LAN business class was very nice. Good food, lieflat bed, cozy comforter. Switched planes in Lima. Easy. Gorgeous lounge and nice, manageable airport. In BA our bags were last off and I was freaking a bit. Took a car service at airport instead of taxi and it was 60 usd. Hilton is very nice. Grest locstion, nice big closet and bathroom with a water view. Walked to flea market in San Telmo and then met Andrea for good steak dinner at Las Lilacs right in the port across from the Hilton. Lovely upscale place...with a bottle of wine, 2 bottles h2o, 3 huge steaks, antipasto, petit fours, and a tea came to under $75 usd pp. P Touring Colonia, Uruguay tomorrow with Andrea. Early start at 7:15...good thing I got plenty of sleep on plane...it is really muggy here. Hope Crystal won't warp. Buenos noches

Andi, thanks for report! Was car service similar in price to taxi? Did you negotiate in USD? tip?

Were you able to pay $140 fee with credit card?

See you soon!!

OHHHHH Andi loving your first report!!!

Taxis are reslly cheap.paid car service by credit card. Hilton to 4 seasons about. $6 for 15 minute ride. Doug'sguide book recommended car service available walk up at airport over taxi due to scams. We went to 2 different places. One wanted $10 more. Hilton car service wanted $80. We gave guy a few bucks tip in usdI think. Fellow helped me with bags. You can pay fee with credit card.

Free baggage carts at airport. A short ride to hilton from airport...20 minutes?

It is hot! Very humid. You are wet in minutes. Pretty city.

Hey Andi,

Glad you made it and are enjoying the food!! Appreciate the car service tip.

I am up, dressed, been packed for a week. My ride comes at 9am when I am out the door.............. :woh: See y'all on Wednesday at the Hyatt.

this sounds like an amazing trip..... Please keep the reports coming. I know Andi will give us her typically brilliantly written accounts of the trip! Have fun!

6 inches of rain in 3 hours. Clay can't get out of parking lot at office to come pick me up and our street still flooded over sidewalks. Pool is the color of Kermit the frog.
Have changed ticket to go tomorrow. Exact reason I wanted to go to ATL early.
Delta has policy of not changing a ff ticket 72 hours before flight, but nice supervisor over rode rule. I did have to pay the $150 change fee, but small price to pay to not have to get out my swimsuit and back stroke it to the airport.
It's started raining again. Hope this stops soon. At least I don't HAVE to be in BA until Thursday.

oh you guys!

Betty--you have waited for this forever. You'll get out, soggy and all.

Betty, at least you know you'll be ok and you can spend the day relaxing with Clay before you leave. Good planning to allow the extra travel time so you won't be stressed when you arrive.

I am in the HIEx-ATL - Betty~less. Had reserved a 2 queen room but ended up with a King suite! Nice and roomy, on a small lake with a liquor store within walking distance - - but missing Betty. Meeting up with Wes & Ida for dinner tonight, so that will be fun! Have a late check-out for tomorrow, so can kick around the shopping center tomorrow.

Wes: How come you are having dinner with beautiful ladies when you should be watching football?

Betty! omg... what a mess. Keeping my fingers crossed and positive thoughts that things will soon smooth out.

Beth! Have a great time with Wes and Ida.

Wow, I'm sure glad I got out of Houston on Saturday! Just a few hours until I'm on my way...

Lauri, I thought of you this morning. Bet you never realized how smart it would be to fly out of Dallas. See you Wednesday night......I hope. Feeder roads still flooded BUT I will make that plane tomorrow.
David, the only good news is that I will now get to watch the game. If LSU looses, my vote goes to OSU for Nat'l Championship. Sorry Bama.

I'm glad I have a second floor apartment too! I remember the sudden Houston floods all too well. Luckily, they go away fairly quickly once the rain stops. See you soon!

Have a great time at dinner this evening Beth, Wes and Ida - sure hate we are sick and have to stay home!

Sue, I hate that you and Tom won't be joining us for dinner tonight. :mad: You two rest up and get better soon.

Waiting for my flight at the Admirals Club....so incredibly excited!

Safe travels ya'll. Betty, good luck. Lauri, see you for dinner tomorrow. It is hot hot hot and wet soggy humid. It is supposed to be even hotter tomorrow. Doug and I walked bsck 3 blocks from restaurant tonight. I am soaked at 11 pm. Went italian tonight. Got there at 9 and place was empty. By 10 it was packed. We ordered like in us and there was enough food for 2 more people. We could have ordered 1 entree and split it. Lots of things get put on table like focaccia or antipasti and it is extra. You just don't know. I had calamari and Doug had veal ..Went to Colonia, Uruguay today with Andrea. Crossed largest river in world...Rio Plata...about 220 km. This is quite the beach resort. Wish we had brought our bathing suits! Going on a city tour tomorrow and will hit the museums toget out of the heat. Going to the Beatles museum at 5pm.

Oh a highlight today wsd the museum of rock which wereweapons, vessels, etc and other things I didn't get and my $16 ugg like slippers and the great home made ice cream which tasted so great in the heat.we bought tickets to 5 museums but 3 museums didn't bother to open...should we have asked for our $2.50 back?

more more please

Lauri has arrived in BA safe & sound. We are hanging at the Four Seasons enjoying the air conditioning!

Yay! I'm here! Had a moment of doubt when the taxi driver who spoke only Spanish (mine sucks) didn't know where the hotel was. Seriously? He doesn't know where the Four Seasons is? Andrea saved the day by text message.
It is HOT!

Leaving for airport now. Hoping that 2nd try will be a charm.

Good luck Betty. I know Beth, Marc, and Arlene are waiting for you. Safe travels.

Marc and I are in ATL in the crown room waiting for Beth and Betty.

Note to Peggy... we got on the plane this afternoon and Marc ordered a Bloody Mary. I said he was probably missing his Bloody Mary Buddy Jerry. He told me that Turdley was on board and though he missed Jerry, Turdley would have to do!

Jerry says, have a bloody mary for him! And you and Turdley have a great time.

You're officially on the way now, Arlene! Have a wonderful wonderful time, and hi to Marc!

Betty, you too -- have the best time on what should be a magnificent journey.

I made it to the Delta Crown Room sitting with Arlene and Marc. Betty just arrived. So the Tuesday flyers are all together!!! BA here we come.

That sounds so great! We're all jealous! Have a fun, safe flight and a wonderful cruise!!!!
:app:

Had a fun and laid back day in hot hot hot BA today. It is the hottest period in BAin 50 years.- 30 days with no rain.

We booked a private city tour at the Hilton last night with instructions for no statues but an architecture and politics tour today. We got a great guide, Alex (Signatures tours) who is an architect. Nice job by the tour company. Turns out, though, that their statues are pretty interesting and are works of art in themselves. This city is sooooo elegant and classy but not stuffy and is down to earth and really fun!

My next husband will be a rich Argentenian. Last night we watched. This 70 something guy with his pregnant 20 something wife who was all over him at dinner. They putbon quite a show. Food here is great...tons to do..,clothes are fabulous...city is prettier than Paris...and if you are a night owl, this is the place for you.

Like NY, there are all sorts of neighborhoods. The Hilton is in the newest neighborhood , the old wear house neighborhood that is now the trendy restaurant and clubby place like NY's meatpacking district. The Hyatt and Four Seasons are in the very upscale Recoleta area where all the designer shops are located. Then, there is the Palermo area close by near the park which is bigger than central park. There is San Telmo which is the old upscale area and now the antiques area and la Boca, which is being rejuvenated in areas for daytime artsy fun. There is the downtown financial and governmental area famous for Eva Peron and the shopping district, Florida Ave.

Doug and I only went to one museum today, the smallish Eva Peron Museum. God, did that woman have great shoes!

We visited the Plaza mayor famous for Eva's speech and saw the pink house which was painted pink because the paint was cow's blood. La Boca, the home of the tango, was a hoot, with brightly colored tin homes and restaurants and art galleries galore. Evidently, this area was the original seaport and was filled with prostitutes who developed the tango as a w ay to entice the sailors. Once a dance of the poor, the Europeans brought it back to France where it eventually was adopted as a dance of the wealthy.

Tonight, Doug and I are going to take in a tango show after dinner soled the Rojo Tango. It's pretty darn expensive so I hope it's good!

We dropped in on Andrea today at the Four Seasons. Lauri was taking a siesta. All is well. We switched to the Hyatt today a few blocks from the Four Seasons and have a lovely suite on the 17th floor with a courtyard view, jacuzzi, huge bathroom, etc. We had drinks on the patio on the courtyard of the old palace. It was lovely and relaxing.

Tomorrow, we hope to visit the teatro colon, the Latin Arts Museum and walk Florida Ave. We never made it to the Beatles Museum. The group dinner is tomorrow night. Thursday, we have a private tour to Tigre. Then, we are off on our adventure!

Can't wait to see everyone.

Sounds like the trip is off to a great start, Andi. I enjoyed your report, looking forward to many more. Thanks!

Andi, your reports have been wonderful! I never thought I would hear anyone say that there is a prettier city than Paris.

Such a cool city. Doug and I had Paella at a restaurant in the Recoleta area which is near the Hyatt. It was great. At 9:30 our driver came into the restaurant and told us he was here to take us to the hotel for the tango show. So, off we went to this over the top hotel in Puerto Madero, Faena, to this clubby atmosphere.

Even though the guidebooks warned about the cab drivers, we have had the nicest experiences. They have all been delightful during our 3 days here and we have taken lots of cabs. Go figure.

Met some ladies in the ladies room (logical that they weren't men) at the Faena who are on the Azamara ship leaving from BA in 2 days. Instead of flying to Ushuaia, they are put up in a BA hotel, which they said wasn't very nice, then they go to the falls, come back to BA and the cruise leaves from here for Antarctica. I wonder if we'll run into them? They said another ship leaves from Santiago.

The show wasn't cheap...$190US pp including transportation and all the beverages you wanted and a 90 minute show. The room was intimate but not packed tightly.it was great. There was singing, sexy dancing and a great band. We came out to pouring rain and our cheerful driver whisked us back to our hotel. Once we arrived, we entered our suite to find
decorated with rose petals, a bouquet of flowers, candles, and they left us champagne and truffles. It's nice being platinum!

This room is so high tech, we then had to call for assistance to help us figure out how to work the lights and then the rain storm became so bad that our penthouse room started leaking. We plugged up the leak and tucked in and decided that this is a pretty incredible city. It was midnight. Prime time shows were just coming on tv. The night was young. What a place.

I hope it doesn't rain too much tomorrow. I do want to walk the neighborhoods tomorrow. Good thing I haven't an inch of space in my suitcase. I could do serious damage here...I'm already suggesting BA as a retirement option to Doug and he didn't say no. He really liked the tango show. maybe some tango lessons are in our future?

Arlene and I made it to Hilton in great time! Room not ready but we are in executive lounge where we had a much better breakfast than the one served in coach on Delta. It is cool and damp today; we are going to take it easy and relax before dinner.

I have designed a walking tour for tomorrow so hopefully weather will cooperate.

More later!

Finally! After almost 10 years of planning this trip we are here in BA. Flights were fine just long. Fun traveling with Beth and Betty, but we lost them at the airport as they are headed to the Hyatt and we are at the Hilton. The cost of admission (entrance fee) was (almost) offset by the most handsome Argentine man stamping out passports. Whew! The French men have nothing on him!! Airport was easy, paid our fees, emigration, luggage, customs, ATM and in the taxi in about 25 minutes. Hilton is wonderful. Room isnt ready but we are in the executive lounge having breakfast. Life is good, but we miss all of you back home

Last day - we will be busy with last minute items. We meet Ralph and Brayden (Ralph's 14 year old grandson I hear he is now about 6ft tall )in the Admirals club at the DFW airport this evening. We are on the same flight to BA.

If we have time I can see the first HEARTS game heating up. Brayden won consistently on ARCTIC(at about 12 years of age) beating all the adults who thought they were good players. Ken and I have been playing as much as possible for a "re-match" and we are ready to take on the boy genius. Of course we have Marc along this time to challenge him as well.

Adults afraid of the intelligence of a 14 year old what is the world coming to I wonder!

Then there is the new found pleasure of playing Scrabble with Marc. Andi is a great player too the first time Andi and I played was on ROVOS rail on the very first ROAR. I wonder if Brayden plays scrabble?

Before LCT and these trips I had not played cards or scrabble for probably 10 - 15 years. Ken never wanted to play games. Between POOCH, HEARTS and SCRABBLE we have turned into game maniac's and really look forward to the time we spend with LCT'ers in the pursuit of a win.

Brayden and the penguins here we come!!

Betty & I made it to the Hyatt (free internet)just in time to join Andi & Doug for breakfast. They are now off for the opera house tour and we are "cooling it" in our large,lovely corner room overlooking the garden. Resting up and organizing the luggage. We've booked a river tour for tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing all tonight at dinner. Hear that Pam & Jim checked in an hour before we did so the "Hyatt 6" are all here.

We had a wonderful tour of the city this morning. The Recoleta cemetery is fascinating! We also saw the beautiful Palermo neighborhood, the central Plaza de Mayo, the San Telemo neighborhood and la Boca. It's (thankfully) cooler than yesterday due to the rain. After a tasty lunch of empanadas I'm off to walk around a bit.

So happy you all have finally made it & are living it up! Ah, Arlene, you wasted no time in recognizing the incredibly handsome male species down there! The doctors are to die for :)