Around 4:30 this morning, Danelle and I both were awake and things were starting to come into focus. Did we hear water dripping? Yes, we did 🙁 It turns out the mini-split AC in our room was dripping water on our luggage. First order of business was to move the luggage and see how wet things were. Not too bad just yet. I got a pitcher to catch the dripping in the room. Then I had a thought, we have a laundry room that has the outdoor portion of the mini-split in it. It had a bottle collecting all of the water from the mini-split. The bottle was full, causing the drain pipe to back up and drip. I emptied the bottle and our unit stopped dripping shortly after. We were able to continue sleeping till almost 9am.
Then we proceeded to hang out around the house till nearly noon when we decided we should probably do something. Corvin selected a restaurant and the five of us headed out for lunch. None of us were overly excited about the food, but I think Coty was just playing along and liked her pasta more than she admitted to match our vibe. Danelle and I both got hamburgers. I was looking for a quick taste of the familiar, but it was not to be. The bun was more dense then we are used to and it was soggy from the juicy tomatoes (good) being placed below the meat (bad). Well, enough about that.
We headed on to the Museo del Agua y de la Historia Sanitaria (Museum of Water and Sanitation, also called the Palace of Running Waters). Starting off, the building is unbelievably ornate for a water and sewer plant. Its one whole block in size and opened in 1894. The first floor appears to be a public place of business, maybe utility payments. There were signs to go up stairs to the museum. We were late for the guided tour, but that seemed to worked out in our favor. We just wandered through the first two thirds of the museum at our own pace. Most of the placards had an English translation, allowing us to go through the many exhibits and read the information. For those we couldn’t read, the exhibits were visually interesting pipes, valves, and toilets. It was a little bizarre to be in a museum that focused on plumbing, but we all enjoyed ourselves and learned something. That’s a win! The last part of the tour was up about two flights of stairs where we were able to walk into a huge water tank. There, we caught up with the tour group. The tour guide appeared to be funny. I could hear the inflection in her voice of a good story teller and her audience occasionally laughing. It turns out that the building had 12 giant water tanks to provide water pressure for the whole city of Buenos Aires. Something like 72 million liters of water.
Our next stop was El Ateneo Grand Splendid. National Geographic named it the world’s most beautiful bookstore. It was originally a thousand plus seat theater that first opened in 1919, hosting mostly musical performances. Its long history in entertainment included continuing as a cinema until its current state starting in 2007 as a bookstore. There aren’t many things to make you feel more useless than walking into a bookstore for a language you can’t speak or read! Still, everybody had a good time and we enjoyed the amazing atmosphere. We left a little poorer, purchasing a few books and postcards for the kids.
We came back home to rest for a bit. While we were sitting in the living room of the apartment and heard some noise outside on the small balcony. it turns out there was a dove stuck there. The balcony has sliding glass doors mostly enclosing it, but they were open part way to let out the heat and moisture from the outdoor part of the air conditioning unit. To prevent the birds from getting in, the whole thing is covered in a mesh with about 1-inch holes. Some parts of the mesh are broken which is how the dove managed to get in, but it seemed unlikely to find its way back out. Danelle went out onto the balcony and caught the bird, releasing it back to the wilds of Buenos Aires.
When it was time for dinner. Sonora picked 3 places and we decided on one. When we arrived, it looked too fancy for the way we were dressed. We proceeded to walk to her next choice. There, most of us settled on traditional regional food. I won’t pretend to remember what we ate other than Danelle, Coty, and I really liking our food. Sonora traded her food with Coty and was happier. Corvin got a pizza he was going to share with Sonora. Only, the pizza came out with tomatoes on the top that Sonora wasn’t interested in. Overall it was a good food choice. I forget that meals in Argentina are a slow affair. I think it took 90 minutes. We came back and made some basic plans including where we’re staying when we leave this place for the rest of our trip. Then blissful sleep!