Day 13 - Lavanderia and Move to Recoleta - March 11, 2013

Today was a busy day for us, beginning with laundry.  The Solar Soler people told us there were a couple of laundry services close by, but closed on weekends.  We counted our things and had just barely enough clean clothing to get us through Sunday night.  So this morning we had one clean shirt each, our swimsuits, and a large bag of fermenting dirty laundry.  The places open at 9AM, and we had to be out of the room by 11AM, so S took the big bag, wearing only shirt, swimsuit and sandals, and walked to the closest laundry one and a half blocks away.  Nearly all of the Argentines on the street looked at my sloppy appearance in undisguised annoyance.  They are quite causal on the weekends in this neighborhood, but this was Monday and everyone was looking pretty nice, except for me.  I got to the place at 9:10, and it was still closed - even though the sign said they would open at 9.  Another guy came to wait, with two gym bags of clothes.  He also looked at me in disgust and then turned his back.  I looked inside the place and it looked like a bomb had hit it.  Sloppy, unkempt, and everything in disarray.  So at 9:15 I made a 5 block walk to the other place.  It's only 3 blocks from the B&B, but in the opposite direction.  This place was open, neat, orderly and clean.  They were happy for my business, and assured me they could have the job done by mediodia (noon).  The helpful lady at Solar Soler had coached me to ask for both wash and dry.  I got the receipt, and zipped back to hide at the B&B.  We packed what little we had left and had a tiny breakfast, then vacated the room.  We moved our stuff into the common area, since we were not to meet our new landlady until 2PM.  At noon we both went to retrieve the stuff.  It was all clean, mostly dry, and neatly folded.  The total charge (for about 2 large loads in the USA) was about US$4.50.  Certainly no need to own washer and dryer in this town!

We finished packing and called a taxi to take us a few miles downtown to Recoleta.  In contrast to the B&B, our apartment building is on a very busy street - Avenida Gral. Las Heras, and very near the corner.  Traffic was jammed, and dozens of buses screeched to a halt at the corner from all directions at any red light, so the squeaking brakes combined with honking horns and buzzing motorcycles to make for a city symphony of dissonant noise.  I wondered how bad it would be at our 8th floor apartment.  The building seemed older, but decent, if a bit down at the heels compared to others on the block.  No matter, the price was right, and the location perfect - only one block away from the famous Recoleta Cemetary.  We met our landlady Eugenia and her boyfriend Mariano, a delightful couple, who showed us how to navigate the building, introduced us to the security officer, Artemio, and gave us a tour of the spacious apartment.  They soon took their leave, and we settled down into the new space.  Private, airy, clean and bright, the place was perfect for us.  It is so nice to have some private space.  Full kitchen, open-plan, living room, dining area seating four, separate bedrooms, and 1.5 bathrooms.  The street noise was audible, but greatly reduced.  We soon got used to it.

The rest of the day was spent in small explorations, mostly to get a SIM card (which still does not receive a signal 24 hours later - most annoying).  But on this day my mother in Oklahoma was having a major back surgery.  So we spent a lot of time on the internet phone (using the apartment's wi-fi) monitoring that situation.  Happily the surgery was declared a success, but was significantly more difficult than the surgeon had estimated.  Her back damage was reinforced by 30 years of cartilage growth and was almost 6mm out of alignment, placing enormous pressure on the spinal column in the lumbar area.  At one point it required two surgeons working together with microscopes - one to pull back the cartilage and another to do the surgical modifications.  After almost 5 hours in the operating room, she went to recovery, and was there for over 2 hours.  She emerged groggy, in great pain, and quite pleased with the results.  Further news was all good, and we were all quite pleased, though she will probably remain in the hospital until Friday or Saturday.  Just after my mother exited surgery another friend, Dan in Utah, entered the operating room for a similar surgery.  The results were also similar - more difficult than the doctory expected, longer in surgery than anyone would like, but successful with good prognosis (and a lot of short term pain).  We were very happy for both results.  God is good, all the time!

For this reason we are short on photos for today, but here is one of the view from the dining area...

I think the guidebooks call this a "City View"