To add insult to injury, in a week of intense summer heat, residential electricity bills here went up by 26-32%, with a further 14% rise in March and further incremental increases thereafter, to hit an annual increase of 55%. Imagine that back home! And then to make it even worse, the city endured rolling power…

Such a glorious summer’s day today. The intense heat and humidity of last week have left us for now, finally allowing for walks into the city without feeling exhausted and bedraggled, though the heat is due to return at the end of the week so we’re making the most of the welcome change. Established in…

We first stayed in Casa San Telmo some eight years ago, meeting the imperious, glamorous and, at times, intimidating Mercedes, owner of the building, and as it turns out, architect, San Telmo property mogul and tango aficionado. According to other people we’ve met here, she’s a local legend and not someone to get on the…

Week two back in Buenos Aires and we’re well and truly settled in our routine, a pleasant balance of morning exercise, cooling pool dips, a good 5 hours of work, lunch by the pool and, if we’re honest, an afternoon siesta with a good book. I’m the one usually mooching around the San Telmo mercado…

We’re slowly settling into our ‘Casa Chorizo’ in San Telmo and adjusting to the intense January heat. It’s around the 35 degree mark most days and rather on the humid side, so it makes mooching around the barrio quite uncomfortable at times. Typically though, after say half an hour running local errands, we’re back at…

A loose translation for this heading would be ‘What lies beneath’. Our enormous gas oven broke down today and a lovely ginger-haired chap came over to fix. I mention this only as ginger hair is an extreme rarity here in Argentina and South America in general. In the process of fixing the oven we finally got to…

We’re back in Buenos Aires and our favourite barrio of San Telmo and in an old 1880’s printing factory converted into a ‘Casa Chorizo’ (sausage house), consisting of 4 apartments, ours being a two-storey affair overlooking the garden courtyard with a pool! This is the perfect oasis for high summer in BA and within walking…

  We’ve had a wonderful time in and around Pucón and in particular, at our wooden cabin buried deep in the forest and facing the imposing Volcán Villarrica – the photo below was taken right in front of the cabin at sunset the other day. We both woke up in the middle of the night…

Another venture into the wilderness this morning using Rutas Secundarias as much as we could but occasionally forced to take the corrugated dirt-track option of a Ruta de Tierra. I tell you, it’s a good job we don’t have false teeth or anything metallic attached bone-wise as the rattling you endure along these tracks is…

  The drive up to the volcano starts off rather understated, a nice smooth dual carriageway, a couple of genteel roundabouts, beautiful lake-side homes trimmed with colourful hydrangeas and then a very gradual climb away from town, past new condo show homes extolling the wonders of living in this lake-side paradise – underneath one of…