Thursday 20.9.18 -

Another interesting day drivingaround with our private chaparone - Jorge - seeing sights of Buenos Aires that only a local guide could show. Jorje pointed out where we would catch the ferry to Uruguay tomorrow, thank goodness he did, the area is a total demolition site due to the contruction of new underground & highway into the port, have never seen so many trucks! Even more than harvest season at home. Driving in Buenos is not an easy task, but interesting. The lanes on the road are only a suggestion! Cars glide from lane to lane with little indication, and squish 3 & 4 cars across 2 lanes, but it all seems to flow well and there is no road rage. The horn is not used quite as often as experience in Italy. We continued on up the coast for a bit and for lunch we stopped at a road side van and enjoyed a local "salchicha" a sausage in bread with salsa - yum. Lunch is always quite late about 2 - 3 PM, because dinner at night is not until around 9PM. I guess they are hours to fit Cristina's work as a Cardiologist. She would have lots of work as a very large percent of the population smoke cigarettes.

Continuing with our tour - we passed an interesting sculpture the gigantic steel flower named Floralis Generica, but as it's difficult to remember the 'scientific' name, it gets called the Steel Flower. When the petals are open they span 32 metres and when closed only 16 metres. One of the fascinating features of the sculpture is that it acts like a real flower and the petals are open during the day, then close for the night with a red glow emanating from within. There are four special nights a year where the petals remain open: 25th May, 21st September and the 24th and 31st of December. Another monument that can't be missed is The General San Martín Monument built to commemorate Argentinian general José de San Martín. Then time to head back through the almost peak hour traffic, try to get an early night to be up for our day trip to Uruguay tomorrow.