A Home in Buenos Aires

I remember when we visited Buenos Aires, those first days. It was warm, sunny, dry and noisy.
This was because we were living in Portland, Oregon at that time...where it was cool, wet and not very noisy.
When we first visited Portland, it was summer, they were having sunny beautiful days and no rain.
When we went home to Florida and went through a couple of Hurricane warnings, my husband talked more and more about Portland...

Before we knew it, we were in the car with Tate (Pup ) and off to drive across the USA ... that was the best trip !
We were driving a really nice car that I still miss.
Tate had the back seat, we had plenty of music bought for the drive plus our favorites, we stayed in hotels every night.
La Quinta, we found out, always welcomed pets and Tate was especially welcome. Everyone loved him. Talk about spoiled, this dog drove around in a BMW and slept in hotels.. and had lunch every day at an outdoor cafe .. weather permitting.

The weather was the downfall for us in Portland.
Our apartment was brand new in one of the converted buildings that was all modern and concrete and glass. We had fabulous views, Whole Foods was not only across the street but we could go through the garage and go to the grocery store without stepping outside/ in the rain.

We had views of hills and mountains and the city. It was , for one lovely year, an enchanted place to be.

Then one Sunday, sitting on the floor, listening to music, reading the NYTimes .. my husband said ..How would you like to go visit    Buenos Aires ? .... And that is how it all began.


He did everything, it was up to me to pack. Our neighbor who had 2 dogs but one had recently died, offered to pup sit for us.. everything fell into place ... it was Meant to Be.

We met a nice lady at the airport, with her daughter, on the way to BA to visit her father and family.
She said we should meet her and her brother when we were there, have coffee.
(Meeting for coffee in BA is an every day offer/date/activity)

And so we stayed at the Art Suites Hotel with our suite at the back so our view was sky and back gardens of other buildings.
The staff was fabulous, the area perfect, for 10 days we were walking around in a daze .. we fell instantly in love with the city and the people .

We didn't really talk to each other about it .. we kept letting it sit , let it brew, wait and see.
For 10 days, we saw as much as we could, we walked everywhere, we took hair raising taxi rides that had us laughing and singing along with the music .. played loudly on the taxi radio once the driver realized we liked the music.

We saw our realtor friend and he took us to see some apartments, each very different from the other, giving us an idea of what homes were like there.

It was hard to leave .. 10 days was nothing .. a tiny taste of the place .. we knew we had to come back.
I remember how we would talk about something now and then but not really get into a big discussion or reminiscence of the place , of the visit.

After being home for a few days, my husband said .. How would you like to live in Buenos Aires.

And so the process began. It was easy for us, we had what we needed to live anywhere we wanted. But Tate, the pup, had to have shots and paperwork which had us running all over Oregon and then as these things go ... when it came down to it, he needed nothing but his rabies shot records.

He was allowed to fly in the cabin with us but at the last minute, the airline changed their minds.
Which was mostly upsetting because he had no blanket, nothing to give him comfort on that long flight alone in the airplane hold.

Boy, the Joy on a dog's face when his crate is brought into the luggage area of an airport and he sees his mom and dad.
The amazement on the faces of people in the luggage area who had never seen a Standard Poodle before, let alone one that danced in joy to see his mama.


To be continued