We were so exhausted we slept like rocks for seven hours. The hotel is terrific. Our suite of rooms is spacious and clean, the king-size bed is comfortable; the bathroom is modern with plenty of hot water and great water pressure. Excellent location in the center of Recoleta.

Gaston was born in New Jersey but his parents are Argentinian, and he lives here now and was kind enough to provide us with his bilingual talents, translating between Daniel, his lovely wife Adriana, his son Martin (who is learning the crafts of violin-making) and ourselves.

We arrived at Daniel’s house and were given a tour of his shop as well as his impressive electric guitar collection. He is quite adept at capturing George Harrison’s nuances as he played perfect Harrison licks through a Vox (Beatles) amp. He kept teasing me (also a guitar player/collector) by bring out classics such as a Gretsch Chet Atkins Country Gentleman. But he bested himself when he showed me a guitar he himself crafted that is a replica of my own personal favorite guitar – a black Les Paul Custom. Since I own a 1972 black Les Paul Custom, I was anxious to get my fingers on it. My Les Paul is a joy to play, but his replica was like butter. Perfection. No matter how much I pleaded with him, he would not sell it to me, and I don’t blame him.

We put the guitars away, sadly, and Seth’s violin was brought to him. Truly a work of art by a master artisan, it came to life in the deft hands of the young maestro. For the next couple of hours we were treated to magic as Daniel and Adriana’s house was filled with the sonorous magic and beauty that only a virtuoso like Seth can evoke.

Afterwards, Daniel, Adriana, Martin and Gaston laid out a delicious lunch of savory sandwiches and we enjoyed an hour or so of interesting conversation ranging from music to politics.

All too soon it was time to say muchas gracias and bid our hospitable, gracious and talented host and his family a sad adios. Seth packed his beautiful new instrument into his case, we piled back into Daniel’s car and he kindly returned us to Seth’s hotel.

After safely securing the violin, Seth, Carol and I spent the next couple of hours wandering in and out of shops along busy Avenida Florida until Seth purchased a lovely leather messenger bag for his Mom and a compact leather wallet for his Dad.

The three of us took a cab at 5 pm to our hotel where we freshened up and then walked a few blocks to Sottovoce, an Italian restaurant suggested by a concierge at our hotel. We enjoyed a delicious dinner of pasta puttanesca, tagliatelle with mushrooms and a veal/pasta special while we revisited a truly magical, memorable day.

At 10 pm we wandered back to our hotel, sat in the lobby for a few minutes with Seth and then he took a cab back to the Sheraton.

Carol and I made it up to our fifth floor room and fell into bed reminiscing about a magical, musical day that we will not soon forget. We feel so fortunate to have been able to meet Daniel and his family and friend, Gaston, and to be present to watch as an assemblage of wood, glue, gut and varnish passed from the talented hands of its creator into the talented hands of the virtuoso who will use it to bring joy to countless people.

Next Day