Our family plus Coty took off in the rental car to try and get to the cathedral this morning. We left around 11 knowing it closed at noon. We didn’t expect the traffic of San Juan’s city and drove around a long time before we could find a parking spot. It was nerve wracking for me as the driver to navigate a city of people and cars. The intersections are not as clearly marked as the USA streets I’m used to. Many intersections don’t have traffic lights or sighs in any direction. Coming up to an intersection is an activity of slowing and looking both ways before going on. Some streets seem to have more preference, but its hard to tell with my current experience.
When we did get parked, the cathedral was already closed. We wandered through the city of San Juan, including a brief stop at the childhood home of former President of Argentina, Domingo Sarmiento. We stopped at a small shop and picked up a variety of souvenirs, including hats, cups, and magnets. Sonora briefly mentioned that she needed to use the bathroom. Coty said she did too and the search was on. When we finally found one, there was no toilet paper. Sonora and I started walking back to the car while Coty, Corvin, and Danelle continued on.
We found the car thanks to my Garmin watch and me recording my steps for the day. I drove while Sonora navigated for the 15 minutes it took to get back to the house. Meanwhile, Danelle, Coty, and Corvin got a tour of the Monastery where San Martin spent time in San Juan before going over the mountains to free Chile from the Spanish. Following the tour, they found a barber shop where Corvin got the best $7 haircut we’ve ever seen!
When they were back, Corvin and Danelle went over to the Ripoll house for lunch. Sonora and I had already eaten meat and cheese sandwiches. But we walked over to sit during lunch. I had a glass of port and Sonora played on her phone. I got the correct spellings of the Ripoll family’s names, so its on me now for those mistakes. Then we suddenly all got up and danced in the family room. Laughs and some damage to Danelle with me as her clumsy partner. Now its siesta time.
Post siesta, we swam in the pool at our place once it was shaded by the trees nearby. It was nice to be silly with just the 4 of us for a little bit. Eventually we cleaned up to go out for a walk. Danelle, Corvin, and I went slightly farther than expected and were later than we planned because we were supposed to meet at 9pm for dinner. We weren’t the only ones running behind and we left closer to 9:45.
We ended the day in San Juan with the whole Ripoll family at their favorite restaurant. The portions are huge, so we shared dishes. Fede and her boyfriend came along as well. Have I mentioned Argentina is affordable yet? Total cost with tip came out to $124 USD. For a group of 11 including drinks, I was expecting a minimum of $250 for the meal. Also, Argentine dinner is a very different affair than a meal in the US. The meal took a LONG time and there was no rush. I appreciated that we didn’t have servers hovering over us to remove plates as soon as we might be finished. All the dishes sat while we talked. We left around 12:30am. After, we got ice cream at another local favorite spot. We finally settled into bed at 2am. Woh, what a day!!!
