Professional dog walkers are big here in Buenos Aires.
It´s amazing how they can walk eight to ten large dogs and never get their leashes crossed. A constant and not completely unexpected hazard of this practice, however, is the frequent risk of stepping in the "remnants" of their path. It is wise to keep looking down when walking the sidewalks of B.A.!!

Buenos Aires is really terrrific

Nice, classy people, great food, beautiful parks and architecture -- these are our impressions of Buenos Aires for the first 2 full days. Of course, it is also very inexpensive for holders of US dollars. We have not checked out the nightlife yet, but that is what this city is famous for. We were at the Eva Peron museum today and then went and checked out her grave, which is at the Recoleta Cemetery, a breathtaking necropolis where all of Argentina´s dead big wigs hang out.

The Peron museum was OK. Located in an old house that Evita had Juan apropriate for a women´s shelter during the 1940´s, it contains many dresses she wore during photo ops of eventful poltical affairs (very stylish) and plenty of memorabilia from the propaganda machine for which the Peron´s were known. But not at all campy, like, say, the Liberace museum in Las Vegas. We did not realize that after her death from ovarian cancer at age 33 her corpse had been kidnapped, was missing for many years and later found buried under a false name in Italy, returning to Argentina 20 years after her death and setting off a riot. Somewhere along the way her body was partially mutilated, which was described in a gruesome recorded monologue to Evita´s corpse by her sister. She has had a more eventful career as a dead person than most people have while they are alive. All this and a hit musical, too! Here Gary is in the Recoleta Cemetery, looking for Eva Peron´s elusive corpse.

Day one in Buenos Aires

The burglar whom Bonnie thwarted matches the description of the North Boulder burglar published in the newspapers -- 5´9", black hair. Hopefully, he won´t want to tangle with Miss B a second time!

Here in Buenos Aires, Fall is in the air. The evenings are breezy and cool, and the leaves on the tree-line streets are just starting to turn.

The city had a really hot, humid summer, followed by heavy rains just before we arrived, so everyone seems in a up mood with the advent of pleasant weather. We have not had much time to walk around, having arrived late last night, but this does seem to be a beautiful city, in a faded glory kind of way. The beautiful 1920´s buildings from the city´s economic peak are well maintained. That´s a big difference from Havana, where the 1930´s buildings from their golden era have become dangerous slums under Castro.

Yesterday, we went to Mendoza´s natural history museum, which is housed in a 1920´s art-deco building that is was made to evoke a ocean cruiser. Unfortunately, that building was poorly maintained, with broken windows, dilapidation, etc. The exhibits were pretty cool, despite petty swipes at the U.S., such as referring to us as "the United States of Northamerica" and displaying a map titled "America" which pretented that no land exists north of Mexico and Cuba.

It´s interesting that the two most hostile places that we have been to -- Otavallo, Ecuador, and Mendoza, Argentina -- are the two places that are relatively prosperous on account of exports to the U.S. -- Indian crafts from Ecuador and wine from Argentina.

We´re headed to Buenos Aires tomorrow.

One of our housesitters, Richard, emailed us today to say that last Thursday night/Friday morning at 2:30 am, Bonnie started barking, calling Richard´s attention to a man who had opened our side gate and was standing at our French doors. He ran away when he saw Richard. Here´s what the Colorado Daily wrote about a bulglar in our neighborhood:

The string of burglaries began on Valentine's Day last month and are anchored in central and north Boulder. The suspect forces his way into homes by kicking in the front door or throwing a rock through a window and then unlocking it to get in.“He's taking things, but he's not taking large items,” said Boulder Police spokeswoman Julie Brooks on Monday. “In some cases, owners haven't been able to ID what is taken until later on when they notice it's missing.”

Brooks said the burglaries are of concern to police not just because of the loss of property, but because this particular burglar is willing to use violent measures to break into locked houses.“It's hard to predict what this person might do when confronted or when he gets in,” Brooks said. “His victims did everything right: they locked their doors and secured their residences.”

But they didn´t have Miss Bonnie on the beat!!