Vamos Argentina - Day 1 - Buenos Aires - Exploring Palermo!

Hola Amigos!

After arriving at my hotel, The Clubhouse, we relaxed on our terrace for a while.  The Clubhouse only has 3 rooms.  Our abode is HUGE!  It's probably bigger than my apartment (don't say it...#duh!).

We, of course, had to dive into the mini bar, and have some sips of delicious Argentine chardonnay while relaxing and plotting our strategy.  It cool down here...literally!  It's winter here!  It's also only 1 hour ahead of NYC...so no jet lag...loving this!  Buenos Aires is "late" though...so we are not supposed to eat dinner until 10:00.  We'll see.

My sweet pal Karen!  Salud!

Our "backyard"!

Our terrace!

Our living room.

This bed is bigger than my bedroom at home!

Yes...it's a selfie...Viva BA!

My view from my lounge chair!

Our tub...cute feet!

We decided to go exploring our neighborhood of "Palermo"...but we were warned about something particular...at 8:00 pm, all restaurants and bars would STOP SELLING ALCOHOL for 24 hours...because of primary elections on Sunday.  CAN YOU BELIEVE IT???!!!

Casa Chic boutique

Ode to "Wasabi Chan"

Undeterred, we ventured out.  It was a little chilly but a lovely afternoon of window shopping and wandering.  We stopped for a late lunch of some snacks.  We had some empanadas, crostini, and "champignon gratin"...a yummy creamy cheesy mushroom fondue!  YUM!  Washed it down with some Argentine beer, a giant Imperial.

Giant "Imperial" beer!

Champignons Gratin - YUM!

Another funny discovery:  maps down here...South is UP!  We were going the wrong way for a bit of time...it was so funny to discover this!

At about 7:30...we decided we'd better stop for a glass of wine before we couldn't.  We weren't hungry yet, but we stopped at a spot called "Magdalena's Party"...which turned out to be a sort of American bar.  It was cute...and we got to enjoy our first Argentine Malbec of the trip.  Slurpilicious!

Satisfied...but not really hungry for dinner, we went back to The Clubhouse for some relaxing time...with mini bar wine and some Super Duper Cheddar Wedges!  Manana...we plan to get going on our adventure to the Recoleta area and Plaza de Mayo.

Buenos noches, amigos!

xoxo, SDMC

Vamos Argentina!

Hola amigos!

I am on a great adventure!

My friend Paula Lambert of Mozzarella Company fame is celebrating her birthday...in Mendoza, Argentina...that's Malbec country!

10 years ago, Paula celebrated her birthday in San Sebastian, Spain.  Paula knows how to throw a birthday bash!  I am so honored to be included!

So...I shared this story with my sweet friend from the NYJL, Karen Grund.  Karen mentioned that she had "won" 4 nights in a hotel in Buenos Aires.  So we decided to combine and venture down to Argentina together (sort of).

I am excited to write about this adventure and show lots of fun photos.  Here goes!

Night flight - August 9

We both used frequent flyer points to travel to Buenos Aires...but on different airlines.  We were supposed to arrive within 5 minutes of each other...but my flight out of Newark was delayed (no surprise).

I spent 250K points to fly round trip Business First.  Glad I did.  Remarkably I slept fairly well.  It's a 12+ hour flight.

I always think of my friend, Amy, when I request and receive "warm nuts and bubbles"!

"Warm Nuts and Bubbles"

Fairly standard airplane fare...but it was tasty...especially since it was about 1:00 am, and I hadn't eaten dinner (did I mention my flight was delayed?!).

Gotta love the ice cream sundae cart!

I actually saw another NYJL friend on my flight, Lindsey Boylan.  She was meeting up with her husband for a romantic few days in BA.  How fun!

Customs was fairly routine.  I went to an ATM to get $500 Argentina pesos...turns out I got 5 $100 Argentina bills...oh...but no...2 of those bills are $10s, not $100s.  Grrrrr!  Not sure if I am going to get that $40 USD back.  We'll see.

1 hour taxi ride to the hotel...called The Clubhouse.  It's a private club/hotel in Palermo section of BA.  You can't tell from the street, but it's quite an "oasis" and, in fact, is owned by a company called "Oasis".

Day 1 will start in the next post!

Adios!

xo, SDMC