Heading South.

Hola Lifestyle Adventurers!

Downtown Buenos Aires, from the Sheraton Hotel. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

My wife and I are starting the next level of our new and improved retirement lifestyle.  Out last travel was for two weeks.  This trip we are going for one month.  The plan is to settle into Buenos Aires and enjoy the ambience of a native and not a tourist.  We rented an apartment as a base camp.  We plan to enjoy all the sights with no time pressure or schedule.  And we leave tomorrow.   Are we ready?  Time will tell.

The pressure is mounting.  Tomorrow my wife and I leave rainy Sacramento for sunny and warm Buenos Aires.  We will celebrate Christmas in the summer.  We’ve never been to Argentina and we’ve never taken a trip longer than two weeks so there is plenty of room for anxiety.  This trip we want to take only what we need after over packing last time.  The alternative might just be under packing.  What is the right amount of clothing?  I don’t know.  I’ll probably get it wrong this time too.  The one nice thing is that summer in Argentina means no need to take a heavy coat.

Then there is the electronics.  Modern travel  requires a computer, my wife’s iPad, telephones, cameras and all the connections, power supplies and batteries to keep them operating.  We did pretty well last trip where the only thing forgotten was a charger for a camera.  It wasn’t a serious problem.  Camera chargers are found everywhere tourists flock.  This afternoon we will set out all the equipment for packing.  The only loose end this time is our cellphones.  For the last trip we rented them.  This time we intend to use our regular cell phones and buy local prepaid sim cards.  This is more adventurous and will tax our limited Spanish but it is cheaper and provides us with local Argentine telephone numbers.  The downside is that it can’t be done until we get to Argentina and apparently there is a 24 hour delay after buying the card before you get your number.

We anticipate that there will be some problems as we settle into Buenos Aires for a month but we are making the entrance as simple as possible.  For about the same price as a taxi from the airport, you can arrange for a driver.  So when we make it out of customs at the airport there will be someone standing with a sign that has my name on it.  He will lead us to our transportation which will drive us to meet the apartment agent who will settle us into our home for the next month.

Once we have our home base, it will be time to check out the neighborhood, buy some provisions and those sim cards and try our Spanish (or as they say in Argentina- our Castillano).  I can’t promise regular posting during this trip but the plan is to show some pictures once a week with observations about interesting and quirky things I discover.  Stay tuned.