This city is beyond huge! It has thousands of over-the-top elegant buildings alongside skyscrapers. We are staying in the private apartment of Mariel Fontaine, it is most comfortable and amazingly quiet considering what a busy street it is on! Mariel is very hospitable; willing to spend lots of time talking with us, Spanish is the rule in her home. We will have dinner as well as breakfast here. Last night's conversation was interesting, a real Spanish lesson, especially for me! Mariel is quick to correct my pronunciation and has me repeat her corrections, which is a big help. There is one other person staying here at the present time, a young woman doctor from Australia. On Sunday another traveler from Brazil will also join the household. We are happy to be here in her home speaking Spanish and developing friendships.
Today, Thursday, our big task was trying to obtain visas for our trip to Brazil. We walked to the main boulevard about six blocks from home. This main drag has at least eight lanes going in both directions. It takes two lights at least to get across the 16+ lanes of busy traffic! From there we took a bus to the Brazilian Consulate. After waiting in one line we were told that we had to make an appointment on the computer. The next available appointment to discuss visa applications, which we had ready to go, was on the 27th of December. By this time we are scheduled to be in Uruguay!
We waited in line again to plead our case. The woman at the counter just shrugged her shoulders with an expression that said, "Stupid Americans...think they can just walk in here and get a visa, ha!" I asked her if there was a possibility of a cancellation during the next week that we will be in Buenos Aires. She looked down at her long schedule of 15-minute appointments for the day and said, "Only at 10:45 today", which was the time exactly! At first she said that she could only do the paperwork for one of us, I handed her both applications and within five minutes she has processed both! How lucky!! Once again, a little polite begging goes a long way!!!
We had to walk several blocks to a bank to deposit the 1177.25 $Argentina, get a receipt, and return to the Consulate where once again we waited in line. Waiting at the bank for fifteen minutes seemed like a breeze after the lines we have seen at banks and even cash machines in every city on this trip.
We were told to return tomorrow to pick up our visa, so hopefully by this time tomorrow we will be cleared to enter Brazil. I have started to arrange accommodations for the month plus a few days that we will be there. It is very expensive compared to Chile & Argentina, which is surprising based on the travel guide information. But we do need to have things prearranged given that we don't speak Portuguese and it's super high season from now through the end of February, especially in the areas where tourists frequent.
So far I have been able to line up private rooms for two with shared bathrooms in most cases, so we are hopeful to be off the street each night and out of the dorms!
After our visit to Brazil's Consulate we walked through a beautiful neighborhood with elaborately decorated buildings and little plazas, fancy hotels & little tucked away churches to Plaza San Martin. The much celebrated General San Martin liberated Argentina, Chile & Bolivia, we have seen other monuments on this journey in his honor. Visiting heads of states are obligated to place a wreath on this statue.
There is a Big Ben look-alike tower in the extended plaza which was named the Anglo Tower until the Falkland Islands problem in the 80's.
We took a very long walk home through the hoards of people, past shops, cafes, churches and many McDonalds where Keith was disappointed to see a double cheese burger, fries and drink runs almost $9.00 US. We have a yummy pizza stand around the corner from home that we scouted out last night and picked one up for a late lunch today. Imagine this, there is only one variety sold and luckily it's our favorite, a simple cheese pizza for only 14 $Argentina, about $3.50 US. Isn't life grand...albeit fattening?!
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