A Day of Shopping

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As we left the apt, there was another 1959 Ford Falcon - we have seen so many that we have lost count. If FORD stands for Fix Or Repair Daily, then the people of Buenos Aires have had many years of FORD and they all still seem to be running. Anyway, we headed out for a big day of shopping, and there is no place like Avenida Florida to do this; it is one long shopping street where they don’t allow cars. As we passed the Pink Palace, there were a bunch of demonstrators camped out in their little plastic tents - I mean what a life, or should I say - get a life - a plastic tent full of bottled water, are they planning for a long stay??
As we moved down Avenida Florida I actually found a few things that I wanted to buy; oh well I guess that happens from time to time. Then we found a really big home store - wouldn’t want to be paying the rent on this place given its location. Spent a little time here, but no sales!!!
Further down the avenida there was a great looking Burger King - very fancy building for a Burger King, they just don’t make buildings like this anymore; this is Ana Diaz’ historical homestead; she helped found Buenos Aires. As you get further down the avenida there are more and more leather stores and more and more leather sales people on the street. I mean do I look like I am cold and I need a leather jacket? Then there was HARRODS. Looks like it has gone out of business. It must have been quite a store in its day.
Looking around on Avenida Florida it would seem that the local people have not been looking at what CBS/NBC/ABC have to say about recession, because there is no evidence of recession here in Buenos Aires; just look at the wall-to-wall shoppers on Avenida Florida. There are so many people here shopping that it is hard to move quickly down the street.
After a hard day of shopping we headed back to Puerto Madero for lunch. We passed Hooters. Yes Bill, they have a Hooters Restaurant in BA, and went on to a local restaurant called Tocororo; guess who makes the lunch decisions in our household?? For less than $9 they have a free before lunch drink, a 3-course meal, and a glass of wine. It is our experience that the US chain restaurants, mostly the fast food places, charge about the same as they do back home. The local restaurants are nowhere near as expensive as in the US, and in many cases the food is better - remember, this is the land of BEEF!!!!

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