walking, walking, take a break......walking, wal...

our balcony view at night,

Checked out a fine arts cultural center/museum for classes, but the school was closed for summer break. At least the cafe in the center of the school was open...("chopp" means the house draft beer, about 1.75 $ for 1 and 2.75$ for two).

In the tradition of graffiti artists, I defaced a wall in our room and then told the owner. It felt good to take a left brain break from exploring, walking, walking, figuring out bus, maps, subway, and lots of trying to decipher WORDS in Spanish.

First Ten Days In Buenos Aries

After 24 hours in transit, we stumbled out of the Buenos Aires airport, feeling like northern bears coming out of hibernation, sniffing all the richer smells, squinting in the sun... sirens, horns, shouting street sellers. We are back at Hostel Sol, with friend/owner Daniel, who lets us stay in one of the "big rooms" of this 125 year old building. Tango teacher Rolando is still in residence and helps us with dancing..and spanish to again tackle the visa problem. Its humid and in the 90's, so we slowly adjust to "two days in one," with siesta inbetween in the heat of the day. Obama wins and taxi drivers, waiters, people on the street, spot us as americans and cheer him on. Last night we went to the weekly "Drinking Liberally" group...expats with diverse backgrounds, stories and excellent conversation skills....then on to a new dinner club, owned by two expat brothers from Montreal Canada. Arty and elegant food, great live jazz, very fancy desert... all for around $45.

Buenos Aries via Los Angeles via Mapleton OR

We did it! We sold our house on the river in Oregon to the adventurous Ragsdales, complete with furniture, canoe, and a down comforter, smashed all our art supplies and detective paperbacks into 6 suitcases and flew to Los Angeles to get our visas. We had the wrong stamps on our "papers" and even had some wrong "papers," so we faxed and UPSed "Papers" from Missouri to Washington State, and still had the wrong stamps etc. But we did have a great time visiting with sister Judy and husband Phil... amazing meals, buildings, goofy improv, a grand musical, "Wicked," and lots ofofart..... heres a totem to sports made up of golf bags........