Buenos Aires, day 4

Monday: First, we went to La Boca to see a neighborhood of colorful houses called Caminito. It's a pretty big tourist attraction, so there are a bunch of vendors down (here there were a lot of paintings).

The houses are colorful because when there was a large immigration boom in Buenos Aires in the late 1800's a lot of Italians moved to this area, especially those from Genoa. They came from a city by a port, just as la Boca is along the coast of the Rio de la Plata as well. So they continued one of their traditions which was painting their houses with the left over paint from the shipyard. That's what makes the neighborhood so colorful. This town took it even further and they even started building entire homes out of materials from the shipyard!

Empenadas for lunch! Here is a true picture of what mine looked like :D Yumm! And the Pepsi from the glass bottle.

Ed & Julia

the t(h)eresas
Then we took a walk in the park, just playing around, posing with the statues~


And went to the Japanese garden (largest one outside of Japan!)

Then we headed down to the Rio de la Plata (finally!). You can see the city of Buenos Aires in the distance (right above my head). As a mentioned before it is the widest river or estuary (right where the river is about to meet the ocean) in the world - at least the part where the river meets Buenos Aires. Here's an image of it from wiki:

So even on a clear day you can't see uruguay, I think where Buenos Aires is, it's on the order of the width of lake erie (~ 40 miles wide)!

Then went for a little bit of shopping and dinner at Bar Milion (a resturant bar that was converted from a 3 story mansion). On our way to dinner we passed by the Obelisk, and took a moment to take some photos. What Ed will do for a good photo opportunity: (he had to lay/crouch on the ground in order to get the whole obelisk~)

Buenos Aires, day 3!

On Sunday we went to the San Telmo Flea Market, which is especially famous for the antiques that they sell there and the street performers that gather. I mostly took pictures of the street performers instead of the market itself.

There was some really fun tango dancing at the market, this is a snap shot from a video I took.

I especially liked listening to the tango bands that were out there. Here is one of them. The play very traditional tango music, but I think its the right size ensemble that sounds really good. There was also a cellist, but for some reason he was sitting sort of away from everyone else, so I could't get him in the photo.

And then there was also -- Ed tried to describe what he had read about - that one of the street performers at the market is a guy who pretends like he's in a hurricane. Let yourself imagine what that might be like for a moment....

And this is what we ran into:

the change poses whenever you give them any money. And sometimes just on a whim to get more laughs.

After walking around the square we went to a nearby cafe for a late lunch. Julia ordered Mate, a special kind of tea that Argentinians like to drink in the afternoon. You put the Mate (the green leaves in the cup to the right) into the silver cup with the silver straw and soak it with some hot water. Then add some sugar and drink it through the special straw which has a filter at the bottom so you don't drink any of the leaves. When we were at the cafe, people kept leaning over to our table to teach Julia how to drink and prepare the Mate. :D

For dinner we went to el Mirasol, a really good restaurant (steak again!). The food all got devoured before I had a chance to take a picture. But this is all of us at the restuarant by the time the desert came out.

After dinner we went to las Canitas (the new place to go in Buenos Aires, though it was not too bustling on Sunday night). First, we walked around and found a little park in the middle of the street and indulged our inner child. Teresa especially enjoyed riding on this swinging oil drum :P She got Annie to get on with her - looks like fun, right?

After that we went to a bar where we ordered a bottle of wine and also a pitcher with fruit and sugar - sort of a makeshift sangria. Can you see the fruit in the wine? It was delicious :D, but we had a little bit of trouble getting to all the fruit, hehe:

Buenos Aires, day 2

I'm a little behind on my posting, but I've got a few minutes now so i'll try to give some updates~ This was day 2 (Saturday).

The next morning I took a short walk around and then when everyone arrived, we had more empanadas for lunch! and then walked down to the recoleta cemetery.

Here's a picture of the cemetery. As I said before, no tombstones, just grandiose mausoleums. And also many stray cats, which was a bit eerie~

A picture of a musician performing in front of the cemetery courtyard.

At night we took a walk in the city, down Santa Fe Av. Teresa said it felt just like NYC. Here's us walking down the street. with Reese Witherspoon...

Here's something I saw in a store window. Future doctor!

At night walking down the 9 de Julio (the widest street in the world), I tried to snap a shot of the obelisk of Buenos Aires. You might barely be able to see it in the distance, but if not don't worry, I got some good shots of it today. Annie says it looks like I risk my life to get that picture!

For dinner, we went to this extremely fancy (probably too much so for us) restaurant for steak. Here's my huge skirt steak...

After dinner we went to Cafe Tortoni, the oldest cafe in the country. Founded in 1858 I believe. It used to be a big hot spot for famous tango dancers. Here are some pictures of the inside, and the last one is one of the outside. Ed and I shared a bottle of Malbec, a special wine of Argentina. Very good! A pretty light wine, and had a nice grape-y aftertaste. Yum!

A short update, on Sunday we went to the San Telmo Flea Market to see some crafts, antiques being sold as well as some cool street performers (traditional tango bands, tango dancers, and some other crazy stuff!). Went out to a really good restaurant (steak again!) and went out to a bar in Canitas (the new place to go in Buenos Aires, though it was not too bustling on Sunday night). On Monday (today) we went to La Boca to see a neighborhood of colorful houses, then grabbed lunch, went to the Japanese garden (largest one outside of Japan!) and to the Rio de la Plata (finally!) then went for a little bit of shopping and dinner at Bar Milion (a resturant bar that was converted from a 3 story mansion).

Okay, Buenos Noches!

Buenos Aires, day 1.5

More pictures - my afternoon/evening. I decided to go for a walk around the city. What I wanted to do was find a good view of the river: Rio de la Plata. I overheard someone on the plane say that it is the widest river in the world, and you can't even see to the other side. In the case of Buenos Aires, the part of the river the city is on is nearly part of the ocean. I wanted to try to watch the sunset over the river, but I don't think i took the right path. Either way, even though I didn't make it to the massive Rio de la Plata, I saw some pretty cool sights along the way!

I walked down one of the main streets in the northwestern part of the city (I was following the sun!) called Av. del Libertador on which there are a series of small parks, each with its own set of monuments and statues, all in an old European style. The city is really a mix of new and old architecture - though I mostly took pictures of the old today.Church in front of the Recoleta Cemetery. Not a statue; if you can't quite see, its a white cloth and a donation box in front. she was in front of the church.Requiescant In Pace: The entrance to the Recoleta Cemetery. I got to it just as they were closing. To announce the closing, they rang a huge bell right behind those gates. The cemetery itself is quite breathtaking-- no tombstones here, it's filled with some of the grandest mausoleums I've ever seen. I only had a chance to get a glimpse, but I'm sure we'll be going back - the cemetery is only a few blocks from where we're staying."Francia a la Argentina" or "France to Argentina" - made by a French artist for Argentina. At the lower part of the monument are four allegoric figures representing science, industry, agriculture and the arts. At the top, two female figures holding hands represent France and Argentina who are guided by the centerpiece - the angel representing glory.

A glimpse of one of the many parks along Av. del Libertador, and around the city.
El Museo Nacional de Arte Decorativo. I don't really know anything about the museum, but I thought it was a gorgeous building, so I snapped a shot as I walked past.Another statue/monument inside one of the parks. A welcome place for birds as well!
Monumento a la Carta Magna y a las Cuarto Regiones Argentinas - at the center of a roundabout in the city. I waited for the light to change to try to get a good shot of it as I crossed this main street.
A pond in the park. There are paddle boats (on the left)
The planiterium of Galileo! It's officially night time, and I didn't make it to el Rio, but I think I will try again tomorrow, most probably during the day. Maybe during a morning run?
I was pretty tired after my trek across the city, so I took a cab back to the apartment, then went to a restuarant called Cumana that's supposed to have pretty good native Argentinian food.

Dining alone in a foreign country - it was a bit of an unsettling experience, since I had a hard time communicating. First I had a hard time putting my name down on the reservation list - just telling the hostess that I wanted a table for one wasn't too much of a problem, but once she started to explain how long I would have to wait and related topics, I really had no idea what she was saying. My confused look prompted her to ask "en ingles?" to which I gratefully responded "si!" - and that is how I got my table :P. Then, when I tried to order, two servers came to me in succession - after I had ordered my meal from the first, the second came, and I was completely at a loss at how to explain to her that I had already ordered. I tried english to no avail. Instead she kept trying to get me to order my food. Finally, and then the first server came over and they cleared it up. Last mix up - I wanted to order one more empenada (one with pumpkin- I had just looked this word up in my dictionary since it was on the menu, so I think my pronouciation was very off). When trying to repeat my order, I ended up with TWO empenadas, of TWO different fillings! I don't even know the name of the surprise one, but it still was tasty!

mmm... my meal! I only pulled out my camera after I had already finished my meal, but I had a series of good empenadas, the best one had a mixture of pumpkin, sweet corn and cheese. My bottled water was all that was left, but this is what the empenadas looked like before I ate them (a picture i pulled off the web).

okay okay, off to bed! Tomorrow I most probably won't post so many pictures, since there will be other people around so I won't sit at the computer all the time. Buenos noches~

Buenos Aires, day 1

So I wanted to share some photos of my trip to Buenos Aires while I'm here.
Thinking about keeping a photo blog certainly motivated me to take more pictures than I normally would have. The trip getting here was long, but not as bad as I thought it would be. The 10 hour flight to Argentina was actually fairly pleasant, largely b/c the plane was pretty empty, so I got to spread out on two seats and (since i'm short) lay down to sleep. I got at least a solid 6 hours, almost as good as my own bed!

Here's my plane in Atlanta, about to take off to Argentina!














About 9 hours later.... I woke up in time for breakfast and a rising sun over Argentina. (those are clouds, not snow.) I think this might be my first time in the Southern Hemisphere. I think one of the things that I was most apprehensive about was being alone in this city without really knowing the language. It certainly was awkward at first. I tried to study a few phrases in preparation, but it's amazing how easily my mind blanked when i needed to say something. In any case, I made it around the city to take a few pictures of San Martin Plaza. I had some time to kill before checking into the hotel, so I sat around the plaza/park and read for a while. First I sat under the Torres Monument to eat some snacks, reorganize my luggage and watch a few little kids chase pigeons next to the tower. When I was looking at a map, I was approached by a young man who was wearing a green vest and worked for El Ministerio de Salud Argentina (ministry of health), who asked for a donation to support children with AIDS, and I decided why not? It was nice watching him help other tourists around the square- offering directions (as he did for me) and taking pictures for people in front of the equestrian monument. Here are a the monuments from the plaza:

Top: Monument of General Jose de San Martin; Below: Torres Monument
Now that I've finally made it to the very nice apartment, I think I'll take a leisurely walk around the city, (without my luggage!)
Adios!

Misc photos

Which i d/led from my new camera.
Just a few things around the apartment:Some flowers I bought for the apartment/myself from the farmer's market. It was really nice to have fresh flowers around. and just vibrant oranges in general.

Puck the pet chinchilla! we've had him for a few months now, but he hasn't really had any photo shoots yet. This is him hiding under one of our dining table chairs.