Buenos Freaking Aires

Okay, it's Tuesday and we have assumed from Whitney's radio silence that she has fallen back into the Deloitte abyss and cannot find her way out. And honestly, if there is one thing we have on our hands it's time so we might as well try and entertain you (and ourselves.) So I am going to do a quick rundown of our week in Buenos Aires and then Whitney, if you can hear me, feel free to add your post as well. Matt is very excited to blog about the ginormous steaks he had in BA, so in the mean time...

March 23/24

We finally arrived and checked into the hostel in the middle of the microcenter in BA. It's a great location and central to all of the neighborhoods we wanted to explore. Since it had been approximately 24 hours since out last meal we walked to a great parilla in San Telmo where they grill up every kind of meat imaginable. (See picture of meat grilling and man with meat cleaver.) The food was awesome and a fantastic start to the week.

The next morning we woke up early and went on a free walking tour of the city center that the hostel had. We saw the Obelisco which was really close to where we were staying and Plaza del Mayo where all the demonstrations take place. This is also where once a week, every week, mothers come and march to remember those who "disappeared" during the Dirty War. It also happened to be the anniversary of the day (they call it Memory Day) so later that afternoon we saw a crazy parade/demonstration all over the city and in the plaza. Right behind that area is the infamous Pink House which you might remember from Evita and all her glory. We saw the balcony where she gave her speeches and we all joined hands and sang a rousing rendition of "Don't Cry for me Argentina." Matt loved it. Becuase it was Memory Day everyone was on holiday and we randomly got a tour of the Pink House by the guards who guard it.

After exploring the microcenter we headed to San Telmo which is known for it's shopping and being the big antiques neighborhood. Since I had some girl power on my side I exploited it and Whitney and I did some browsing while Matt waited outside every store. After San Telmo we went to the newish neighborhood of Puerto Madero which is on the water on the way home. We saw the bridge and the ship that has been around the world 89 times. (Or some large number like that) On the way back to the microcenter we ran into the crazy parade I mentioned above. Whitney has a video and will hopefully post it here:

We had been walking for approximately eight hours so we called it a day and had some delicious empanadas (empanyadas as Whitney liked to call them) and went to see Slumdog Millionaire so as to get out of the heat for a bit.