Friday, February 5, 1965 Buenos Aries, Argentina
It is an all night boat trip to Buenos Aries on the Rio de la Plata. The ship left the river channel and entered the dredged channel to the city. The river is a dirty brown color carrying a tremendous amount of silt hence the continual drudging. B.A. has a tremendous dock area and every bit is used. When the ship reached a certain spot, two large tugs came over, one in front and one in back and took over towing the ship stern first. They went thru a narrow ship which was a street-crossing with a turn table bridge. When open we slid thru with about 12 inches to spare on each side. B.A. is 123 miles up the river from Montevideo, it is the seventh largest city in the world with a metro population of 7.5 million. We were cleared by immigration by 10 AM and then the ship's agent took over. He interviewed each passenger and filled out quite a form on each one. Then he had men gather up all the luggage and put it in a truck. Passengers were loaded into two Cadillacs. (It was understood at the start of our trip and written in our tickets contract that we would be required to maintain ourselves ashore for 2 weeks in B.A.) Next stop was customs. All of us went into the building and our luggage arrived a little later and was brought in and set on tables where the officers gave it the once over. Millie had picked up the "bug" and was getting sicker by the minute. I spoke to the agent about her illiness and allergy to smoke so he hired a Taxi for us and we were at Gran Hotel Dora in a few minutes. (The Hotel is pronounce Doe RAH in Spanish) She went right to bed and too sick to eat. The maid on our floor was of Irish descent and spoke good English. She was wonderful and looked in on Millie every half hour.
Saturday, February 6, 1965 Buenos Aries
Millie feeling quite a bit better, she is now drinking tea and eating toast. She was feeling strong enough to take a short walk on Avenida Florida. It is a block over from Maipu which is the street our hotel is on. Florida (Flo REE da) is closed to automobiles so it makes a wonderful place to promenade. It's also one of the principal shopping streets. The sidewalks are in bad shape but little or no repairs are made, besides being extremely narrow. It is just unbelievable that a city this size and class would permit such a situation to exist - even the guide books comment on it. It is so noticeable because few individuals have cars - too expensive - and walking is a national sport. In the PM Millie felt well enough to a walk for window shopping. The shops were closed - English Holiday, you know. She was agog with all the bargains in the windows. Their money is officially pegged at 152 pesos to 1 US dollar, but Argentine money can be bought for cash in most any "combio" for at least 200 to the dollar and we are buying it today for 217. I bought $100 worth and received 21,700 Pesos. We had a steak lunch for two for less than 400 pesos.
Sunday, February 7, 1965 Buenos Aries
The hotel dinning room is really a tea room w/4 tables and a 4 stool bar. They serve sandwiches, steaks and chicken. We met a couple at one of the tables, the man helped us order a meal. Then we asked him it he spoke English - he said he was from Meriden, Conn. Then we met 4 girls from La Paz, Bolivea. Their husbands were colonels in U.S. army helping the Bolivian Army and they were on a buying trip to B.A. There are quite a few English speaking people at the hotel - 3 Canadians with American CanCo. who are installing a plant and instructing the natives on how to run it.
Monday, February 8, 1965 Buenos Aries
Finally the first business day of the week arrived. All of the women folk were so anxious to sally faith on a look and buy expedition. Millie was no exception. The pace was too slow for the men, so we usually agreed upon a meeting place for meals. Leather good and silverware are the eye-catches. Returned late from dinner. Ten PM is the height of the dinner hours. Weather warm but not too hot as there always seems to be a local breeze.
Tuesday, February 9, 1965 Buenos Aries
More shopping and then comparing purchases at the hotel. Pocketbooks are a favorite item and very cheap by U.S. standards. Went looking for a 'combio-Change" and found one that would give 223 to 1 for each. Travelers check are less and some combios wont take them at all. 223 is tops and hard to find. The hotel ships an English written newspaper under door every AM. It keeps us up to date on any news note the TV program taken from it.
We buy Time Magazine printed in English and flown in by air. it is the regular South American edition for 45 pesos, about 20 cents. It has less advertising and runs about 60 pages. There are four TV stations here 7-9-11-13. Somehow the titles sound vaguely familiar. There are 63 cinemas listed in the paper, many showing U.S. films. TV sets are available for use in our hotel room but no one has had time to look at T.V.
Note that this is the last page from the South American Tour 1965 book. I think there is another book that goes with it, I know I have seen another book. So I will try to find it and keep going. But for now this is the last posting of Ernest and Millie's Trip.
The hotel dinning room is really a tea room w/4 tables and a 4 stool bar. They serve sandwiches, steaks and chicken. We met a couple at one of the tables, the man helped us order a meal. Then we asked him it he spoke English - he said he was from Meriden, Conn. Then we met 4 girls from La Paz, Bolivea. Their husbands were colonels in U.S. army helping the Bolivian Army and they were on a buying trip to B.A. There are quite a few English speaking people at the hotel - 3 Canadians with American CanCo. who are installing a plant and instructing the natives on how to run it.
We buy Time Magazine printed in English and flown in by air. it is the regular South American edition for 45 pesos, about 20 cents. It has less advertising and runs about 60 pages. There are four TV stations here 7-9-11-13. Somehow the titles sound vaguely familiar. There are 63 cinemas listed in the paper, many showing U.S. films. TV sets are available for use in our hotel room but no one has had time to look at T.V.
