Buenos Aires 3

In the morning I noticed a considerable reduction in traffic noise, the weekend having arrived. Besides giving me a list of food to try, my ex-colleague had also given me an introduction to her cousin L. Earlier in the week I had called him and he said he would pick me up Saturday morning. So at Coto, besides breakfast, I bought a box of chocolates as a small present for his family. He turned out to be a tall slightly balding man of 54, very amicable and very easy to talk to. I asked him a lot about Argentina and Baires and answered questions about myself.

He first drove us to San Telmo which is the oldest barrio of Baires, containing historical buildings such as this well-known landmark, a small Russian Orthodox Church with blue domes.

Then he took me home to lunch with his family, first making a short detour to try to buy a microwave oven. Their daughter was studying biology at the Uni and the son was in high school. Also present was her boyfriend. We shared a lunch of cannelloni. When I mentioned that I hoped to visit Mar del Plata, they said don't bother, go straight to Patagonia. I understood that to mean MdP was one of those beach cities spoiled by mass tourism. When I said that the Piazzola piece playing in the background was lovely, he made me a present of the CD on the spot. This was Mi Buenos Aires Querido, featuring Daniel Barenboim, Hector Console and Rodolfo Mederos. It's still one of my favourite albums. I resolved to find a matching present when I got back to Buenos Aires for the homeward leg in under a month's time.

Then he and his wife took me to see a bit of the city. But first a short visit to the street of the last apartment my ex-colleague lived in. I wanted a couple of pictures to send to her as a surprise. We went to Recoleta, which is an affluent barrio. It was a gorgeous day and porteños were out enjoying the sunshine. Recoleta is also known for its cemetery which has the graves of many notables of Argentine history, including Eva Perón or the affectionate Evita to Argentinians. However she is in the vault of her family the name of which, fortunately, my memory was able to supply: Duarte. It fell to me to decide whether I wanted to see it. I decided no, I wasn't that interested. So we didn't pass the gates.

Before taking me back to my hotel we had a stoll in a Palermo park. I wanted to take a picture of but could not spot a pasaperro, a professional dog walker for busy rich people who leads many dogs in one session. Makes you wonder what would happen if the dogs decide to go in all directions at once.