BA day 1 – 30 hrs travel; lost seat assign; exit row briefed in Spanish. Struck out with models. Struck in with trains, planes,and automobiles. Seeing Puerto Madero – fancy, lots of joggers/rollerbladers; statue of Juan Fangio (full circle!). Spanish coming back. Great señora and hotel tiana. Fantastic dinner with Argentinian beef and malbec.
BA day 2 – dripping everywhere. Learning to look up. Small obelisk; big obelisk. Getting ticket to the game. Validation by the guidebook – found the #1 green space on our own Plaza Rodriguez Peña. Incognita, Haf (Welsh), and Teresa.
BA day 3 – Staying an extra day at Taina, National Library of Argentina (comrade), giant flower sculpture that opens and closes with daylight, museum of fine art – the mystery of caravaggios duplicate painting, Natl Auto Club mini museum, lost my friends and picture takers : (, a nice long nap, dinner- beef and wine, bar el federal
BA day 4 – Leaving Taina : (, taking their key with me as an accidental souvenir… then wandering back across the city to give it back, settling in palermo, night out – completely struck out with 4 porteños, then found some English speaking intl students and their Spanish teacher
BA day 5 – run. Andando por Palermo Soho. Found a little photo/drawing souvenir – immediately felt like I had accomplished my touristing. Traveling alone makes me uncomfortable- good thing? The window is closing: new friends, larger groups, or not going. For dinner, sushi with wine
BA day 6 – Palermo Hollywood, watching the area slowly wake up and become more lively – at 1130am. Wandering with no obligations. Corner cafés – muy tranquilos. Touristy stuff – postales, etc. are much harder to find than you would believe! Same girl from the airport out at a cafe near the Evita building – still buried in her phone
Subway – 50¢ per trip!
Argentinian skyline in Puerto Madero
Walking the riverside in Puerto Madero. Check out the jacaranda!
Can’t escape F1! Halfway across the world after the race, and I find the bronze statue of Juan Miguel Fangio – 5-time Formula One Champion from Argentina.
Iconic pedestrian bridge in Puerto Madero. The bridge swings open to allow ships to pass
Getting artistical with the bridge and the moon
Reflecting on our time in Puerto Madero
Ad featuring Ha Long Bay, Vietnam. Déjà vu!
What Argentina is known for – steak and malbec!
First hotel in San Telmo – Hotel Tiana. Shout out to Susana – the wonderful owner
Jacaranda
Aftermath of el paro (labor strike) the day I arrived. Paint balloons, anyone?
Hopscotch logo in the mall. First jump is tough unless you have 3 feet, but if you make it to the end, it’s cielo (heaven)
Playing with reflections in the walking mall
Can’t escape Seattle either, apparently
The Washington Monument… errr Argentinian obelisk
Caela volunteered to have the obelisk growing out of her head
Well composed, if I do say so myself. : )
Apparently you can friend all of the plazas in Buenos Aires
A delicious ham, shaved coconut, tomato, avocado, and pineapple sandwich, with peanut mayo. Only 37 pesos
Irish pub in BA. Note the tiny doors in the security gate – some stores decided that was all you need to open to let customers in and out
Hippopotamuses for Miss Ashley! (Ironically, just heard “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” while writing these captions)
Flower picture for my mommy
National Cemetery. Giant mausoleum for you and your family, anyone? Holds as many as 20 caskets…
Burial place of Evita, of no-crying-for-her fame
Arrrrrrrr!
Thought this was just a 9′ memorial to a man in his bathrobe. Turns out he’s not just the Argentinian Hugh Hefner, he’s also a boxer
If you don’t like the cheesesteak, may I recommend the tacos? Huh?!?
“Hey, nice car!” “Thanks, I just bought it from Tito Gonzalez!”
Painting on buildings is highly encouraged in BA – ranging from uninspired graffiti to your favorite hard-rock bands
Pre-gaming for the Argentina-Brazil soccer game! Gill on the left is Dutch, Heiko on the right is a German that I first met in Austin, TX the week before. Crazy small world!
Supporting the local fútbol team, Boca Juniors, while wearing my newly acquired Lionel Messi jersey
Credit to Caela and Sean for finding the pre-game tour. Pictured here with a Welsh girl named Haf (it means “summer”), an unnamed girl also from Seattle, and their hostel hostess in Argentina
The Argentina-Brazil superclásico. Only the JV team since all the stars were off playing in Europe, but amazing nonetheless
Argentina-Brazil superclásico
Opening kickoff – Argentina-Brazil superclásico
Argentinian soccer fans meets Dr. Suess
Riot police, just in case……
Argentina won 2-1 in the home-and-home series….
… but since Brazil won the 1st game, they had to go to penalty kicks to decide the winner. Spoiler alert: this Argentinian PK was a -little- bit high
Street art, en grande. This guy has more skill with a 10-foot paint roller than I do with a normal paintbrush
The National Library. Comrades.
Really cool flower sculpture in Recoleta that opens at sunup and closes at sundown
Where we’re going, we don’t need roads…
More F1 at the Argentinian Automobile Club museum. I tell ya, it’s all over the world! ha.
Repro that is more than meets the eye…
2nd hotel – Hotel Costa Rica in Palermo
View from the Hotel Costa Rica rooftop
Possibly sacrilegious, but we thought it kind of looked like Evita was eating a hamburger
Not just the answer for all your ghost haunting needs, he can also fix your car
Been there, saw that. ; )
Found one of two ex-pat bars in all of BA. Broncos eking out a victory over the Chiefs is a good way to end the trip
Comments
gerry says:
alan, thanks for the vaction from my everyday life. you must of see a lot of realy nice things. you got some neat pictures and you have some great memories.thanks for all the captions. hope you have a very merry christmas and a happy and heathy new year. gerry
alan, thanks for the vaction from my everyday life. you must of see a lot of realy nice things. you got some neat pictures and you have some great memories.thanks for all the captions. hope you have a very merry christmas and a happy and heathy new year. gerry