Big Announcement 1

Good news seems to come in groups. Last night, our favorite son Joey proposed to his girlfriend Lauren and they are now officially engaged.

Of course, we are thrilled and need to tell the whole world. Here's a photo of the happy couple from their trip to Buenos Aires in December, in an appropriately loving embrace modeled on a statue in Plaza San Martin.

Another big announcement tomorrow. Stay tuned . . .

Feliz Año Nuevo 2010

Everything closed down by 3 pm on New Year's Eve, as the residents of Buenos Aires headed to family dinners. The three Fernandez (Kurt, Linda, and Belen) headed over to our rental apartment to see the new year in with friends Bobby and Nancy from Wyoming, whom we had met last Christmas in San Martin de los Andes.

We feasted on shrimp ceviche, a spread of avocado with salsa verde, watermelon, prosciutto pizza with arugala, green salad, and lots of wine and champagne up on the rooftop terraza by the pool. As midnight approached, people set off fireworks from adjacent rooftops. We cheered with each blast of sound and explosion of light.

Before the clock struck 12, we toasted son Joey in abstentia in honor of his 25th birthday on the last day of 2009. Happy birthday and happy new year!

Noche Buena con Amigos Buenos

Last night we went with Belen to the home of the Moltenos: Eduardo and Stella and Andres, their youngest of 5 children, to celebrate la Navidad. Eduardo owns and operates the La Cava de Vittorio vinoteca (wine store) around the corner from our apartment, and we have become good friends.

Buenos Aires winds down on Christmas Eve; stores close early, traffic decreases substantially, and quiet pervades. We left our apartment shortly after 9 pm, and spent the next 15-20 minutes trying to catch a cab, a process that normally takes 30 seconds in our neighborhood. We still arrived at the Moltenos in plenty of time for a glass of wine before dinner.

Stella had prepared a sumptious spread of cold foods (perfect for the warm humid night): stuffed beef and chicken rolls, deviled eggs on tomatoes, beef with a tuna and caper paste, salads, all complemented with one perfect wine after another. Our contributions were shrimp ceviche, tabouli, and (in the small world department) a fruitcake from Texas' own Collins Street Bakery, sent to us for Christmas by Linda's sister Judy in Sweden.

At midnight the quiet was banished with fireworks large and small. Lacri, the Molteno's dog, hid in the bathroom while we toasted the season with a sparkling blend from Eduardo's collection. Stella drove us home at 2 am.

¡Feliz Navidad!

Jacarandás 2009

Plentiful spring rains in recent days have washed most of the flowers from the jacarandás while creating a beautiful purple carpet beneath the trees. Photos don't do justice (especially on an overcast afternoon), but we did our best to share the beauty.

These photos were taken along Avenida Libertador, about a dozen blocks north of our apartment, from the Museo Nacional de Belles Artes (and the Law School directly across from it) down to the Museo de Arte Decorativo and Plaza Chile, then back to Plaza Francia.

November is a good time to be in Buenos Aires.

Tomatillos in the Making

In an ongoing effort to promote Mexican cooking in Argentina, we bought packages of tomatillo and chili poblano seeds during our last visit to the States in June. Once the cold weather had passed here in Buenos Aires, Kurt started the germination process on the roof of our building.

Planting occurred Sept. 3; tomatillo seedlings sprouted Sept. 15 and poblanos about 2 weeks later. Kurt thinned out the seedlings about the middle of October. Today, after a weekend of heavy spring showers, the first tomatillo blossom appeared. More are on their way. We are encouraged.

North to Brazil

For Kurt's birthday trip this year, we headed north to Bombinhas, a small village on the coast in the southeast Brazilian state of Santa Catarina. Quite a change from last year's celebration, in terms of both weather and world financial news.

Getting to Bombinhas took some doing. First Linda had to get an emergency US passport, since the one she had was due to expire in February 2010. Brazil requires that the passport be valid for at least 6 months. Then we had to apply for a Brazilian visa, paying $130 USD each for that document. We had to admit the fee was fair, though -- it's exactly what Brazilians have to pay to apply for a visa to the United States. Apart from the pain to the pocketbook, the process was relatively straightforward and efficient. You apply at the embassy, go pay your fee, and then come back in two days to pick up the visa.

Bombinhas was everything we had hoped for. Small, quiet, clean, and with lots of secluded beaches, plus we were able to get by speaking Spanish. The food - both seafood and Brazilian style BBQ - was great and inexpensive. On the recommendation of Argentine friends, we stayed at a complex of six bungalows built on the side of a hill halfway between "Four Islands Beach" and the town itself. Because we were there before the start of high season, we paid only $45/night for a very comfortable and well equipped cottage. Dubai Bungalows is another place we plan to revisit.

Photos here.

Investing in Argentina

We did it again: bought another apartment in a gorgeous French-style building in the Recoleta neighborhood of Buenos Aires. No, we're not moving, though we certainly plan to take advantage of some features of the new place that our home here doesn't have. Like a patio with a real Argentine parilla (or grill).

The new apartment is an investment. Before we retired in early 2008, we'd made certain assumptions about the income that our savings would generate. That was then . . . we've spent the last several months revising those estimates and trying to figure out how to preserve principal and earn more than 1.35%.

Argentine real estate has consistently held its value, in large part because mortgages are not easy to come by and have more stringent terms. Purchases generally are cash transactions. Speculative bubbles, like the one that most recently blew up in the US and elsewhere, are nonexistent.

Tourism from the US, meanwhile, is on the rise here, as exchange rates continue to make Europe too expensive for many Americans. So we've dipped our toes into the vacation-rental business, buying a new apartment in an old Belle Epoque building that has been completely refurbished and retrofitted over the last 3 years. The photo here shows it off nicely!

UPDATE 2011: We have sold the apartment.