Saturday, June 8th 2013
The wind absolutely howled the previous night. I am guessing it was between 30 mph and 40 mph sustained, with gusts well over 50 mph. It blew so hard that the building shook at times. I laid awake most of the night wondering if our flights would have problems. I asked our host his opinion over my first cup of coffee and he assured me the wind would be no problem. The only thing that ever closed the airport was snow. This proved true as we took off on time, but it was a bumpy ride.
Edwardo met us at the airport and it was back to the Plaza San Martin Hotel. We checked in and headed right back out to find some lunch. The girls really wanted to do some shopping, so we stopped at a little place down the street for some pizza and empanadas. We wanted a light lunch because Janice had picked someplace special for our last night in Argentina. She did not say much about it other than it rated really well on Trip Advisor and she thought everyone would like it.
The afternoon of shopping turned into a forced march for me. The girls were looking for some kind of purse/backpack/school carryall type of thing. They spent the whole afternoon looking and, according to them, they did not even come close. If they asked me, I saw at least a thousand such items, but they never did ask. Argentina is famous for its leather goods and that made the purse/backpack/school carryall type of thing a high priority. In the end we gave up after 4 ½ hours of nonstop shopping and headed back empty-handed and totally defeated. I simply do not understand spending this amount of time looking over so many different items and coming home empty handed. I decided I would remember this shopping trip and mention it the next time I come empty-handed from a hunting or fishing trip. Maybe they will cut me some slack, but, then again, probably not. At least I now knew what I would be doing on my last day in Argentina.
La Federal was the name of the restaurant Janice picked out. After locating the cross street on our map, Kristine guided us right to it. I had to admit I was, and still am, quite proud of her navigating abilities. As usual, we were the first ones in the door for supper. For some strange reason, a lot of Argentinians do not open the kitchen until 8:00. Janice had lamb, Kris had steak, Jess had trout, and I had some kind of fish topped with the funkiest pickled onions I ever tried to eat. I like onions and before now had never found one that I did not like. These just got pushed to the side and I enjoyed the rest of the meal. The meal was great, and the malbec was better. I don’t know how we are going to have a meal when we get back home without wine. For dessert we all had two scoops of mousse, one chocolate and one dulce de leche. Thank goodness the walk home was not a long one as I was plumb worn out. I fell asleep watching “Back to the Future” in Spanish.
