Thursday3 March 2016

At last!  A sleep in - woke at 9am and nothing planned until dinner.  We decided to just walk, didn't matter which direction as we are here for 6 days next week & will have things to do then.  Spoke to a guide outside the gates of Recoleta, he spoke perfect English, and we asked a couple of questions & then he suggested we should go to the bookstore on Ave Santa Fe so we headed that way.  Said it was so good it should be on the list of must see in BA.  Arrived outside & initially wondered why we would want to go to a bookstore that sold books in Spanish but luckily walked inside and wow! what a revelation!  The building is an old theatre, complete with box seats where you can sit and read.  It was amazing as you will see by the pics below.  We decided to have a beer while soaking up the atmosphere! 

Have been trying to buy a postage stamp since Chile - I have a birthday card to send  to LA - but it seems postage stamps can only be purchased at the post office so we got directions and I asked the girl if she spoke English.  Wasn't surprised when she said no so in my imperfect Spanish I asked to get a stamp for the card.  She took the card, looked at it, weighed it, contemplated, then said something and fortunately the man standing at the next counted butted in.  It seems she needed to know 'Express or regular' - we asked 'what's the difference?' Answer- about 15 days regular, 10-12 express!!!  Well, we all know it's a long way to Tipperary but BA to LA???? Price was twice as much for express too.  So I decided on regular and will have to send an email to my friend to tell her to count the days!  I also asked for 2 stamps for postcards to Australia as I have a friend who always asks for one!!!!!!!(no names)....... and that confused the PO girl to no end.  Anyway, a long story cut short, we were there 30 minutes, she photocopied everything, gave us a very formal receipt, and the total cost was $12.60. So, no complaints about Aust Post - wouldn't want to be sending Christmas cards from Argentina!  

Dinner last night was at a typical Argentine restaurant, just next door to the hotel.  So much food though.  Entree for everyone was a chorizo sausage, a potato mousse ball, and an empanada.  Followed by steak or fish - the steaks were huge and delicious.  They love their meat here!  No room for the ice cream!  

The church below is next door to Recoleta and the other pics are at the bookshop.