Buenos Aires- revisited

We are back to where our journey began and we first fell in love. We arrived early Monday morning at the bus station Retiro...a huge monster of a place where most people arrive if they aren´t flying in. Our bus journey took us past some of the slums where people put together homes made of cast off items, quite a dramatic look at some of the poverty that plagues Argentina. Yet, these poor seem to find a way to work rather than beg. More on that later.
We weren´t sure how we would feel about the city after all the other places we had come to know. But, when we got back to our familiar little apartment hotel, the friendly staff made us feel right at home. By 10 am we were in our little studio apartment and ready to explore.The streets are now familiar...we checked out some of the places we remembered. We cultured ourselves...the MALBA ...modern Latin American Artists. We bought fruit at the neighbourhood green grocer, we drank coffee in cafe´s- didn´t take long to start feeling part of BsAs once again. The power of this place!
Today we took the 3 hour ferry across the Rio de la Plata to Uruguay to explore the historic town of Colonia a UNESCO World heritage site- a beautiful, but expensive place and very hot. It must have been about 40 deg. We hopped from shadow to shadow. We have started to talk about how skiing would feel good... We came home on the fast catamarran...a 1 hr journey ..in first class with a glass of champagne.
Tomorrow I have to shop..and we will have dinner once again with Steven. It seemed fitting to have our last dinner with the one who introduced us to BsAs. Jurg has volunteered to shop with me..not sure that is a good idea, but we will see.
I mentioned the poor. There is no more begging here than in TO..maybe even less. Many of those who approach us are physically disabled. Other of the young perform tricks and juggling at the intersections or squeezee the car windows. Young men stake out a parking claim. You pay parking twice..once to the machine, once to the man. Then he watches your car, sometimes will wash it, and moves the cars around ( all are left out of gear with parking brake off) pushing them back or forward to let cars in and out. Another whole vanguard ( around 20,000) push carts around the city to recycle things from the garbage. They pick out things of value and gather cardboard and plastic. I read one of the commuter trains has been modified to accommodate their 4 wheel carts for travel. People set up impromptu stands on the sidewalks with socks and underwear for sale..often mothers have their young children with them. Quite an underground economy.
The jackaranda trees are still covered with their purple blooms that fall and cover the sidewalks below. The shopkeepers are out early in the morning hosing down the sidewalks in front of the stores. The dogwalkers don´t break their pace as the stride purposefully along with their 10 panting charges. I don´t think BsAs will even notice when we leave.
And tomorrow the long journey home...