Today I'm sitting at home in my apartment, sniffling and sneezing. It looks like I caught a slight cold. I don't feel too bad though, I'll probably be out and about again tomorrow. Even with a cold, I'm in a great mood because the past several days have been so enjoyable.
Thursday evening I met up with Ulises in Calle Florida, the extensive pedestrian shopping street in Microcentro. I was on a quest for elusive game, seldom seen in Buenos Aires, a Mexican burrito. I'd heard of this place that was supposed to be good and cheap so Ulises joined me in the hunt. We found it at Lavalle 441, the California Burrito Company. It's not flashy or stylish but it has first class food at bargain prices. The burritos are made as you watch, so you can select whichever ingredients you want to include, and they are muy grande (very big)! We both ordered the promoción (special) which includes a burrito, basket of tortilla chips with choice of dip, and a soft drink, and I was so stuffed I could hardly move afterward. I met the owner briefly, a nice guy from San Francisco who has been here for a couple of years. I guarantee I will be going back there regularly to get my fix of salsa, tortillas, guacamole, and all those other things I miss from back home.
Price for 2 specials (burrito, chips with guacamole, and soft drink): 34 pesos (US $10.93).
After dinner, we strolled around Florida and Lavalle a bit, window shopping, and then decided to go for a coffee at the famous Café Tortoni. They were having a tango show that evening and we weren't really up for that, more interested in finding a quiet spot to talk. So we kept going up Avenida de Mayo and went to Goya, a lovely restaurant with a large balcony where you can sit and look down at the main floor. Later we walked up to Avenida 9 de Julio where I could catch my bus (colectívo) home to Barrio Norte. The bus system here is great, it goes just about everwhere in the city with frequent buses, it runs all night (the subway closes around 11 PM), and the fare is only 80 centavos (US $0.26). I've been getting more adventurous recently, trying to learn and use some of the 100+ bus routes in the city. It was a pleasant evening.
I went to the central post office for international mail in Retiro again on Friday. It's turning into my home away from home. Before I left California, I shipped all of my boxes during two days, a Thursday and Friday. One would assume that they would arrive more or less together. Instead, about every week to ten days, I get a notice of a shipment, go down to Retiro, go through the lengthy waits in both the postal and customs sections, and come back with only one or two boxes.
This time it was not only the fastest ever but I had a pleasant diversion. It was raining on Friday and I think that kept people away so there were only 15 people ahead of me in line. While I was waiting, a young man struck up a conversation with me and we spent the next hour-and-a-half together until I cleared customs and departed for home. His name is Patricio and he lives in my former neighborhood of Palermo. He buys things from eBay fairly often and he entertained me with stories about his postal and customs misadventures. That day he told me he was really hoping not to see anyone he recognized in customs because on his previous trip he'd gotten into a vociferous shouting match with one of the customs officers who had tried to jack up the customs duty sky high so he could pocket the difference.
Patricio helped me with the part of the process I absolutely hate, listening for my ticket number. When you enter the post office section, you take a ticket number for your turn and that's no problem, it's a short number between 1 and 100. After the postal clerk does his/her stuff, you receive a customs ticket and the numbers there are very long. Then you sit in the customs area and wait to hear your number called over a bad loudspeaker. They do it in batches so you're listening to rapid fire calls in Spanish such as "715384, 714568, 715446, 715695, 714622." Even the native Spanish speakers have a hard time distinguishing their respective numbers so you can imagine how I grip my ticket stub and desperately try to keep up with the flow. Patricio listened for my number, escorted me into the receiving area, talked to the customs officer for me, and even phoned for a radio taxi to pick up me and my two boxes. What a thoughtful and considerate lad! He wants to practice his English so we'll stay in touch and get together for coffee and conversation in the future.
Thursday evening I met up with Ulises in Calle Florida, the extensive pedestrian shopping street in Microcentro. I was on a quest for elusive game, seldom seen in Buenos Aires, a Mexican burrito. I'd heard of this place that was supposed to be good and cheap so Ulises joined me in the hunt. We found it at Lavalle 441, the California Burrito Company. It's not flashy or stylish but it has first class food at bargain prices. The burritos are made as you watch, so you can select whichever ingredients you want to include, and they are muy grande (very big)! We both ordered the promoción (special) which includes a burrito, basket of tortilla chips with choice of dip, and a soft drink, and I was so stuffed I could hardly move afterward. I met the owner briefly, a nice guy from San Francisco who has been here for a couple of years. I guarantee I will be going back there regularly to get my fix of salsa, tortillas, guacamole, and all those other things I miss from back home.
Price for 2 specials (burrito, chips with guacamole, and soft drink): 34 pesos (US $10.93).
After dinner, we strolled around Florida and Lavalle a bit, window shopping, and then decided to go for a coffee at the famous Café Tortoni. They were having a tango show that evening and we weren't really up for that, more interested in finding a quiet spot to talk. So we kept going up Avenida de Mayo and went to Goya, a lovely restaurant with a large balcony where you can sit and look down at the main floor. Later we walked up to Avenida 9 de Julio where I could catch my bus (colectívo) home to Barrio Norte. The bus system here is great, it goes just about everwhere in the city with frequent buses, it runs all night (the subway closes around 11 PM), and the fare is only 80 centavos (US $0.26). I've been getting more adventurous recently, trying to learn and use some of the 100+ bus routes in the city. It was a pleasant evening.I went to the central post office for international mail in Retiro again on Friday. It's turning into my home away from home. Before I left California, I shipped all of my boxes during two days, a Thursday and Friday. One would assume that they would arrive more or less together. Instead, about every week to ten days, I get a notice of a shipment, go down to Retiro, go through the lengthy waits in both the postal and customs sections, and come back with only one or two boxes.
This time it was not only the fastest ever but I had a pleasant diversion. It was raining on Friday and I think that kept people away so there were only 15 people ahead of me in line. While I was waiting, a young man struck up a conversation with me and we spent the next hour-and-a-half together until I cleared customs and departed for home. His name is Patricio and he lives in my former neighborhood of Palermo. He buys things from eBay fairly often and he entertained me with stories about his postal and customs misadventures. That day he told me he was really hoping not to see anyone he recognized in customs because on his previous trip he'd gotten into a vociferous shouting match with one of the customs officers who had tried to jack up the customs duty sky high so he could pocket the difference.
Patricio helped me with the part of the process I absolutely hate, listening for my ticket number. When you enter the post office section, you take a ticket number for your turn and that's no problem, it's a short number between 1 and 100. After the postal clerk does his/her stuff, you receive a customs ticket and the numbers there are very long. Then you sit in the customs area and wait to hear your number called over a bad loudspeaker. They do it in batches so you're listening to rapid fire calls in Spanish such as "715384, 714568, 715446, 715695, 714622." Even the native Spanish speakers have a hard time distinguishing their respective numbers so you can imagine how I grip my ticket stub and desperately try to keep up with the flow. Patricio listened for my number, escorted me into the receiving area, talked to the customs officer for me, and even phoned for a radio taxi to pick up me and my two boxes. What a thoughtful and considerate lad! He wants to practice his English so we'll stay in touch and get together for coffee and conversation in the future.
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