An easy overnight flight and here we are in Argentina!
We arrived at the hotel way too early to check in, but they had a place for us to shower and freshen up.
By the time we set out for the day it was only about 9:30 AM, which is apparently a bit early for a party-all-night city. Nevertheless, we popped into a few stores on the Calle Florida and checked out the cathedral in the Plaza de Mayo.
From there, we strolled over to Cafe Tortoni, apparently the oldest and most famous cafe in Buenos Aires, known for its literary past and beautiful interior. The atmosphere was a bit quieter than we were expecting, which could have been due to our 11 AM arrival. There was a handful of people there including one group of futbol fans that really stood out. One of them was painted green from head to toe and wearing nothing but a green t-shirt and green undies. Either this is the attire of the Argentinian super-fan or, more likely, he lost some kind of bet.
With a belly full of cafe con leche and mezzalunas (mini croissants), we moved on to find a tiny libreria (book shop) full of beautiful antique books.
After poking around there for a while, we decided to become the kind of tourists we usually make fun of: the type that rides around on a double decker tour bus. And to tell you the truth, it was great.
Here are some views:
The Congress Building:
Fruit Stand:
The Woman's Bridge--
meant to honor the women of Argentina, but the description sounded pretty sexist to me. Basically, the bridge is a curvy shape, like a woman, and the point coming up is supposed to represent man, keeping the women in their place, or something like that. Maybe I understood the description wrong!
Colorful Windows in La Boca, the Italian neighborhood:
A Welcome to La Boca mural:
The Obelisk that is meant to look like the Washington Monument:
This is a solar powered sculpture of a flower.
The petals open with the sun and close at dusk:
The bus was the perfect way to cover a lot of ground in a relatively short amount of time. We got a taste of a few different neighborhoods including La Boca, Monserrat, Puerto Madero, Retiro and Palermo before hopping off in Recoleta.
In Recoleta, we browsed the artist's market, where I bought this hand knit scarf because I dropped the one I brought from home in a puddle. Big suprise--it's black:
Then we explored the Recocleta Cemetary, where Eva Peron is buried:
And then on a hunt for an Empenada shop that had been recommended. After a 20 minute walk, it turned out it was closed, but there was another one down the street that was delicious and just what we needed to revive us for the walk back to the hotel.We ended up getting upgraded to the club level and the room was really nice--sleek design, like everything in Buenos Aires. The plate of snacks and bottle of Malbec waiting in the room didn't hurt either.
After a little siesta and a few episodes of Friday Night Lights with Spanish subtitles, we started to get ready for dinner. Due to a faulty hair dryer provided by the hotel, the power in our room went out twice--once while Jason was in the shower, so the maintenence guy had to keep coming in and out to turn it back on.
This actually worked out in our favor, because our dinner reservation was for 9 PM which was the only time available at the restaurant. I think 9 PM dinner in Buenos Aires is the equivalent of the early bird special in the US. Because of the electricity issue, the concierge was able to convince the restaurant to push our reservation back.
Dinner at Cabana Las Lilas was fantastic. So many people had recommended it, and it was the first listing in the guide book, so I was worried it wouldn't really live up to its reputation.
Even the concierge at the hotel was going on about how great it was.
This certainly isn't a hidden gem, but it was delicious. The interior is full of window views looking out to the water in Puerto Madera. We were surrounded by tables of other Americans and big tables of Argentinians celebrating special occasions.
We ordered a bottle of Malbec from Mendoza and the hors d'oeuvres started to arrive--tiny fresh baked rolls, flat bread, roasted eggplant, roasted red peppers, tomatoes, marinated calimari, cured ham, and a shot glass of some type of clear soup.
Its amazing we had any room for our steaks. We each had a filet mignon the size of a small canteloupe and they were delicious enough to make it worth watching the table of 6 Americans next to us take 100 pictures of themselves and their food.
And then of course, dessert: Flan with Dulce de Leche. There are no words. It was that good:
And then some limoncello to finish it off:
After a really good night's sleep, and a leisurely breakfast at the hotel, we headed down to San Telmo for the Sunday anitques market. I'd say we saw more junk than antiques, but the atmosphere was lively with vendors and street performers lining the cobblestone streets. And it was a sunny day--great for walking.
Also in San Telmo, we took a tour of El Zanjon de granados--a 175 year old mansion thought to be built on top of the first settlement of Buenos Aires. It is literally a cross section ofBuenos Aires history.
The mansion was built over a creek which was the original natural border for the city. The lower levels of the house contain artifacts from the earliest days of the city. During the typhoid epidemic, the creek was covered by a tunnel--which has now been restored. We got to walk through the tunnels, but the museum doesn't allow pictures--they want it to remain a mystery so that people will come see it for themselves.
Eventually the house was abandoned until an influx of Spanish and Italian immigrants (I don't remember what time period). The upper floors were used as a tenement, so the mansion was broken up into little rooms and packed with people. Although it is now restored to its original shape, you can still see remnants of tile from the tenement days.
From here we walked back to La Boca and had lunch at a little place called Il Matterello--a cozy and charming Italian place where we were the only people speaking English. They had the most delicate homemade pasta, which we of course had to follow with flan and dulce de leche.
Feeling full and a bit exhausted, we explored the gritty streets behind the Boca Jr. Futbol stadium and wound up on the edges of the Jewish section of town. We came across a beautiful synagogue, so we decided to peek inside:
And then back to the airport for the red eye back to Atlanta.
