We were excited and relieved to finally be in Buenos Aires! We got a little emotional as our plane got ready to land and we watched on the screen as the name "Mercedes" popped up. I guess there is an area named Mercedes in Argentina, but none of us knew that. It felt like a wink from abuela when we watched her name pop up on our screen right before we landed. There was also a place called "Durazno," which means peach in Spanish. Mercedes used to call Preston "Mi Duraznito" (my little peach) when he was a baby because his head was soft and fuzzy like a peach. We definitely shed a couple of tears as we realized she was with us.
Getting through customs was fairly simple (hallelujah!), with one slightly tense moment when Preston was asked to stop filming as we went through customs. He was super excited to document everything on our trip and didn't realize there were places he wasn't allowed to film.
Our Uber driver, Carlos, showed up with a van that fit all 5 of us plus our 5 large suitcases. What a relief! We were off to Palermo to find our Airbnb! We passed the Buenos Aires temple, which somehow felt like home away from home. The kids and I were trying to take it all in during our drive from the airport while Marcos and Carlos chatted away. When we arrived, Andres met us at the door of the Airbnb. He hauled all 5 of our suitcases up two flights of stairs before we could protest. Oh yeah! That was one of the first things we realized. Segundo Piso (second floor) meant something different to us than it does in Argentina. For us that would mean walking up one flight of stairs to the second floor. In Argentina, Segundo Piso means walking up two flights of stairs. The first floor is called planta baja (or bottom floor). So we were on the 2nd floor, which actually felt more like being on the third floor to us.
Our Airbnb apartment was simple, but perfect for the 5 of us. We thanked Andres and started to unpack our bags. We rested for a bit in the afternoon, but tried not to sleep so we could get onto the different time zone a little easier.
Marissa was so excited to discover that our apartment used old fashioned keys. She often tells me she thinks she was born in the wrong generation because she loves vintage things so much. She was locking and unlocking doors and closets, etc. with fancy keys all afternoon.
Before long, we decided to venture out to find some food. We walked and walked and had no idea where we were. Andres left us an amazing book and map with lots of ideas for shopping, restaurants, pharmacy, etc. but we didn't think to take it with us while we were trying to get oriented to our new location. We called Andres and Marcos said, "Where is a good place to eat dinner?" I think Andres must have assumed we didn't like the list he had left us, so he pointed us to a restaurant called "Lo de Jesus." We arrived and ordered and were so excited to finally be eating. It was DELICIOUS, but we quickly realized he had sent us to an upscale restaurant. We spent a big chunk of money on our very first meal in Argentina...and went in our shorts and t-shirts. 😬 Whoops! We agreed to figure out what the heck we were doing before venturing out from then on.
There was a lot of excitement about Sprite in a glass bottle :)
We still hadn't slept since arriving in Buenos Aires so we headed back to the Airbnb to get ready for bed early. It was around 7:30pm (which is 4:30pm in Utah) but we were exhausted! I'm glad we didn't sleep that first day because it was much easier to get acclimated to the time change by going to bed early and sleeping in the next day.
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