Big First Week

Well, we're here. The start of a big/long (hopefully) adventure.

Although the majority of our "adventure" so far has been because of an untimely departure on the 10th of Aug with some very heavy bags, tons of skincare/makeup/cosmetics, and things generally considered dangerously liquidy, I'll refrain from too many boring details and confine most of the anecdotes to what we've found in South America.

Our first stop was "arman suites" on a popular road for shopping, eating, (and also apparently construction, demolition, sawing down trees, accidents, beeping horns, loud diesel engines, etc. :)

Our room was on the "2nd" floor (3rd to you and me).

They don't include the "base floor" in the counting mechanism. Our room unfortunately, fronted the hotel and we were treated to quite a bit of noise the first couple of nights (weekend).

The room, I would give a rough equivalence of a Courtyard Marriott, with a decidedly more urban setting, so there was more of a premium on space in the Armon Suites. The suites were outfitted with kitchenettes, which we barely used....the reason you may ask....We found "Chez Pineiro" at our first meal.

Anyone who knows my travel partner, knows that she is a pizza connoseur. I ordered the pizza americana "capri". The capri includes a thin crust, tomato slices under the cheeze, fresh mozzarella, and black and green olive chunks in the cheese. It cooked in about 30 seconds in a wood oven slightly cooler than the surface of the sun.

My partner instantly declared it "the best pizza" she'd ever had.....I secretly concurred (before she ever tasted it) but i wanted to hear her unbiased opinion first.

Now, I know what you're thinking....end of a long flight, unfamiliar surroundings, we could be impressionable....we returned the next night and had the same experience with the pizza....8 ish bucks. Service was great, but not all the waiters could help if you only spoke English...."Juan" was a really cool waiter that we had the second day (we've been back alot! :) ) and he can help out if you get stuck on what some food on the menu is.

While a fine cafe, I can't recommend anything else on the menu since we are still going "vegetarian" and I didn't try any of the many many many meat dishes....all of which are cooked on an open bbq-like pit. This style of cooking all manner of meat is about as common as starbucks, 7-11's, and gas stations combined.....basically every corner and then some in certain parts of the city.

It turns out there is a big Italian population in the country. REALLY big. Like 1/2 of the people here are of italian descent. The other half look spanish.

I'm consistently mistaken for a Uruguayan on the street and people look at my travel partner as if she just came from the moon! :)....ok...she's back from a shopping trip. more later.