Back in Buenos Aires for a couple of nights, before we head down to the southernmost tip of the continent and work our way back up the west coast through Chile.
We are staying in a nice little hotel in the old original part of the city, near the Plaza de Mayo. *Lots and lots* of monolithic stone buildings, mostly belonging to the government, and mostly built in the 19th century French style.
Buenos Aires is a completely modern city, two airports, plenty of shopping for anything you could possibly want, and more than 14 million inhabitants in the greater metropolitan area. They even have accomplished pickpockets. Our yellow shot records were all that the little bastard got when he unzipped the back of my backpack and grabbed a promising-looking small manila envelope. It must have happened while waiting to cross a street in a crush of pedestrians, and we discovered it when an older woman pointed out to me that my backpack was unzipped... Some tourists just can't be warned enough, it seems.
Bradley Gallagher (Greg and Brenda's eldest) is down here in Buenos Aires with a roommate on an extended holiday after graduating from Yale last year, waiting for some job prospects to ripen. We linked up with him via e-mail for a great dinner at a top-notch steak house and a superb visit.
