Driving around Nevada County, with its hills and mountains, consumes a lot more gasoline then driving in the valley. Look at this road sign, 31 percent grade! This sign is on Banner Quaker Hill Road. While most of the roads in Nevada County are not that steep, it gives us an idea of why it takes more fuel to get around here. I own a Prius, a hybrid electric gas vehicle, which averages 44 to 47 miles per gallon of gas in the mountains. In the valley, the Prius gets from 48 to 52 miles per gallon.

Sign at the start of 31 percent grade, Banner Quaker Hill Road

What is the area called Cedar Ridge? Good question and kind of funny. The official zip code for Cedar Ridge is 95924. The post office (see picture) is the only piece of property in Cedar Ridge that has that zip code. All of the immediate area around the post office is listed as Grass Valley, 95945. My office is across the street and I can’t get mail delivery because they don’t deliver mail out of the post office! They do give me a free PO Box though.

The Cedar Ridge Post Office, the only area with the 95924 zip code. The area around the post office is Grass Valley, 95945

The best information that I can find is that way back in the 1870’s a man by the name of George Kress bought two hundred acres which became known as Kress Ridge. Kress Ridge was a stop for the now demised Nevada County Narrow Gauge railroad. They had a post office then as now. The name changed in time to Cress Ridge, Cedar Cress and is now our present Cedar Ridge

The Cedar Ridge Fire Station. With a modern fire station, fire engines and paid fire fighters.

Our last day in Buenos Aires was Saturday February 9. My observation of the City this time from the sights of my trip here two years ago is that there are profound changes happening. Some of the changes are good, such as the majority of the stores are not locked now. When we were here two years ago, almost all restaurants and small shops were locked and you had to ring a bell to get in. There are still guards or security in a majority of the stores, but they’re not locked. You have to realize that starting in 1980 until 2001 there was huge unemployment and a large majority of people could just barely survive and as in all countries when times get bad, the crime rate goes up.

Florida Street, an upscale shopping area

Inside Galerias Pacifico located on Calle Florida, one of the most famous shopping malls in Buenos Aires, designed to recall the Galeria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan, Italy, with it’s long halls, glass cupola and several tiers of shops. The frescoes were painted by local artists.

La Boca, meaning in Spanish, the mouth, is the area of Buenos Aires that Italians migrating to Buenos Aires in the 19th and 20th century settled into. The area was named La Boca because of the natural shape of the harbor formed by the River Rio Riachuelo bending and flowing into the Rio de la Plata creating what appears to be a mouth.

The area is difficult to get to using the Subte, so John and I bought a guide to the collective; the huge city bus system that criss-crosses the city. (Getting there was easy, getting back a little more difficult as we were standing on the wrong street for the return buses to our area. But here are almost no bus signs (let alone street signs), you just have to go stand where other people are standing; if they look like they are waiting for a bus!!)

The vendors have painted the area to recreate the early days of the area.

A train ride to the outer reaches of Buenos Aires (made a little longer than necessary because John and I didn’t know we had to switch trains in the middle until we had reached some other end destination). Then a switch to the new, obviously touristy “Tren de La Costa” Stopping at 7 or 8 little beach towns along the edge of the delta, north of Buenos Aires. Very nice real estate.

Tigre is one of the most popular weekend destinations from BA, on the banks of the lush jungly banks of the Delta of a lot of different rivers. Arriving, and avoiding the El Parque del la Costa (sort of an Argentine Disneyland/county fair combo) and the big Casino at the end of the line we walked in a discovered a very cute little town. We located a B & B to stay at (an OLD family home where the Grandmother rents 4 rooms a night to tourists) for 150 pesos (less than $50 US)

Front door home we stayed at. Typical treatment of many houses in area, with ornate treatment of front entries.

A great way to get around Buenos Aires is on the subway or as they call it here the Subte. There are five lines A, B, C, D and E. You can get a map of the lines at the airport showing the routes. It’s cheap, thirty two cents per ticket when you buy ten at a time.

They were built at different times, by different regimes, and each has its own personality. Even the tiles in the halls and stairwells on the way down show the differences.

The Linea A is the oldest, and least decorated, although the wooden carts are works of art in their own right.

Linea B is the newest and most comfortable cars; it is also short on decoration.

Linea C is the Linea de los Espanola, with ceramic depictions of landscapes from Spain. In the Retiro station there are three murals by Fernando Allievi: Saturday Story, the outing of a family, First Light, a bedraggeled shoeshine boy, and La Mascara (the Masks), unfortunately, the picture I took of Saturday Story came out blurred. One problem with the Cannon SD750 camera that I use, there is no anti-shake control.

The shoeshine boy

One night this week we went for a tour of Puerto Madero with Julio Iannetta and his daughter. Julio is a brother of Albert Iannetta, one of my real estate agents. It is a beautiful, clean, new area of the city down where the old docks of Buenos Aires use to be. When the city outgrew the area the old warehouse and granaries were abandoned for a while. But recently the shells of the old buildings have been turned into apartments, lofts, offices and of course restaurants and shops. Very High Scale.

We toured the streets that are all named after famous Argentine women. There are great places to stroll, along the riverfront and around the four large diques (basins) of the former port, with many moving bridges, including this one:

This bridge which opens to let ships through, is a work of art.

Yesterday, January 22, 2008, after a relative quick and apparently successful visit to our fourth government office in search of John’s national number and passport, we visited the Holocaust Museum in Buenos Aires.

A very grim reminder of what the Nazis did in World War 2. They tried to exterminate all Jews, gypsies, homosexuals and Jehovah Witnesses in Europe. Their calculations were that there were 11,000, 000 at the time, and they managed in killing 6,000,000 or more. We discovered that there were many more concentration camps that the 4 or 5 we had heard about.

I remember the first time I saw pictures of what had happened in Nazi Germany. I was upset for over a year, at times wishing I was not a part of the human race. It’s amazing how a psychopath with good oratory skills can persuade rational people into doing irrational acts and bringing out the dark side of humanity. We see this through out history and I don’t see a lot of change from the beginning of written history to the present, except we have gotten more efficient in killing each other.

Outside the Museum

I don’t know what kind of a dark day you want to call it, but we then went to the Cementerio de Recolerta. Recoleta is the area of one of Buenos Aires’ most prestigious addresses. In or out of the cemetery walls, this area represents wealth and power with mansions and luxury apartment towers. The cemetery is more exclusive than the neighborhood. It is lined with narrow alley ways with ornate mausoleums and crypts that mimic the architectural styles of B.A.‘s early 20th century belle époque.

We left Bariloche Friday the 19th on a bus at three in the afternoon and arrived the next day at ten thirty. The ride is very comfortable and the seats fold down to make a bed. A hot meal is served at night and a very light breakfast in the morning.

We checked into our apartment which is right downtown and about five blocks from the Obelisco. The Obelisco is a monument to Buenos Aires and was built in 1936 in just thirty one days. It was built to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the first, but unsuccessful founding of the city in. It was later founded in 1580.

Under the Obelisco is a shopping center and underground pedestrian causeway around the center of the subtre (an underground subway) The shops are old, dating back to the 1960’s. It’s called the Paseo Obelisco, with not much for shopping, a few barber shops, cheap clothing, cafes and other little shops. Three subways or metros meet at the Paseo Obelisco.

The Oblisco on the Avenida 9 de Julio micro central Buenos Aires

Today January 18, 2008, we are leaving Bariloche. Yesterday we took a tour around the perimeter of Lago Nahuel Hapl, driving along the lake and taking a lift to the top of Cerro Otto (Mt. Otto). The view from the top of the mountain is breath taking. It truly is a wonderful area, much like our Lake Tahoe.

View from top of Cerro Otto

The four hour Spanish class is over today and I finally got the usage of ser and estar. For those who have studied Spanish you know what I’m talking about. I’m also getting a dose of irregular verbs, which at times is like a Chinese cross word puzzle to me.