criplomats

We hosted a consular leadership conference in Buenos Aires this week, with over 40 people coming to town. While it was held at a nearby hotel, I had the chance to see many old friends. Last Sunday, I met Karen W for brunch at Marti, then John and I hosted around 20 friends for a happy hour at our house. It was great to see so many familiar faces! After happy hour, we met the rest of the group at an Italian restaurant near Recoleta Cemetery for a kick-off dinner. I did not participate in the conference itself, and stayed in the office. We had a few of the VIPs come to the embassy for a tour and a presentation of some of the innovations my group is doing (they were impressed!). Later in the week, I met up for the group at an outdoor happy hour at the racetrack (no races going on). Saturday, I picked up four of the conference-goers and we spent the day in San Telmo and Palermo. They enjoyed seeing different parts of the city, and it was a gorgeous day to be out and about.

John and I started watching “Rabbit Hole,” with Keifer Southerland. I stopped reading “Surrounded by Idiots,” and started Cassidy Hutchinson’s “Enough,” about her time in the Trump administration (it’s riveting).

Today is the presidential runoff here in Argentina and the city seems pretty quiet. John and I walked down to the street to La Morena for lunch – they have tasty empanada!

Here are a couple of photos of Flavia living her best life!

Spring is really here now – the jacarandas are starting to bloom and the weather has been crazy. It stormed all afternoon and evening Friday (postponing a much-anticipated Taylor Swift concert) – I loved the rain because we were snugly tucked inside for the Veterans’ Day holiday.

Last Sunday I went to our new, small book club at the very fancy brunch at the Alvear Hotel – a fun venue to discuss “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.” While the book wasn’t really my cup of tea, it was a fun outing with friends.

Yesterday was busy running errands and it was nice to have Thai food delivered in the evening. We’ve been watching “Dopesick” with Michael Keaton and we are really riveted by it (what a horrible, horrible story of greed). I enjoyed reading “Phil,” an unauthorized biography of the golfing great, this week, and just started a new book, “Surrounded by Idiots” – it’s not as pessimistic as it sounds!

John freaked a lot of folks out on Halloween with his devil eyes! It was fun to watch people start to chat with him then scream when they really looked at his eyes! The embassy does a big trick-or-treating event for the kids and all the sections decorate – it was a fun afternoon!

Monday night John and I stayed up “late” and went to see a German quartet at Teatro Colon. It was our first time seeing an event at the theatre and it was lovely. For one thing, the seats are comfortable with lots of legroom – hoorah! And the place was packed, even for a Monday night 8PM performance.

The weather was so strange this week – it got really chilly and WINDY on Wednesday. The next day it poured all day and evening, which was unfortunate because we were hosting the deputy chiefs of mission from all over South America. John went to the airport to pick up the Director General of the Foreign Service in the morning, then had an evening event at Bosch Palace with the attendees. Friday my former boss and friend Angela left the conference to spend the day with us in the consular section. She and I went to brunch on Saturday and spent the day shopping in Recoleta and Palermo. It was great to see her and catch up – we talked non-stop for the entire day!

Friday night was the Marine Ball – there was a nice sit-down dinner at a hotel downtown with the traditional Marine ceremony (that always makes me cry). We had a good time, but scooted out when the music started at midnight!

And…drum roll! Last night we went to Madre Rojas with Lea and Jose to celebrate John’s 60th birthday – happy birthday, John!

I’ll leave you with two more Halloween photos!

I missed blogging last Sunday but with good reason — John and I were traveling down to the tip of Peninsula Valdes which involved a flight to Trelew from Buenos Aires, then a three-hour drive, much of it on gravel roads through scrub brush landscape that reminded me of West Texas. We arrived at Rincon Chico in the afternoon, in time for an afternoon outing with our host/guide Augustin. During our four nights there, we walked through a huge colony of nesting penguins, sat feet away from both sea lions and elephant seals, and watched southern right whales play in the water below us. It was a treat to see these animals in such a small group setting (there were no more than six of us there at any given time). Around the estancia itself, we saw Darwin’s rheas (like an ostrich), guanacos (in the llama family), big hares, and maras (a huge rodent that looks kind of like a big rabbit). I won’t bore you with a blow-by-blow, but take a look at my photos. You will see some dead baby elephant seals in the pictures – apparently this season’s baby seals are being wiped out in Argentina and in South Georgia Island due to the avian flu. It was horrible to see their little bodies littered along the beaches. We did see some that are still alive like the cute little guy above, but the effects of the flu are devastating.

The week before our trip we enjoyed a long weekend and a local holiday on Monday. Socially, I had a fun catch-up lunch with Jenae at Mashugana Cafe and had a couple of outings with Lea. John and I teamed up with Lydia and Cesar one night after work to compete in an embassy trivia contest – we were the “Disco Cats,” a nod to our time together in Pakistan. I finished reading “Tom Lake” and “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow,” and started “Wellness.”

This afternoon John and I drove up to a lovely asado at Luis and Mercedes – they are such good hosts. It was great to hear about their trip to Alaska (Luis has now been to all 50 states! Way more than me!), and we always enjoy their daughter, as well. Spring has really sprung in Buenos Aires!

I caught the tail-end of Phillip & Michele’s visit to Argentina this week. They had traveled with John to Mendoza, then they went further south to Calafate and were there when I returned. We had the chance to go out on their last night in Buenos Aires to catch dinner and a tango show – lots of fun! It was a different tango show than John and I saw before, in a more historic building.

John had a great time visiting with them, and he really enjoyed Mendoza. He also took them on a tour of beautiful Bosch Palace while they were here:

Last Monday was a U.S. holiday, so I took advantage of the free time to see the hairdresser and go to a dermatologist appointment. And there was a local holiday on Friday, so I had a nice three-day work week. The weather turned cold again this week which was nice.

Yesterday we visited with our neighbors Matt and Katherine at their apartment – nice folks! I finished reading the fabulous “Cutting for Stone” and started “Tom Lake.” John and I began watching the wonderful “Lessons in Chemistry,” which I recently read. I also watched a bit of the “ring of fire” eclipse on YouTube – it looked so neat.