October 29, 2025 . Almost Whole Again! . An All-Day Event

So a bit of a lost day today. After breakfast at our new regular place, I had a long conversation with AT&T to better understand my options with regard to replacing my phone while here in Argentina. Get a new phone and set it up here for the next week. Or go phoneless for a week. I have to admit, just going phoneless for 18 hours was a real challenge. Everytime we left any place, I kept looking around thinking I had left something behind. So, I made the decision to get a new iPhone here. I figure that I can either return it to an Apple store in the Bay Area when I get back and trade it in for a newer model. They only have IPhone 16 here and the largest storage is 256. I had 1T.. But this will do for the immediate moment

So we headed to the Apple store which is not called the Apple Store here. It is called MacStation. Apparently there are no Apple stores here in Argentina, but these stores are licensed to be the official Apple sales locations. The stores look very much like Apple stores and the salespeople are similarly young, wearing the same kind of tee shirts that you’d find in the US stores.

It took quite a while to get the process done. Mostly it was a matter of going through the new phone steps and then syncing and updating software. But all in all it took about three hours and then we grabbed a bite at a nice restaurant across the street from the non-Apple Apple Store. Then headed to the hotel to deal with getting my email set up… working with my IT guy (in Seattle) and then with AT&T. I’m not quite “whole” yet, but substantially better than yesterday.

Finally at about 8:00 we hopped into a taxi and met wup with Peter and Jairo (from Uruguay) who are here in Buenos Aires for the Gay Pride march and parties. Too bad we leave Buenos Aires on Saturday for a little two-day jaunt into rural Argentina, just as the activities begin. We ate at Reliquia which is located in the Palermo neighborhood–a trendy area with lots of eclectic restaurants and shops. Food was good—we all shared an eggplant dish and their special gnocchi. Apparently in Uruguay and Argentina they eat gnocchi on the 28th of every month and put a coin under one’s dish for luck.

Then Peter and Jairo had steak and Mike and I shared a pasta dish because we were meated out. We all shared a tiramisu and then Jairo wanted to take us to a bar they stumbled on when they were headed to meet us at Reliquia. The bar had a bit of a secret door that led to another room that housed a fun bar. They call it the secret bar. More political conversation and some discussion on what they will be doing over the coming week. And then we taxied to the hotel. It’s late now and I’m calling it a wrap.