it back to the hotel to drink at a later time. Invariably, these partial bottles accumulated, and I have more wine than I can drink.
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| A restaurant served barbecue, referred to as Parrilla, in Argentina. |
When we first arrived, we purchased one bottle of wine from the mini-mart, a decent Malbec for US $6 (ARS 114) we’ve yet to open. Tom bought two-liter bottles of the local beer for US $5.90 (ARS 112).
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| The big “E” stands for “entrada,” which translates to the entrance in English. |
Prices on alcohol both in markets and restaurants in Buenos Aires are very inexpensive. One can order a good glass of red wine in a restaurant for around US $3.95 (ARS 75) and a liter bottle of beer (with an ice bucket) for not much more.
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| Lion statue adorning the entrance to a home. |
After so many years as a non-drinker, it’s been enjoyable having a glass of wine with dinner every so often. But, tonight, with the big Minnesota Viking game, we plan to drink only water with dinner since we’d like to have wine and beer during the game, attempting to put a dent in what we have left.
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| Tattered cloth signs falling over the building. |
Since the game doesn’t start here until 8:40 pm and, neither of us drinks more than a few glasses, we decided to wait to celebrate until we’re situated in the bar with Tom’s laptop fired up to the game. We’re hopeful for a great outcome, but as all Minnesota Viking fans so well know, we shall see how it goes.
Yesterday, we paid our hotel bill in full since we’re leaving very early Tuesday morning (3:15 am) and wanted to have this out of the way. Also, as we prepare the final expenses for our 31-nights in Buenos Aires to be posted on Tuesday, we wanted the total handled and out of the way the day we fly away.
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| It costs slightly over US $10 (ARS 190) for an ATM transaction of any amount. Plus, there are machine limits of a maximum of US $158 (ARS 3,000). During weekends, it’s not unusual to find the ATMs out of cash. |
Also, two weeks before arriving in Marloth Park, it’s necessary to pay the second half of the three-month rental for the vacation home, a total of US $2,465.08 (ZAR 30,000, ARS 46,791). We spent the 50% deposit a few weeks ago.
Realizing we may not have a sufficient Wi-Fi signal during the cruise to handle the transaction online, it made sense to pay it yesterday and have it out of the way and never have to give it a thought.
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| The railroad tracks near our hotel. |
Yesterday’s outlay was almost US $5,000 (ARS 94,908). Still, now our only significant upcoming expenses for the next few months will be the car rental (which we’ll pay in full at the Mpumalanga/Nelspruit airport on February 11th when we pick up the car), groceries and dining out, Kruger Park entrance fees and fuel for the rental car.
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| There are several tree-lined streets such as this. |
Of course, during those three months, we’ll be booking other adventures in Africa as we make plans for traveling to other countries. We’ll work with dear friend/property manager Louise to book other houses in South Africa (which we’re using as our “base”) as we go in and out over the one year on the continent.
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| Most streets in Palermo Soho are one way. |
Well, folks, I must take a moment to address our Minnesota Vikings fans…our fingers are crossed, for them, for all of us. We’ll be live online on Facebook during the game on my laptop. Please stop by to comment, grumble or cheer. We’ll be right there with you!
Enjoy the day!
Photo from one year ago today, January 21, 2017:
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| One year ago in the Huon Valley in Tasmania, Anne, our property owner, explained that the whirring helicopter blades dry the netting to save the cherries from spoiling after the rain. Who knew? For more details, please click here. |