Revisiting Old Friends

We spent today revisiting some of our favorite spots in Buenos Aires. First a short walk from our hotel on Calle Florida through the Plaza San Martin, which is at the end of its summer glory. Then a taxi ride to the Ateneo, that glorious book store which took possession of an old theater, to browse and buy. I found a lovely book about the Bodegones de Buenos Aires. We could plan a whole trip around meals at these local gems who feature abundant good food at moderate prices - with lots of local history and culture thrown in. After that I'll come back and buy the Pulperias de la Provincia de Buenos Aires; another whole trip. I also bought a small book on the food of Argentina - from the beginning, local foods through the history of the country.

Then another cab ride to Puerto Madero for a leisurely lunch in Cabaña Las Lilas. Wonderful as always. We sat out on the terrace overlooking the water. They fastened all our handbags and purchases to our chairs with tie wraps. And we settled in for a wonderful meal.
Then back to the hotel to reclaim our luggage, a short hop to the Port, a cut finger (Jim) a couple of scares over misplaced documents and bags, but we finally boarded the Infinity, found our cabins, rested a bit and then headed up for dinner.
We handed our dining card to the waiter and he took us to our table. We waited and waited and Jim and Irunu never appeared. We did our best to communicate with the four Romanians seated at "our" table. They were truly charming and experienced cruisers. Finally, Ralph got up and walked around the dining room to find Jim and Iru eating alone at the table we should have been at. Our guide had taken us to the wrong table. We finished up our meal with our new acquaintances and tomorrow we will try to sit in the right place.
A tango show after dinner. Pleasant, but  not as good as those in town. The median age of the cruise population is rather high, although we did sit near an adorable couple of newly weds from Ecuador - they were lamenting the lack of people their own age on board. According to the cruise director there are 37 countries represented by passengers, so the variety of languages is great - not much Spanish heard.
After the show we headed back to the cabin and oblivion.