Buenos Aires Part III

We started our Sunday with a trip to the San Telmo market.  We had heard it was worth stopping by, but we couldn't believe the size of it in reality.  There were a large number of booths in the plaza, but the sellers extended down the road in either direction for blocks and blocks and blocks.  The streets had more original work being sold,while the inner plaza resembled an odd sort of flea market, with each person selling their collectables.  None of us found anything worth buying, but it was interesting to walk around a bit.

Emma and Bobby scoping out some art on the streets of San Telmo

Here is just one example of the old collectables we saw...records and record players.  They were blasting out music as we walked by!

We also wandered into a warehouse type building that had even more sellers to browse.  Javier and I checked out a fruit stand to see if we found some familiar items from Ecuador, but were surprised at how different the options were.

Emma wanted to hit up some museums and we thought we were due for a bit of culture so we walked from the market to MACBA, a contemporary art museum.  It was pretty small and had an interesting design.  I thought some of the pieces were thought provoking, but others I simply didn't understand.

I thought this one was cool...it was called 'A Week' or 'Week's Schedule' or something like that...

us....getting cultured

MACBA was so small, so we also popped in next door to the Museum of Modern Art.  We gave Emma a bit of a hard time about nerding out in the museums, but we saw some interesting exhibits and it was nice to get out of the sun for a bit.

Javier....getting cultured

The Buenos Aires soccer team, Boca Juniors, had their first game of the season Sunday afternoon.  We looked into getting tickets, but they were ridiculously expensive.  (We even asked our airbnb host if he could help us out and he couldn't find cheaper options either).  But we decided it would be fun to walk around the stadium pregame and maybe find a bar to slip into to watch.

As we walked towards the stadium we started seeing fans decked out in their Boca Junios' blue and yellow!!

Here we are outside of the stadium.  There were tons of fans milling around...mostly playing pick up soccer games of their own actually.  There were also a ton of police officers (we assume because of the rowdy reputation of Argentine fans).  Emma and I also noticed that there were not a lot of women around.  It was a bit surprising, since we think of sporting events as couples events if not family affairs....just different I guess.

We were so close to La Boca that we decided to walk through and check out the neighborhood at a slightly slower pace.  (Have you guys noticed that Emma and Javier are sporting their Boca Juniors attire yet?)

These boys...

The brightly painted buildings really do set this harbor neighborhood apart from the rest of the city.

That night we went to dinner and drinks right in our Palermo neighborhood: dinner at Social Paraiso and drinks at the first spot we saw with an outdoor table.  Buenos Aires was an AMAZING city, but it was 100% hanging out with these friends that made this trip the best.  I never wanted to end our evenings cause we were having too much fun catching up.

Drinking beers out of wine glasses.

my friend :)

On our last day we decided to join a free walking tour to hear some history and see some city sights up close.  We started in Plaza del Congreso.  It was easily one of our hottest days, so we spent much of the tour trying to stand in the shade.  But our guide was incredibly energetic and informed.  I would totally suggest taking the tour if you're interested in learning a bit about the history of the city.

Emma and I in front of the Congress building.

The tour walked us down Avenida de Mayo where our guide pointed out this building.  This is the Palacio Barolo 'designed with the cosmology of Dante's Divine Comedy.'  The basement and bottom floor are supposed to represent hell, the middle floors purgatory and floors 15-22 heaven.  It was the tallest building in South America for a while and now operates mostly as office space.  It was certainly eye catching!

This is the famous Cafe Tortoni.  It is one of the oldest coffee shops in Buenos Aires and still operates with the wait staff in old attire and traditional decor inside.  This was the wait just to get in on the Sunday that we walked by.

Here we are at Casa Rosada or the Presidents house.

This is Javier and I outside of the Catedral Metropolitana.  It certainly doesn't look like a traditional Cathedral from the outside.  It looks more like it belongs on the streets of ancient Rome.  Outside there is an eternal flame that is supposed to remind the Argentine people of the struggles they went through to gain their independence (just over my left shoulder).

Inside the Cathedral, General Jose de San Martin is buried and guarded.  He was the Argentine leader of the independence movement against the Spanish in southern South America (with Simon Bolivar leading the movement from the north).

In the afternoon we headed to a big park to do some people watching and drink this wine.  I'll blame it on the plastic bottles we were drinking it out of...but the wine was not delicious so we packed up early to head home and rest before our big dinner out.

I had not bought any souvenirs so Javier and I ran out to a little market in Palermo for me to buy a fun glass bowl to remember Buenos Aires by.  Then we stopped in a little cafe to try two traditional Argentine drinks: the submarino.  It's basically a hot chocolate, but they heat up the milk and give you a full stick of chocolate to stir into it.  FUN!

...and mate te.  This wasn't the traditional way to drink mate, but we got an idea of the flavor....mostly I thought it tasted like herbal tea.

For our last night together, we had a big dinner at La Cabrera planned!  There is much debate about where you can get the best steak in Buenos Aires (because you can get steak everywhere) but the debate almost always includes La Cabrera.  It's so popular that they've actually opened up two locations on neighboring blocks to accommodate their reservations.

The Filars....all dressed up and ready for steak.

Cabezas anxiously awaiting our juicy steaks!

we started with some traditional empanadas, but were encouraged by our waiter not to order too much....he assured us that the steaks and their accompaniments would be plenty of food.

and boy was he right....these are our four ordered steaks and a million little ramekins of sides.  The steaks were SO good!  And we all ate to the point of discomfort.

After dinner we walked to a speakeasy that Javier had found online.  We knew there would be an unmarked door, so finding it was a bit difficult, but after a minor attack by some wild dogs, we were able to find Frank's.  After knocking on the door and providing the correct password, we all crammed into a phone booth and dialed the number as we were directed.  One wall of the booth opened to reveal a swanky bar lined with tables and sofas.  We sat down on a sofa and ordered some fancy drinks.

here are our fancy drinks

round 1 was a huge success 

we branched out a bit on round 2...each trying some fun options that Frank's provided

I believe there had to be some drink trading for round 2...

Either way, the atmosphere made Frank's a must-do on anyone's list for Buenos Aires.  It was such a fun way to spend our last night out when we were all dressed up and out on the town.

It was too hard to say goodbye, so we ended up visiting a few more bars before turning in for our 5:30am taxi pick up.  It was a late night for such an early morning, but worth it to spend those last precious hours with the Filars!  All in all, it was a fabulous trip and so good to see such dearly missed friends!