Shared Illusions

For the fifth or sixth time in my life I was able to stop rain. It’s very simple, really. All I need to do is buy an umbrella and the clouds part and the sun shines. Of course if I get too cocky about it, the rain returns. That’s what happened today. The rain stopped in the late morning and we headed out to see some of BsAs, planning to walk to the Ateneo bookstore, a couple miles away. After about 20 minutes a light rain started and after fifteen minutes of continuing to hold hope that the weather forecast would prove to be right we stopped into a store and plunked down 100 pesos for a small umbrella (about $2.70) allowing us to experience a sunny few hours.

Suitably insulated against the vagaries of nature we launched ourselves again in towards the bookstore, distracted only once by the Plaza de los Grenaderos, that contains some graphic sculptures related to Argentina’s military history.

The Aneteo bookstore is in a converted theater and maintains some of the elegance of bygone days. It is an interesting structure, with bookshelves lining the mezzanine and balcony and a childrens section in the below ground section.

We spent some time perusing the selections and watching the numerous tourists taking photographs.

On the way to the bookstore we had passed a place we thought we would like to visit on our return. We headed back that way and settled in on a covered terrace to appreciate a craft brew. While we were there, the good fortune I had purchased for $2.70 expired and we watched for an hour and a half as the streets flooded with rain and people hustled by in varying levels of protection from the wetness. Being from Albuquerque, we are not used to seeing such a hard unrelenting rain. My frequent checks of the Weather Channel app assured us that the rain would be ending shortly. It was quite a show, really, and we figured the matinee would end by 5:00 as we were assured by the weather channel. But at 5:00 the forecast was that the rain would end by 6:00. By six it was still raining, and a half hour later we figured the Gringos had blown it again, bit the bullet (to use a completely inappropriate metaphor)bundled in our rain jackets and headed off under our new umbrella to find the Guerrin Pizzaria, a restaurant that had been highly recommended to us.

The rain gear we have is the same we wore when walking the Caminho Portugues last year. At the time I had questioned how the manufacturer and I had such different understanding of the meaning of the term “waterproof,” and I was soon reminded that I had not resolved that difference in the meanwhile. The umbrella was clearly waterproof, since my head and shoulders remained dry, but everything below the chest was pretty soaked by the time we had gone ten minutes. Just before we got to our destination I considered that we maybe should have taken a taxi.

We arrived at the pizzaria, after a twenty minute walk, wet and hungry. Guerrin has been at the same location since 1938 and has a good reputation and a loyal following. We split one of the house specialty pizzas, which was tasty and was accompanied by a slice of faina, which is a flat bread made from chickpeas.

By the time we left the rain had stopped and we had a nice, though chilly, walk back to the apartment.

Tomorrow we will try to get out before noon. In one sense I feel that we are getting into the BsAs rhythm, but I suspect it is mostly that we are still on MST, which is 4 hours earlier.

Until tomorrow.

Charlie