Reflections On My Last Day In Rio de Janeiro and My First Night In Buenos Aires

Yesterday was my last day in Rio De Janeiro. I'm a lover of and collector of Brasilian music. I found an incredible shop called (ironically) Bossa Nova. I got some incredible new music. I relaxed on the beach and then had to leave to fly first to Sao Paulo. (The international terminal is incredible, by the way). I flew to Buenos Aires. That airport was disorganized. After clearing customs and immigration, I hired an excellent ramiss (upscale taxi driver) named Jose G. Arenas. As we left the airport, we got on the highway going to downtown Buenos Aires. We road was clogged with traffic and not moving. We first thought that a major traffic accident had happened. Closer observation showed that the main highway was closed off due to bon fires being set to shut down the highway. This was done by protestors unhappy with the Argentina economy and government. My driver was a very competent and honest man. He took me around all sorts of back roads with police cars everywhere with their lights flashing. Things were tense. I made it to the Hilton Hotel in Puerto Madero. I got checked in. I went downstairs to have dinner. It was a surreal feeling in the dining room. I felt like some British person dining at Raffles Hotel in Singapore in late 1941 or early 1942. I was having great food and wine. I was listening to beautiful music. Not faraway were some 140,000 Japanese soldiers who soon would end the privileged colonial life of the English there.