Planned to go to Veruta but after walking all over Ricoleta during the day, I was too tired. Anyway I had long facebook chat with German, my young dance teacher/D.J./ milonga organizer friend. I’m enjoying our growing friendship. Soon we’ll go to a jazz club and enjoy that common interest. So no dancing today after all. BUT a good day nevertheless. I found Ricoletta mall, had a great chat with a gal at the cachafaz coffee and alfajores stand who directed me to a guy who fixed my phone by inserting a new chip for just 20 pesos. She was covered with piercings and had a big colorful flower on right side of her neck. She was facile in English and very kind. She told me cachafaz is a Lunfardo word. It means crafty, rascally or cheeky. And the alfajores are some of the best I have eaten! So phone is fixed– and I charged it up at a local kiosk with time for texting–so ready now to begin connecting with friends here and in Santa Fe. So this is what happened: she makes a couple of calls and then writes an address for me on Santa Fe calle with a guy’s name-and the amount I’ll pay: $50.pesos–which is about five bucks. I grab a taxi and in just 5 minutes I am there-for 15 pesos. I find the address across the busy street where I have been dropped. It’s an wide opening off the street in a row of storefronts, leading to rows of shops on a couple different levels accessable by stairs. I walk around a bit and then pop into one of the shops-looks like it deals mainly in sexy sports clothes for men–an ask about he address. The attractive Argentinian tells me the place I want is upstairs on the next level in the back on the left with no sign, just the number. It was as he said. I rang the bell and a face soon appeared from behind the blinds. The place was tiny-about the size of a average bathroom back home. I asked for Martin-the young guy who opened the door stepped aside and a sleightly older one stepped out from the back room-also tiny space. With little language between us he knew what I needed when I showed him the message I got when turning the phone on. He took it and went to the back room while I waited on a small plastic stool in front near the door, leaning against the wall. It was almost an hour before he stepped out to show the chip and say “this is no good.” Then he made a call and I waited some more-all the while watching the younger guy skillfully working at his end of the back room on a makeshift desk made from hanging a board on the wall at desk height. He fixed maybe three phones while I watched–taking them apart and putting them back together again. Martin sent him out too while I waited so I don’t know if it was the boy working there or the delivery boy who brought my new Claro chip–What I thought was how skillful and clever this guy is–he’s found his niche and does it well–and I also wondered if the stacks of phones I was looking at were brought for fixing or were they stolen and reworked for resale? I’ll never know for sure but lad to have my phone working–and for just 2 bucks! (Vente-he said–which is 20 pesos–or about 2 dollars). Tomorrow I’ll give it a “test drive!”