Author: marionvermazen

I am a traveler, hiker, avid reader, Sun alumnus, computer geek, Spanish and French language student, knitter and genealogist. I am retired after working for almost 30 years in the Computer Industry. I live in Reno, Nevada with my husband Duke.

Buenos Aires Day 2

We had a wonderful day. Both of us were exhausted last night and slept like logs. When we finally woke up this morning we were rested and ready to go. We went to El Petit Colón near our hotel for breakfast. It is a famous cafe, named El Petit Colón because it is very close to the Buenos Aires Opera house, El Teatro Colón.

We ordered the egg breakfast for two and, oh my what a feast! It was fabulous and we didn’t need to eat again until dinner.

Breakfast at El petit Colon
The ambiance is elegant
All the food was fresh and yummy

Today was a primarily a rest day, but we got a lot done. We changed more money and bought tickets for a tango show tomorrow night. We straightened out our tickets for 4 shows we want to go to when we return to Buenos Aires in 6 weeks. Duke tried to buy the tickets before we left home but because of credit card challenges we weren’t sure if we had bought the tickets or not. Now we have all 4 sets of tickets.

For dinner we took a taxi to the Palermo district and had fabulous Argentine beef at a top rated restaurant, Calder del Soho. Then we walked to a nearby bookstore/ restaurant that also has a small Jazz Venue. The place is called Borges 1975. We saw 5 bass players perform. They were so much fun to listen too and the music was great. They seemed to be having so much fun. There were probably less than 20 people in attendance and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We came out smiling and took an Uber back to our hotel.

Steak at Calder del SoHo.
Concert with 5 basses
The library we walked through to get to the Jazz room.

Reno to Buenos Aires

We are on the road again! We returned from our U.S. road trip just three weeks ago and now we are off on a six week trip to Argentina. If you would like to see our complete itinerary just click on Itinerary in the menu above.

Monday morning our friend, Ray gave us a ride to the airport in Reno. We flew to Denver and then took a second flight to Houston. There were thunderstorms and wind around Denver so our departure was delayed. As we approached Houston we knew that it was only about 30 minutes until our plane to Buenos Aires left and our gate was about half a mile away. Then they aborted our approach because the plane ahead of us was still on the runway so we had to go around and try again.

At that point we assumed we would miss our plane. But just before we landed there was an announcement that they were going to delay the departure of the Buenos Aires flight because there were so many people on our flight from Denver who were going to Buenos Aires.

We landed, they let about 50 of us with tight connections off first, and then we ran! We made it and so did our suitcases.

A mariachi band in Denver AirPort
Bad weather as we took off. It was quite bumpy.

We landed here in Buenos Aires at 8:13 then took an Uber for the hour ride to our hotel in central Buenos Aires.

Neither of us slept much on the plane so when we got to our room we immediately slept for about 3 hours then went out to change some U.S. dollars to Argentine Pesos and to get some afternoon coffee.

That’s Duke talking to the money changer.
Afternoon coffee
We made it!
14 10,000 peso bills = $100 US

We decided to walk to the Jazz club where we had dinner. On the way Duke totally surprised me by taking us into one of the most beautiful bookstores in the world. El Ateneo is in an old theater and is truly stunning. I was so focused on getting to dinner that I tried to walk right through it so that I wouldn’t delay us. In reality I could have browsed for an hour. But I didn’t. But we did browse a bit.

El Ateneo is on all the lists of most beautiful bookstores in the world
The large music and children’s section is downstairs. They have a big collection of old LPs and CDs.

Dinner and the show were great at Jazz Voyeur. I was so tired I dozed off a few times during the show but even so I thoroughly enjoyed the show.

Steak dinner
The show

Towaoc, Colorado to Reno, Nevada

Duke and I are home. We drove from southwestern Colorado to Midway, Utah, where we spent two nights with Duke’s brother and his wife. From Midway we drove home.

Soon after leaving Ute Mountain Casino where we spent the night in Towaoc we stopped for coffee and bagels in nearby Cortez, Colorado.

Silver Bean Coffee

Then we spent an hour exploring a bit of Arches National Park.

Balancing Rock in Arches National Park
Arches National Park
We had probably the best meal of the trip with Bill and Berna, in Midway, at Midway Mercantile.

Monday we drove 570 miles west, along Interstate 80, home to Reno.

At the Bonneville Salt Flats Rest Area on Interstate 80.

We travelled a total of 6,458 miles, were in 13 states, saw some great sites and had wonderful visits with friends and family. It was a great four and a half week road trip. Now we only have three weeks to catch up at home, then it’s off to Argentina!

Santa Rosa, New Mexico to Towaoc, Colorado

This morning, before leaving Santa Rosa, we stopped to see The Blue Hole. It is a spring fed pool almost 80 feet deep. It is used for swimming and scuba diving.

The Blue Hole in Santa Rosa, New Mexico
The Blue Hole sign

Just before we left New Mexico we stopped at Aztec Ruins National Monument. We watched the movie and did the half mile trail through the Great House. The national monument a large group of big structures and houses built by the ancestors of the native Americans in this area. It was built about 1100 AD.

A circular kiva that originally had a domed wooden roof.
A reconstructed Great Kiva
Inside one of the buildings
Another view of the buildings. I don’t have a picture that really gives you scale.

When we crossed into Colorado the skies became threatening as we passed through some beautiful terrain. It rained hard for a few minutes just before we got to Our destination.

Near the Colorado / New Mexico Border
One of several “towers we saw”

Tonight we are spending the night at Ute Mountain Casino.

Winters, Texas to Santa Rosa, New Mexico

Today we continues west across Texas. We stopped in Lubbock at the American Windmill Museum. It was fabulous. they have more than 160 windmills on display, a big collection of miniatures, and several model train layouts. The captions and descriptions were all very interesting.

Outside the Windmill Museum
They have a 6000 square foot mural and give you a seek and find list of things to find in the mural
All the windmills in the mural were identified.
A double windmilll
The main display hall
They had a big collection of miniatures
And all kinds of big and small model train layouts

We also stopped at a couple of road side signs and at Billy the Kids grave. Tonight we are in Santa Rosa, New Mexico.

A train derailment and massive explosion happened here during WW II
Billy the Kid’s grave in Fort Sumner Cemetery.