Dec 31 - Walked out to Belgrano, a Barrio on the west side of Buenos Aires, adjacent to Palermo. Pretty nice; a bit more well-kept than most of Palermo. There's a big park, Barrancas del Belgrano: Took the metro back to our neighborhood & had lunch at Rita Specialty Coffee, which we'd passed several times and was always crowded: Jan 1 - Retiro is a nicer barrio essentially at the northeast corner of Buenos Aires: The next barrio to the south from there is San Nicolás: Subwa

Good bread at Co-Pain: A nice doorway on Calle Ecuador in Recoleta: Dinner at La Mar in Palermo with friends Inés and JJ, passing through on their way to Bariloche: Cathedral Metropolitana: Went to a Milonga at Milonga Parakultural. A Milonga is a Tango party. It’s a good way to see a Tango demonstration and a local social event. There are 1/2 dozen or so well known venues around town, each of which seems to host two or three a week. Ours was in the basement of an art deco

If I haven’t made clear yet, I should now - Palermo is huge, the biggest barrio in Buenos Aires. It has four sub-areas: We are in Hollywood. Today we walked into SoHo for a poke: Then continued into Villa Crespo and Parque Centenario. Kind of nice, a bit sprawling: And on, looped back toward Palermo Noche: Made two important food discoveries. Good coffee at Cafe Negro: And maybe the best meal of Buenos Aires, at La Alacena: During lunch, the power went out. They kept crankin

Walked through the Botanical Garden: And the zoo: And had lunch & explored the National Museum of Decorative Arts. The cafe/restaurant is among our favorite spots, an outdoor terrace, and the museum is in a very beautiful 19th century villa. It’s in Palermo Chico. Entry is free! And back to our neighborhood to see if there would be tango at Montecarlo. There wasn’t but we sat outside & had drinks. The plaques depict significant events since it first opened in 1922: _

Dec 21, Sun - In the neighborhood: Barrio Colegiales - Mercado de las Pulgas, Koko Bao Bar, corner of Gorriti & Doctor Emilio Ravignani: Dec 22 - Coffee & croissant at Vive, snack at Latin American art museum, coffee at Dandy on Avenida del Libertador: Dec 23 - Eva Perón Museum: Botanical Garden. The sculpture of many people depicts a Saturnalia, a Roman/Pagan celebration with much merriment at Christmas time, in which gifts were given and masters & servants reversed roles: S

The cover quote says “someone said I left my neighborhood, but when? When I’m always arriving” Dec 14 - Gathering storm from the roof, kinda petered out to another nice day: Spent a while in the Museo de Belles Artes. Through Plaza Francia & Plaza Intendente Alvear on the way: Lots of art: Outside the UK embassy: Dec 15 - Plaza Vicente López y Planes: A Peugeot: Dec 16 - Mid day around about Recoleta - Plaza Intende re Alvear, Plaza San Martin de Tours, August’s La Capricho

Arrived CABA (Ciudad Autónoma Buenos Aires) afternoon 7th. Checked into AirBnB in Palermo Hollywood, Bonpland 2082; left the kids there and went to return the camper. Took 4 hours because of the hyper-extended door. Kids flew away while we were at it. OK so the apartment is great - right in the thick of an active district, everything we need, PLUS a swimming pool on the roof: Dec 8 - explored the immediate neighborhood. Lots of cafes & restaurants, lots of tall trees, murals

Dropped Fiona off in El Calafate and set out for Buenos Aires. Six days, five nights - over to the east coast and up: Day 1 - Dec 2, left mid-afternoon after the Perito Moreno glaciers & goodbyes. Five hours Ripio (gravel) route 288; first night: Commandante Luis Piedrabuena. Dec 3 - Piedrabuena in the morning: Lunch stop at Puerto San Julian: Caught a high school graduation celebration: Route 3 hits the Atlantic at Coleta Olivia: 8:30PM. stopped at a random spot along the

Up early & out to the Perito Moreno glacier, an hour outside El Calafate: Dropped Fiona off back in Calafate & 4 of us hit the road for Buenos Aires.

Another of the favorite single-day long hikes today: Loma del Pliegue Tumbado. 12.6 miles, 3766 ft elevation gain, 7 hrs 38 min. It was hard. First: sunrise at the Airbnb: The initial ascent: The top - a barren, steep skree cone with good views: The descent: Amazingly, we piled into the van and bolted for El Calafate, plan bein’ to see the glacier & hit the road for Buenos Aires tomorrow the 2nd. So here we are on the road to El Calafate: Had a late dinner at La Cantina Piad

A day of rest & laundry, a light hike to Chorillo de Salto: A lovely dinner in the kids’ Airbnb (btw we are parked in the backyard parking area): The view from the deck off the kitchen/dining room: Walked 7.8 miles.

One of the premier trails from El Chalten is ‘Laguna de los Tres via Monte Fitz Roy’ in AllTrails: It’s a bastard. The last km or so you’re scrambling up a 45deg loose scree slope. Then you have to go back down and then hike the remaining 9km back. Left @ 9:30AM, got back @ 8:30 - 11 hours. Worth it. The front 9: The last 1: The payoff: The back 9: Then there was this: And up at 2:00 to drive out of town away from the lights to look @ stars: A big walking day: 17.5 miles.

Weather forecast is for two nice days followed by worsening, so it was decided to return directly to El Chalten & do the hikes in nice weather, then return to El Calafate and the glacier on the last day before hitting the return trek (ie next Tuesday). So we drove back to El Chalten: Did the El Chaltén - El Paredon - Las Vueltas loop - 5.3 miles, 1340 ft elevation gain. There were condors: (Btw same loop Leslie & I did 4 days ago - more pics there). The nearly-daily aperol sp

Today, the children (and their almost-sister Fiona) arrive. They fly into El Calafate, arriving at 18:00. We’re picking them up at the airport, spending the night in Calafate. Got up & drove to Calafate. Two good cafes - PANTagonia Panaderia Alemagna and Cafe Brown: Btw here’s a map of the Santa Cruz province of Argentina, where all this is taking place: And here we are! Beers in the back Biergarten of La Fábrica Cerveceria, dinner at La Cantina Piedineria & beer house: We

Sort of bad weather, hunkered down waiting to pick the children up in Calafate on Thu. Threatening, windy, but beautiful forecast: Walked 3.9 miles.

“Fired up the rig” for the 1st time in a few days & drove the ripio road out to Lago Del Desierto. Spent the night in a turnaround at the bitter end of the road. Leaving the campground we were blocked, got to see how garbage pick-up works: It’s 22 or 37km out the ripio road (depending on which sign is correct, we didn’t think to measure it ourselves), in the glacier-melt Las Vueltas river canyon. There’s a narrow point with some wind: It gets more remote, and more beautiful,

Campground relatively crowded today, Sunday of a 3-day weekend. We are most of the way down the row, on the left: Sunrise from up the street (by the way, we’ve been doing Pimmsleur Spanish every day for six months now; my best time is first thing, I get up early & wander around with earbuds and talk to myself): Poked around a while, here’s the sign for the campground: Did the El Paredon - Las Vueltas loop trail. 5 miles, 1355 feet elevation gain, right across the river. Met

Triangle hike Chorillo del Salto with Devon, bush-whack & rock scramble & fear of falling to mirador Fitz Roy. Meat for dinner. To the base of the falls with Devon: From there to Mirador Fitz Roy (abandoned AllTrails route for fear): The return: Had the long-awaited slab of Argentine beef for dinner: Walked 9.8 miles

Friends left this AM, sad. We are now solo. Long, hard loop hike today: Mirador Cerro Torre to Laguna Capri & back down the Mirador Fitz Roy/Tres Lagos trail. 12 miles. The out & back legs were fine, the outlooks grand, but the traverse leg was treacherous: not well marked, overgrown, blocked by bogs in many places. AllTrails with GPS enabled us to find our way; I was watching my battery level closely. Sunrise over the campground: The ascent: The traverse: The return: Walke

OK today we began the hiking program in earnest. Hiked to the condor and eagle lookouts. No condors or eagles, but fantastic outlooks. The pic of us from behind was taken by a hiker who approached me after the fact & offered them to me. Lots of nice folk here: Some sculptures in town: Our friend Devon, who grew up with summer horseback treks in the wilds of Idaho, arranged a trail ride with Estancia Bonanza: Walked 12.9 miles!