Since we arrived, I am both happy and embarrassed to say that I have not taken a cab or a bus and the only time I have been in a car is to see houses with our Inmobiliario (rental agent), Jorge. I am happy to say that because we have done some pretty hard core walking and with the help of Brad’s GPS, figure that we do on average about 4 miles per day. I’m embarrassed because I have not seen as much of the city as I would have liked by this time.
We will not have a car here and love it because it is such a walkable city with services and shops spread evenly throughout the neighborhoods. Once we get settled, we’ll take you on a stroll down the street where we will be living. It is amazing that there is almost everything one could need within about 3 blocks.
There is certainly a limit on how far I will walk, though. Take this morning for example, we went to go see the dogs. It is a little over a mile in each direction. By the time we got food and got back to the hotel, we estimate it was almost three miles round trip. The plan was to eat, go to the hotel for Geneva’s nap then take a cab ride into Ciudad Vieja (Old Town). Well, once we get back to the hotel Brad must have had a burst of post-empanada energy and suggests that we walk to Old Town. We did this last year when we visited. It was a beautiful walk along the water the whole way, but it is 5 miles in each direction with the curving coastline! That is simply too much for today. I don’t want to be a wuss, but I think my limit for walking without wining the whole way is about 6 miles per day tops. We’ll take the cab to Ciudad Vieja today and leave the walking trip for another time when we can start earlier and haven’t already done 3 miles.
If you want to read more about Ciudad Vieja/Old Town, Wikipedia has a nice short summary here. It is the business and tourist center of MVD, the architecture is amazing (although can be found in varying states of decay) and the scene is completely different than Pocitos, the neighborhood where we’ve been staying.
