1st Day in Argentina!

I had left Houston in the evening, around 9 pm, armed with pillows, a blankie, earplugs, eyecovers and (most importantly) ambien. Since my previous red-eye experience had resulted in being awake the.entire.12.hour.flight, I was thrilled when my physician had offered me sleeping pills, and prayed that they would work, since the last 12 hour flight I was awake for had been with ativan, benadryl, restoril, advil, and a hefty glass of red wine for synergistic effects, which proved ineffective. I watched the sun set over the wings before settling myself for a night of slumber. When I woke up, yes I slept!!!!!, I was in a brand new country on the other side of the equator. ARGENTINA!!!!!!


After checking out the gift shops (they love themselves some soccer), I got my rental car, and I was off!
The stick shift grey car with a name I had never heard of was an adventure in and of itself, seeing as how I had not driven a stick shift since I was around 19 years of age. The traffic in the city was wild, but nothing worse than a crazy friday evening before a major holiday weekend in LA or San Diego, or New York city. Maybe that was just my impression. I did find the lack of attention to the lines painted on the freeway to be more fun, creative or something!!! Lets just say God kept His hands on me.
The toll booths gave me a bit of stick-shift practice, with the tolls being on average $2.10 in Argentinian money, roughly 50 cents in US dollars. My first night was spent in Mar Del Plata, approximately 200 miles to the south of Buenos Aires. Silly me, I had thought that by traveling south it would be warmer, since that was what happens when I travel south when I live. Funny how that "other side of the world" thing works, and how south of the equator, you have to go north for warmer weather!

The room was very welcoming, with a beautiful view of both the ocean and the city. I layed out my money to look carefully at it so as to be familiar when shopping and the like.

I rather thought the $20 guy was handsome. What do you think?

This next shot is from my window of the morning sunrise over the ocean. I keep thinking its sunset, but that's just my west-coast mind working.

A shower and having gotten dressed later, I headed down to the complementary breakfast buffet.
It turns out "medialunes" are very, very popular and common. Thankfully, I LOVED them! Roughly translated, croissants, but tasted nothing like the croissants I was used to. It was more like a blend of hawaiian sweetbread with a softer touch. I also enjoyed the cheese selection, the yogurts, and juice selections. As for the dulce de leche, well, I wish I had developed a sweet tooth, as I could tell it was good, but it is simply not my cup of tea. So I snuck a packet to bring home to my mom, who I knew would love it!

Then I was off for my first day of real adventure....