We heard this morning that there was a terrible fire in a Buenos Aires night club last night, and I just want to reassure you that we were safe asleep in our beds, and nowhere near the club.

Before telling you about our day yesterday, I’d like to start with a word about transportation. In Santiago, there is a spectacular metro. It is modern and efficient, reaches every part of the city and each station is decorated with fantastic large scale art. Here in Buenos Aires, we have heard there is a metro, but have not been on it yet. It doesn’t seem to go to any of the parts of the city that we want to go to. It’s the oldest metro in Latin America, so is also supposed to be a bit rickety. So to get around Buenos Aires, you take one of the very cheap, ubiquitous, black-with-yellow-roof taxi cabs. You start out feeling a little silly taking a taxi for what would be two subway stops in most cities, but after a while you get used to it, particularly since it only costs one or two dollars. Last night we actually managed to get a taxi fare of three dollars, and we were quite amazed.

We saw an interesting custom yesterday. At the last working day of the year (which for many people was yesterday), the office workers in high buildings throw paper out of the window. The starting point for this is old calendars. We saw a bunch of calendar sheets all over the streets, and realized what was going on. But some have graduated the custom to just about anything, including reams of computer paper, or toilet paper. Everywhere we went yesterday, we would look up and see papers fluttering to the ground from on high. And in several places it seems we had to wade through ankle deep piles of paper. The “hygiene” people were out in full force trying to sweep up as the debris was created.

So yesterday we continued our tour of Buenos Aires starting with the Recoleta cemetery, including Evita’s grave. These graves are not graves as we know them, they are enormous, elaborate mausoleums. We then wanted to see a tour of the Colon Theatre, but it was closed for the year. After that, we tried to see the central synagogue, which also was closed. Given our hit rate, and the heat, we decided to take a break, and went back to the hotel for a “picnic” in our hotel, eating the leftovers from our evening with the relatives.

After lunch, we went to see the mothers/grandmothers who have a thirty year long demonstration about the disappeared people from the military dictatorship. It was quite moving to see these dedicated ladies, in their trademark white scarves, carrying photos of their children, still seeking information about their loved ones.

We picked up our leather goods, and then I took Marina shopping for a few hours where we bought a few adorable outfits for her – a very nice change from the usual jeans and t-shirt!! Lastly, we went to dinner at a traditional Argentine steak house. They cook the meat over an enormous wood fire. These people really are serious about their meat – there are pages and pages on the menu about each different kind of cut. And it’s quite inexpensive, too, for top grade beef. (Indeed, the whole country is inexpensive given the devaluation of the Argentine peso … for example, our meal last night of one steak and two chicken dishes including side dishes and wine, was a grand total of US$40!).

This is my last blog entry because we’ll be packing to go home. We plan to see the MALBO, the new modern art museum, and a few art galleries, and then head towards the airport where we take a night flight. Thanks for following our blog this year!!

-- Donna

Marina and Donna modeling their new leathers -- a blue mini-skirt and a black jacket, respectively. 

Every Thursday for 30 years a group of grandmothers holds a protest in May Day Park, asking for an investigation into the "Desaparecedos" -- their children who disappeared under the dictatorship and are presumed dead -- and of the grandchildren, many of whom were adopted by others in secrecy. It is very moving. 

Marina and Donna participating in the march. 

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Marina and Donna mimicking the "Woman's Bridge", so called because it supposed to look like a woman dancing the Tango. It's a pedestrian crossing. 

Stanley on an unauthorized climb of the Woman's Bridge. 

All around Buenos Aires you see couples necking in the parks. Disgusting. 

Lenny looking into the detailed engineering aspects of an old colonial cannon on the wonderfully renovated port docks, now home to many trendy restaurants. 

Yesterday, we finally got to meet our long lost relatives. We had to record them for our Grandma, Bubbie. Bubbie has never gotten to meet her long lost relatives… yet! There was this one woman who really liked to talk about all the things that my mom asked about her grandfather and what happened to him in his life. Mom was franticly trying to write all the notes that she could get out of the conversation, and Beatriz was franticly trying to tell all of the details that she could tell. There were another man and a woman. They didn’t do a whole lot of talking. Maybe, they didn’t know as much as Beatriz did. I wasn’t talk at all because I was hopeless, and I didn’t know what was happening most of the time.

--- MARINA

The Central Synagogue in Buenos Aires -- unfortunately closed today, but we might try again tomorrow. 

Flat Stanley paying his respects at the mausoleum of Eva Duarte Peron -- "Evita". 

Donna and Marina in the "City of the Dead" -- the Ricoleta Cemetery. 

Marina climbing one of the multi-hundred year old ficus trees in the park in the toney Ricoleta district. 

Buenos Aires

Yesterday morning we took a city tour to get oriented. It was raining, so a good day to be in the mini-bus rather than walking around. Buenos Aires is very pretty – full of wide boulevards (including one that seems to be twenty lanes across), grand buildings, and parks. We enjoyed learning a bit about Argentinian history as well.

In the afternoon, we went shopping on Florida Street, where we ordered a leather coat for me and a leather mini-skirt (in light blue) for Marina. These shops are also factories, and they custom make leather goods in one day, so we will pick it up later today. Thankfully Jessica had already done this a few weeks earlier, so we just went to the place where she got hers.

Late afternoon we had our meeting with “the relatives”. We had hired a translator, who was terrific (conversation would have been impossible without her!). Visiting us was Roberto and his wife Haydee, and Beatriz. Roberto and Beatriz are both first cousins of my mother. Beatriz was quite animated, and it turns out she had lived with her grandparents (my great grandparents) for years, and knew them very well. She even had their original Polish passports, which we photocopied. Probably the funniest moment was that when she arrived, she plopped down a photo we have on our wall at home of my mother with her family and declared, “This is my family”!

To top it off, we went out in the evening to a nice dinner and a tango show, where we met up with our Explora friends, Mandy, David and Daniel. We had front row seats. The dancers were marvelous, as was a Peruvian-like band. However, there were two singers who were very kitsch – seeming more like Las Vegas has-been crooners than contemporary Latin entertainers!

-- Donna

At last night's tango show, which went past midnight. Everything happens late in this city! 

Marina and Donna at "La Caminita", an ourdoor museum and art gallery. 

Marina pretending to be a guard at one of the old churches in Buenos Aires. 

Donna with her mother's first cousins, who visited us at the hotel. They had lots of stories and information for the family tree. 

The view of Buenos Aires from the window of our top-floor 2-story suite. 

Stanley's close encounter with a museum exhbit about kitchen activities in colonial times. 

From Santiago to Buenos Aires

We did another half day of touring in Santiago before leaving for Buenos Aires. The highlight was seeing the changing of the guard at the Moneda Palace where the president works. This was an elaborate ceremony with a full military band that culminated with the two fellas who were on the podiums beside the gate stepping down, and two others stepping up.

We also visited the stock exchange (which was a bunch of computers looking at each other in a magnificent domed room … apparently the people actually work elsewhere), the national history museum (where we got many good shots of Flat Stanley), the central cathedral, and the shopping district.

The flight to BA was short. We arrived at our hotel to find out that our reservations had mysteriously been cancelled. The staff was helpful, and ended up giving us a few options, and we selected a two story penthouse at the very top of the building. Although it is quite an elegant room, it’s actually very small (in spite of being on two levels), and we realized in looking at photos of the building that it is where the building becomes very narrow … there are only two rooms on our floor!

We walked to the Racoleta section of town for dinner where we had a casual meal outside. The weather is very pleasant, and this city seems to have nowhere near the smog problem that they have in Santiago. The Racoleta district is quite upscale – stately apartment buildings full of night watchmen. Night watchman seems to be a major career opportunity in Buenos Aires.

-- Donna

Buenos Aires

We went shopping yesterday before we went out for dinner. Today we are going to be taking a tour around the city just to get to know it a little bit better while we’re here. Mom’s relatives are also going to be coming to see us. Mom has been dying to finally meet her moms’ cousins. Which would make them my cousin 2ce removed.

Mom’s still talking about the hole in the ozone layer.

Everywhere we go, she just has to tell the whole world, saying,

“Hey, did you here about the hole in ozone layer?! You better be putting on more sunscreen more often, while you’re out there in the sunlight.”

I can’t believe that everyone that she has told, did not herd about the hole in the ozone layer yet. It’s like no one ever reads the news paper anymore.

MARINA DUBINSKY

The Santiago stock exchange -- lots of computers but no people, even though it was open. From the status board there seemed only to be a few trades a minute. 

Marina helping Stanley learn to be a guard. 

The changing of the guard at La Moneda in Santiago. 

Santiago, Chile

Today we toured Santiago. Unfortunately, all the museums are closed on Monday, but we managed to walk through many of the interesting quarters, visit the oldest church, go to San Cristobal mountain, and have lunch in the central market. The weather is very hot, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a city as buried in smog as this one (all the guide books say that the smog is heaviest in the winter ….. well, we’re here in the summer, and I can’t imagine it any worse than this!). The biggest contributors to the pollution seem to be the buses, which are thick in the city streets, very noisy, and apparently have no emission control requirements. You feel the smog ….. my eyes have been hurting, and I have a mild headache.

Other than the smog, Santiago has a feeling of prosperity. There are many new buildings going up, some quite modern and architecturally interesting, there are people bustling everywhere, there are restored mansions everywhere, and everybody seems to be driving new cars. I guess the economy has done well in the post-Pinochet era!

We got all dressed up and went to a nice dinner in the Providencia neighborhood restaurant called Aqui Esta Coco (“Here is Coco!”). For Portola Valley and Woodside blog readers, I must tell you that this restaurant is the “Bucks of Santiago”. Coco (their Jamis) apparently has traveled throughout the world, collected tons of Stuff, and has it proudly displayed throughout the restaurant. The collections include old coffee grinders, old hats, old French horns, and quite a few masthead statues from the front of boats (some having quite extraordinary anatomy).

My one conclusion from our visit here is that I will never again complain about having to get a smog certificate, and I promise that my next car will be a hybrid.

-- Donna

The weather in Santiago

I am boiling hot in this weather. It is hotter than it was in Patagonia. Mom keeps getting very hot, I am just fine in this weather, and dad says that his body can get used to things much quicker than our bodies can. I think that he’s just bragging to us about himself. He says that it’s just like in New York, where, your bodies have to get used to the cold weather. I agree with him, but my body gets used to any kind of weather that I go in. just like when I went to Yosemite with the rest of my grade for a five day field trip. I got used to the weather after two days just being there with all of my friends, being with me.

When we went to go take a walk, our bodies were producing lots of heat within us.

-- Marina

The trip to the top of the mountain is on a creaky old funicular railway built in 1925. 

Looking down from the San Cristobal mountain to the terrible smog sitting on top of Santiago.  

Marina and Lenny at the famous Statue of the Virgin on San Cristobal mountain. 

Donna eyeing the fish at the Mercado Central in Santiago.