cuidad de los perros, jardin de los gatos

Buenos Aires is definately a dog city. Every morning you can see the pasaperros out walking as many as 20 dogs with all thier leashes tethered togather. The parks are always filled with pooches just having a great time. The only downside is you have to watch your step everywhere. Our studio building is next door to a huge park where there are always people and dogs. The downstairs lounge area looks out onto the park, so when I get my hot water for tea, I can see them all right outside. The only garden where the dogs dont go is the Jardin Botanico. This has the highest density of cats I've ever seen. The park is fairly large, and totally filled with cats of all sizes and colors. All the really fluffy cats make me miss Suki. We were talking with a local in the park the other day and she said that many of the cats here actually have owners, but live in the park and the owners bring food and water for them. Interesting concept. Whats really interesting is how well all the animals here get along. The natural pecking order is allowed to establish itself here, without owners who get offended if one dog growls at another, and so all the animals know thier place and get along. I've yet to see any confrontation between animals in this city. From our 8th story vantage, I see cats running around on the rooftops.

Spring is finally whispering in the wind down here. We've been having gloriously sunny days in the mornings at least, and I've been going out in just a long sleeved shirt. I cant wait until the trees begin to bloom and grow again, although as warm as it is getting now with no sign of green buds on the trees, I'm a little concerned about how hot the summers will be. Killed a mosquito in my apartment today too.

Alcohol is an interesting subject here. Most portenos don't really drink. Even the younger generation tends to perfer cokes in the evening. If they do drink, they drink wine, or mixed drinks in the clubs. Club drinks are very expenisve, but beer is very cheap here. I've seen very little dark beer here, most of it is very light. Quilmes is the national brew of Argentina, but it competes with Brahma, the Brazillian beer, and personally, I couln't tell you the difference between them. The interesing thing is that a litro of Quilmes in the store costs about 2.20 pesos, or less than a dollar, and if you return the bottle, you get a peso back. Which means that you effectively get a liter of beer for approximately 60 cents. Not to worry, we're not buying litros for each of us down here, but sharing them.