Argentina: Day 4

So this is the day we moved from Mendoza to Buenos Aires.  Buenos Aires dwarfs Mendoza in size.  It is a real city like Chicago or New York.  It is considered the Paris of South America.  Remember how I mentioned that B.A. was modeled after Paris.  You can tell.  It is divided into 48 neighborhoods.  We visited maybe 7 of them in our 3 days--it is huge. We traveled by plane (a fairly quick flight) across the country in the morning.  We went straight from the airport to the neighborhood of Palermo to a Polo Match.  It was a small match attended by mostly friends and family of the players, but they had a real referee and played in a small stadium.  Polo is very popular in B.A., but they don't have any professional teams--it's more semi-professional.  They get paid if they win.  Polo is a very expensive sport. Each player needs multiple horses for each game.  We were invited to this match because Ernesto Catena was playing with his team.  They set up lunch on the lawn for us with a nice view of the field.  They of course kept the wine flowing. 

We then went to our hotel to quickly check-in.  This hotel was gorgeous.  The Hyatt in Mendoza was nice, but this was in an old palace.  We then went to the Catena's private art gallery (not my favorite activity, but I'm not a great lover of art), but they of course gave us a wine reception--they must have been trying to kill our livers in one week.  Then back to our hotel for some down time and then to dinner.  Scott and I were finally feeling adjusted by this time, so we went out that night with some of the other people (I think a total of 9 of us went out).  We went to this lounge-y place where they took dinner seatings until 2 AM.  Seriously.  It was just a place to hang out on couches or at the bar if you weren't eating until after 2AM.  In Argentina, dancing begins everywhere at 2AM.  I didn't carry my camera around with me a lot in B.A. Because petty thievery is a big problem I didn't carry purse.  Getting a taxi was interesting.  Most of the drivers do not speak English.  We had the address of the place we wanted written on 1 piece of paper divided amongst 3 taxis, so only one person actually had a hard copy or knew for sure where we were going--based on a waiter's recommendation.  When the cab driver dropped us off, we had no idea where to go.  The bar was not marked--we didn't know the name in my taxi anyway.  Luckily we saw people going in.  I thought for sure our cab driver had dropped us off in the wrong place.  But after walking through a very long, dark hallway we made a turn and entered the bar.  It was pretty cool.  We only stayed an hour or so.  We shared a taxi with another couple from our group on the way back.  The other girl had the address of the hotel in her key holder. The cab driver again spoke no English. We trusted him.  He dropped us off.  The other girl said, yeah this is it.  The other guy and us said, I don't think so.  We walked up to the outside doorman, he told us no this isn't it, but your hotel is 2 blocks that way.  We walked in the dark and rain trying to find our hotel.  Nice!  We made it though.  Evidently the rest of the group walked the whole way back (over 7 blocks in the rain). 

Across from the polo field--so many buildings look like this or prettier. The embassies are gorgeous.



these sculptures were all made out of gears.  they were so cool.

Ernesto warming up

enjoying the game in our cool chairs

some of the guys after the game

kind of fun w/the guys in number order

Us with Ernesto.  I'm so glad I got this rain jacket for the trip. I'm a little sick of it in pics, but it was a good pack. Does he look a bit like the most interesting man in the world?  he can touch the art ya know? (sorry-Dos Equis commercial reference)

part of our hotel.  this is the secondary building.  we actually stayed in the front building, which you can just see the corner of on the right--not quite as impressive, but cool.  Except it was so difficult to work the state of the art lighting and A/C systems.  Seriously could never figure them out w/o reading the instructions each time.

view onto the balcony from the other balcony at the art museum

view of the city from SoHo

At the restaurant. So glad I packed some warmer clothing and scarves.

Here was our itinerary:


• 7:00am Meet in Lobby & Load Bus (checked out & ready to go)

• 7:30am Depart On-Time to Airport (30 min drive)

• 9:35am Depart Mendoza to Buenos Aires

 11:15am Arrive to Buenos Aires – Bus Transportation Provided to Polo field

 1:30 arrive at Polo fields in Palermo neighborhood park to watch Ernesto Catenas team play polo

 We were served tapas and tons of Escoriheula wine and Tikal sparklings on the lawns. We got to have our pic taken with Ernesto.  He was really cool.



Check into Park Hyatt Buenos Aires



• 5 PM private tour of Catena family’s art gallery in SoHo (swanky neighborhood)—more wine!

• 9:15pm Meet in Lobby –Attire: Nice Casual. Depart to Fervor Brasas

We were served a traditional Parilla (grilled foods)

Salad

Cheeses

A plate to share of grilled red meat cuts

A plate of various grilled fish, mussels, and octopus

Dessert: choice of almond ice cream, chocolate and dulce de leche ice cream, or tiramasu