Our Cupula

New Digs… La Cupula!

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It’s a holiday weekend and what weather we are having! I’ve just come back from a trip home to Louisiana where it was cooler than here in Buenos Aires today. I love it!

So, what have we been up to? Well, besides visiting the family back home, I’ve spent the past few months looking for an apartment, getting it set up and learning more than I ever wanted to know about the art of getting stuff done in Buenos Aires. By stuff done, I mean things like getting the Internet hooked up, heaters working (which we don’t even need yet), hooking up the hot water, sealing leaks in the roof, finding a technician to work on our fridge which was freezing everything… really fun stuff like that.

Long-term apartment rentals here don’t work the same way they do in the States. They aren’t painted and readied up for the new tenants. Your phone may or may not work. Your toilet may spray water at the wall when you flush it. It’s quite an adventure. I went through it two years ago in the last place I rented. And here I am again, spending my days on the phone with the operators of the various companies to see just when they think they may come by…

“You’re on the list.”
“Great, so they’re coming today?”
“They’ll call you.”
“But my phone doesn’t work.”
“They’ll ring the doorbell.”
“That doesn’t work either. This is why I’m calling you to see when they’ll come.”

We haven’t had Internet for about two months even though we placed the order the first week of April. Seriously! We’ve been waiting for seven weeks for the guy to bring us the modem. One day, they called us just to let us know that they would be calling. They didn’t call. Then we learned that you can actually pick the modem up yourself. Ah, but there’s a catch. If you’ve already ordered Internet and you’re on the list, you cannot come by to pick it up. You have to cancel your order and then order it again 72 hours later and tell them that you want to come to pick up the modem yourself.

Ok, I don’t have that much to complain about because I love the new place. It’s in the same building as the Loft and the Pad, the two apartments Natalia, Gonzalo and I rent out. In fact, since we had no hot water and our fridge was freezing everything, we stayed in the Loft for the first week.

Here’s what sold me on the new digs…..we’re on the top floor and we have a dome! A dome! (On our Flickr site you can see our process–still ongoing–of making the Cupula a home.)

THE DOME!

John hated the place when he first saw it, but I begged him to give it a chance. I mean, when will we ever live in an apartment with a dome again in our lives? It’s taken a lot of work to make it livable, but John and I have hosted our first guest. His sister made her first trip overseas and we may have even convinced her to see if her company would transfer her to Buenos Aires. Now, that’s a successful visit!

3 Comments To This Article… add one

  • tiffanyla

    December 7, 2009, 11:38 pm Reply

    Hey, I went to Buenos Aires last year and let me tell you that the Ecological Reserve and the Botanical Garden are one of the most beautiful places. After doing some research to rent apartments buenos aires I found one in Palermo which was near the zoo and also the downtown.
    I had a great time!
    Tiffany

  • santelmoloft

    June 1, 2009, 7:53 pm Reply

    It’s a pretty odd place. Next time you’re in BA, you’ll have to come up for a mate below the cupula. We’ve still got lots to do and I’m a bit envious of your talented boyfriend 🙂

  • Katie

    May 31, 2009, 12:07 pm Reply

    The new place looks cool! We’ve been keeping busy with renovations here too. Right now my kitchen is a complete disaster.

    Good luck in your new digs!

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San Telmo Loft is a boutique vacation rental service in Buenos Aires. We've hand picked each apartment in our small collection so that you don't have to spend hours weeding through the blah and mundane. Quirky and stylish, comfortable and quiet (a big plus in this noisy city), each listing is well-located and comes with our stamp of approval.

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