Day 2 in Buenos Aires

---

Looks like the server is up and running again, so we’re able to get our pictures up. I’ll backtrack a little bit…we're about a day behind in blogging but will catch up soon.

Our first night here we went out to a restaurant in our neighborhood of Palermo - Casa Cruz. Trying to keep the same hours as the “Portenos” - Buenos Aires residents - we walked over around 9:30. We’ve come to find out this is the absolute earliest one should venture out to dinner here, and is actually a little on the early side. Casa Cruz was super trendy - as much so as something you’d find in LA - but it was pretty deserted, being a Sunday night, and since we’d apparently showed up for the early bird special. Regardless, it was so delicious. Had a couple glasses of Mumm’s champagne for $4/glass which started the meal off right. Prices here are the best J Afterwards we decided to stop at Plaza Serrano for a beer, which was hopping when we left at 2:00 AM… on a Sunday night. The plaza is really a big roundabout with a small park in the middle, and cafes all around with outdoor seating. Great people watching, and mostly locals abound - it’s become our new favorite place.

Monday we had a big day. It’s nice though because nothing gets started here until late morning, so you don’t feel guilty sleeping in. Breakfast at the hotel is free and you would not believe how much food they bring. Awesome pastries and croissants, which Argentina is known for. We hopped on the subway afterwards and headed to the Microcentre, which is the downtown area. We walked down Florida Avenue amongst a zillion business people and shoppers, in an area that reminded us more of New York than South America. It’s been really interesting to notice the ethnicity of the people here - most are white and look a lot like Americans, actually. Except there are no fat people.

Next we went over to Recoleta, which is like the Beverly Hills of BsAs. It was gorgeous, with all the nice international shops like Hermes, Louis Vuitton, etc. No bargains to be had there, unfortunately! We figured out all the imports are just as expensive as they are back home. One funny thing was that all over Recoleta, they had red carpets on the sidewalks, I guess to make it feel ultra swank.

One of the recurring themes of BsAs is the trees. The trees are absolutely amazing - in fact, I think that’s what makes this city so beautiful. Being here in the spring everything is so green and many of the trees have these purple blooms. Some of the best parks were in Recoleta - we walked through several parks for a while, then made it up to the Recoleta Cemetery, which is interestingly one of the biggest attractions in BsAs. It gorgeous -we got lots of great shots there including Eva Peron’s tomb-which was very hard to find since the cemetery was so huge.

We then went to lunch (at about 3:30 pm -trying to get on the locals schedule). We found our new favorite foods -empanadas. Wow. These need to get popular in the US.

We spent the rest of the afternoon shopping at a mall in Recoleta (found some great stuff), and in the trendy boutiques in our hood in Palermo Viejo. After shopping, we started a tradition that we’ll end every day - having a drink on the street at Plaza Serrano -love that place.
For dinner we went to the highly recommend Cabana las Lilas for a big steak dinner. Wow, now that’s what I call a steak. They gave us more food than 10 people could eat, so needless to say we were stuffed and called it a night after dinner (it was about 12:30am when we finished dinner). Long long day.

---

Photos

Palermo Viejo street
Love those trees

Comments

[Eileen]

Wow! Everything sound fabulous! Long day for me in South Bend. I'll write more later! love ya! Mom