Feb 21, 2015 Buenos Aires, Argentina

We didn’t have a formal tour, so we took another one of the free shuttles into the center of town offered by the H. Stern jewelry stores.  It dropped us off at the base of Florida street, which is the main pedestrian shopping street and runs probably ½ a mile.  We walked up and down the whole thing, but didn’t buy anything.  Every 20 feet or so are people offering to change money, but we’d been warned not to make use of their services.  And speaking of warnings, we’ve had them in nearly every port, but for Buenos Aires we got a specific letter saying that recent months had seen an increase in crime against tourists.  And, indeed, our table mate Carol met a man in the terminal who had just been robbed at gun point while in a taxi at a red light.  He was obviously quite shaken up.  We also spoke with a woman whose friend had been tazed and robbed in Santos.  We make sure not to carry anything in a bag - we put everything in our pockets and don’t carry much money.  And I always stay close to Michael and try to be aware of our surroundings.

So, anyway, after our walk down and back Florida street we bought a ticket for a hop-on hop-off bus. The bus was rather old and had no cover over the upstairs seats.  Actually, there was only an upstairs on this bus, so you couldn’t even get out of the sun downstairs.  And every time the driver had to start from a stop light, he would struggle to find first gear and it would be a gamble whether he’d get it going again.  We stopped at one point and everyone got off to see the cemetery where Eva Peron is buried.  We didn’t really care to see it, so we thought we’d stay on.  The lady guide tried telling us something in Spanish which we couldn’t understand, and finally the driver indicated to let it go and she went with the other riders.  Then the bus took off and we went to a gas station.  We must have looked rather silly sitting up there all by ourselves on this tour bus pulling in for a fillup.  So after gassing up, off we went to pick up the other passengers and continue on the tour of the city.  It’s a pretty enough place, but again, not our favorite.  I did like seeing a couple doing a tango in a square and inviting the crowd to join them.

Next stop is Montevideo, Uruguay.