criplomats

Last Sunday John and I went to the finals of the Argentine Open and had a great time! Cerundolo fell to the young Brazilian Joao Fonseca – our seats were next to a large Brazilian contingent and believe me, we heard every cheer from them! It was a fun match.

I only worked one day this week — Monday was a holiday, John took me for a colonoscopy on Tuesday (all good!), I worked Wednesday, and then took Thursday and Friday as vacation days to prepare for Antarctica 2.0.

John and I flew to Ushuaia on yesterday and had the day to ourselves. We stuck around the hotel and enjoyed the views over downtown and the harbor. We had a nice dinner at the restaurant last night.

This morning we participated in the hotel’s archery class with about a dozen other guests. It was fun and John and I actually did really well – John in particular was a standout! We both had a few bull’s eyes (he had a lot!). The hotel backs up into the mountainside and it was a very peaceful setting, as well.

This weekend is the Argentine Open, one of the highlights of the year for me here in Buenos Aires. John and I had great seats for yesterday’s semi-final matches and the weather was perfect. The Argentine Francisco Cerundolo beat #2 ranked Zverev in the quarters, so I was a bit disappointed to not get to see Zverev, but Cerundolo is playing great and it was fun to see him (he’s ranked #29). I especially love that the tennis club is pretty small and only a 10-minute drive from our house.

I hosted book club this month, and we had a fun time discussing “All Fours” – Lea, Katherine, Bhavna, Good Rachel, and Bad Rachel. Katherine ordered Thai food for us.

Lea and I had a delicious lunch yesterday at Picaron – we had a mushroom dish that I’m still thinking about.

John and I watched the Swedish series “The Are Murders” this week. It’s been too hard to concentrate to try to read anything else due to current events, although Flavia seems untroubled by it all:

John and I loved our quick jaunt down to Patagonia this weekend – we flew to El Calafate Friday morning. On the drive from Calafate to Glacier National Park, our guide took this photo of us; it seems to capture the vastness of the country, the crazy blue of the lake in the distance, and the big sky.

We were thrilled to see Andean condors flying! They have the biggest wingspan of the continental birds and they were truly beautiful. We also saw a family of grey foxes climbing in a Calafate bush to eat berries (kind of like a blueberry) and we saw a lot of choiques (like an ostrich but smaller). On the way to the airport today, we saw a guanaco and a red fox! We also saw a lot of other interesting birds, like the black buzzard-eagle and a lot of caracaras.

And then there was the glacier (or the big ice cube as John called it).

Once inside the national park, we took a walk through the woods down to the shore of the lake, then walked on a long series of boardwalks to see both the north and south sides of the glacier. Lots of stairs up and down! (John’s step counter said we walked over eight miles all day.) We took an hourlong boat excursion to get fairly close to the north face – just beautiful.

Our hotel faced the lake – it’s a huge lake fed by glacier melt, so it has this incredible blue-turquoise color. It’s called milky water due to the minerals. It was just stunning. In the morning, the light hit the snow on the mountains and the sky was an amazing pink.

Friday night we did “dinner in a cave,” a touristy but fun outing with an absolutely incredible lamb stew that I’m still thinking about!

It was a great way to escape the city and relax after a stressful week at work. Last Sunday I talked to my friend Cathy, and David and James. I read Brooke Shields’ memoir, “Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old,” which makes me want to watch some of her comedy roles.

We were absolutely delighted to have Will and Ellen over for dinner Friday night while they were in Buenos Aires. They are spending the winter in southern Chile and popped over to Buenos Aires for the weekend. It was wonderful to catch up with them! We hadn’t seen them in probably 35 years, if not more.

I went to lunch with Lea and Rachel on Friday at the new Mishugene Cafe – we’re off early due to summer hours. On Saturday, Lea and I had lunch at the Museum of Hispanic Art, a small but lovely collection of 16th-18th century art, mostly religious. The grounds are lovely and we sat outside on the terrace – photos below.

John and I have been enjoying “Prime Target” and “HIP: High Intellectual Potential,” a French detective show with a hot mess of a protagonist. I’m reading “How to Retire,” by Christine Benz – lots of good things to think about!