Living in an apartment without internet is not easy, especially when you're emailing your CV all over town. For the first couple of days in our temporary apartment we'd try to rob our neighbor's unprotected wifi but his signal was too erratic to deal with, so instead we'd lug our computers out with us and sit in a park until one of us (me) couldn't stand the bugs anymore. Then we (I) decided that we had to suck it up and pay for a coffee to legitimately use someone's wifi without molestation. In the last ten days we've set up a rotation of cafes that we frequent based on the quality of their wifi signal. As a last resort we'll go to Cafe Martinez, the Starbucks of Argentina, but it's not open on Sundays and that's terribly annoying. The second choice is Nucha, but it's often busy and I had a very frustrating afternoon competing with everyone else to get any bandwidth. By far and away the number one cafe for internet out of our circuit is Chez Pauline. As an added bonus it's a 'maison de te' that makes its food with as much care as they prepare their tea. They make a mean croque madame and a tarte tatin with cream that makes your mouth tingle, amongst other delightful dulces y salados. It's not surprising that this place attracts all the French ex-pats in town, as well as the Americans, Brits and Argentines.
The girls who work there Mon-Fri are quiet experts in the field of tea and take their job seriously, carefully extricating the right tea from a wall of large tins. The floor is checkered black and white tile, the tables are marble topped and the posters are framed originals advertising the Folies-Bergere, Moulin Rouge, Peugeot and so on. The owner keeps a close eye on the place as he is always there, sitting with a rotating group of cronies in the corner table next to the window.
My only complaint is that the teapots they use don't pour well so inevitably some of your tea always ends up on the floor. But they make a pretty set.
Chez Pauline Maion de Te: Juncal 1695, Capital Federal
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