Buenos Aires

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We arrived late evening Dec 28th. Not too late to walk across the street to a local Irish Bar with a live band. The following morning we were picked up by our travel host for a city tour. It was extremely hot. We enjoyed the day travelling around the city taking in many monuments and other city attractions.
What a busy city...boasting around 8 million plus another 4 or so outside the city limits. The large cemetary in San Telmo was very interesting. As we wandered through the buildings of tombs we couldn't help but feel strange to be looking in on the sacred resting place of those laid to rest.

We toured through a couple of artisan type markets...stopping of course to make some purchases. When we were in Ushuaia we learned of their social tea drinking called Matte. Dani and Darlene each purchased a drinking bowl (they referred to it as a pumpkin) which comes with a steel drinking straw. The tea leaves are put into the this cup and then topped up with hot water. This cup of tea is shared amongst friends. Dani is now hooked and has two cups....to my friend Juan - we will have to find more matte in Toronto!

At lunch time, we hooked up with our travel agent that put this trip together for us and enjoyed a 3 hour lunch along the water front. We had just enough time to return to our hotel to get ready for an evening of dinner and a tango show. The place was packed and the show was great. We had a full day at this point and could barely keep our eyes open by the end of the evening. We sat with a family of 7 that were vacationing from Columbia. Their english was great and the conversation was enjoyable. They told us we must visit their country...it's on the list.

The following day we headed out on another bus tour to a gaucho ranch. It was a huge ranch that bused in hundreds of people (a bit to commercial for us). We hung out with a couple from Costa Rica and had a great time. They put on a tango show and horse race and of course, another huge bbq'd meal. It was stifling hot! The waiters and waitresses really worked hard in this heat to serve hundreds of people.

Our time was far to short here and would need several more days to take in this city. The leather goods here are ample. Darlene picked up a few items but was disappointed that we didn't have more time to shop.

We are off on another flight tomorrow to Iguazu. The famous falls in the northern tip of Argentina which borders Brazil and Uruguay.

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Photos

Buenos Aries
Coming in for a landing over the city

Requiescant in Pace Cemetary
Resting place for Argentine old wealth "Rest in Peace"

Evita's Tomb
Famous resting place of Eva Parone

Buenos Aries Sunset
Captured from our hotel room

Slow Roasting on an open pit
Our lunch was to die for at the Gaucho Ranch