Buenos Aires

I am I’m Palermo, one of the nicer neighborhoods of Buenos Aires.

Typical for my weather (bad) luck on this trip, the weather is unusually hot for this time of year. It was unusually cold in Puerto Natales, unusually hot for Mendoza, and unusually cold for Mar del Plata. It’s 92 today, will be 93 tomorrow. Yay.

I’m finding that as a postmenopausal woman, I simply cannot handle heat anymore. It used to be no problem for me. I look around and see the 25-year-olds wearing jeans and not a drop of sweat on their foreheads, while I’m wearing as little as my crepey body will allow. My forehead is dripping, my face is red, and my hair is wet from sweat. And I’m panting and cranky.

People here and other parts of the world simply do not believe in fans or air conditioning unless absolutely necessary. Why is this? It’s such a simple solution but it’s like they don’t even think it’s hot.

The common areas of the hostel (bathrooms, kitchen, living room) have been blazing hot until today when it’s over 90°. Suddenly, the AC was on. It was like night and day. Maybe 90 degrees is the point at which they actually will turn on the AC.

When I checked in, aside from the heat inside the lobby, I was mortified when the girl took me to my room. The stairs. My God, the stairs. There are three sections. Every time we got to to the top of one, I thought that was it. But no. She just continued up. I had to stop and rest three times. I counted the steps to get to my room: 50. And they are all curving staircases of granite. It’s actually pretty dangerous.

I almost wiped out yesterday in the kitchen. I didn’t see the step, walked right into it and went flying. Luckily, I caught myself with my two hands, barely stopping my face from hitting the hard floor. That would have been very bad.

There is a hostel cat and dog. The only time I see the dog is when he’s in the kitchen begging for food. The cat just hangs out everywhere.

This is the first and only dorm bed situation I’m doing on this trip. Gorilla hostel was the other but I cancelled that due to Covid.

My little bed and my little cube are fine. I have curtains around me, so I have privacy. I actually like being in the little cube. It makes me feel like I’m in a fort like when I was seven years old.

Yesterday, I booked a Hop On Hop Off bus and did the whole route around the city. I got off at the Recoleta Cemetery, but there was a line that looked like it would take about two hours, so I got back on the bus and continued the route.

It took seven hours with traffic doubling the time it should have taken, and there were many places I had to skip.

That night, I found where all the restaurants are five blocks away. Luckily, I’m resourceful because the hostel staff was not at all helpful in this regard. The Tandoori chicken skewers were excellent and different than what I’ve been eating.