Subject: Day 3 February 21, Buenos Aires

Greetings,

Spent a full day of touring yesterday, Buenos Aires is an amazing city. Extremely wealthy areas, slums, and a lot of homeless. We are having a major language problem here; almost no one we deal with speaks English making every transaction a challenge. We have learned to do a lot of pointing and god only knows what we would be eating if it wasn’t for Regina our Argentina guide that is staying with the 9 of us for the entire trip. We never had a language problem in Europe or even Russia because almost everyone we encountered spoke some form of English. I guess because there are so may languages in Europe that English has sort of been picked as the universal language to communicate with, here the common language is Spanish and apparently the only words I know is are where is the bathroom because every time I ask a local something he points me to the water closet or maybe they are trying to tell me something. Holly and I are the only non intellects in our group and so they are having a little trouble adjusting to our caustic sense of humor, but we are all getting along great and have sort of become the odd balls that everyone wants to associate with. We visited the famous Evita Peron balcony overlooking Memory Square; however they wouldn’t let me on it to sing “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina”. Evita Peron is still very much worshiped in Argintina even though she died in 1952 at the age of 30. Her mausoleum was covered in flowers brought by her adoring fans. We also went to La Boca, the Italian dock workers section where the homes were built out of corrugated steel taken from the docks. This is the area that the Tango originated in the houses of ill repute. The area is now very Greenwich Village and the homes are in demand by the Yuppies.

Later we went to a wine tasting, Tango Lessons, and then a Tango Dinner Show. They are very proud of their Argentina wines and they are really starting to get my vote. I guess it doesn’t hurt that most of the wine we have been drinking has been free. Today we are going to an Estancia and watch the Gauchos at work. I asked our guide if I could ride one of their horses, good photo op, and she said she would work on it. She really doesn’t know how to take me. Tonight another wine tasting, I love the Argentina hospitality, and tomorrow we fly to Ushuaia, spend the night and board the Polar Star the next day.

More to follow,

Tom & Holly