A day in the life of Carla

We arrived an interesting B&B somewhere in the city. It is a bit noisy with our room on the street side, but its fine. There is a nice garden and a dance studio where there are tango lessons. Darlene just did a ballet work out.

Our friend Franscios from Rio, whom we met sailing this past winter in St. Lucia, has a friend here in BA and said to contact Carla and that she would take care of us. Wowww!!!! did she take care of us yesterday.

Carla and Alfredo, her doctor boyfriend whom she is not dating, just hanging out every conceivable minute with, picked us up at noon and took us the the Yacht Club Argentina for lunch, a nearly 3 hour affair of laughter and chatter. The we headed to her place, an apartment filled with fantastic paintings or Argentinian talent. Carla's father, Jacques, is an art dealer of major significance to BA. After 15 years, of not having a gallery, Carla has opened her own gallery and has her father a part of it as her mentor, idol and inspiration.

In the apartment we got into discussions of what is going on in Argentina, their views of the left wing government which appears to be a typical government of self interest, and the impact of the global financial crisis. Great view points and insights from their perspective of how the wars have broken their hearts and influenced the economics of their world, not for the better. But Carla pursues her gallery out of passion, not profit.

Then we met Anna, her 22 year old daughter. What a beautiful young woman, spirited and adventuresome. Anna is studying political science and loves to travel having spent time in the America's and Europe, speaks four languages having grown up in Brazil. Anna is such a delight and an inspiration that could really show American women of what possibilities are.

By early evening we were off to another area that the yacht club had where Carla's 11 year old son, Philip was racing optimists. He had won the club championships and it was the prize giving. This young man loves his racing and is finding his passion on the water. At the club we met some interesting members and Carla realized that it was very hard in introducing Darlene and I. She found she could not just say these are my new American Friends who are a ... It was hard to describe us in just a few words.

Then it was off to yet another area where the club had a gazebo. Here we met Silvy, her eldest daughter who had completed her dissertation and it was a celebration for the family. Silvy loved dance but we did not get much time to chat as I met the aunts and uncles, and cousins, and of course Jacques and Mary, Clara's parents. What a great couple. Jacques had done the very first Cape To Rio race around 1972, which my dad and I watched from Signal Hill as they departed. Life has all these great connections. Mary is an intense gardener and we discussed the problems of slugs.

So this was our first full day in BA, and a day in the life of Clara. We could not have had a better introduction to a sliver of life in this culture. It truly is people that make our world an amazing, experience rich place.