At a push you can see all of Buenos Aires in about 3 days. We had 3 weeks... 3 tango dancing, steak eating, spanish speaking weeks. We spent our weekends in the various barrios and street markets. We spent our weekdays seeing the other sights.
We watched the Superbowl at the one American sports bar in the city and I felt at home surrounded by my compatriates. I hadn't been around this many Americans since I was last in the US of A.
We tried Mate, a hot, tea like drink that every Argentinan is addicted to. You fill a gourd type cup (a mate) with yerba leaves (like tea leaves) and pour a little bit of hot water into the cup. Then you sip the drink through a metal straw (a bombilla). Once you've drunk the liquid, you refill the cup with hot water and drink again. This process is repeated until you run our of hot water. This is a drink that you're meant to share with friends and family. Pass the mate on the left hand side...
We saw a large metal flower in a park. It opens in the morning and closes at night. The first time we saw it, it was closed but still an impressive sight. Before we left we managed to get up early enough to see it open and it was worth it.
We walked through Japanese gardens and ended up at a horse track. There we found a horse who wanted to be a tango dancer instead of a race horse...poor thing.
We went to the Evita museum and learned about the life of Eva Peron. It's interesting to see but as our rough guide pointed out, it's a one sided account. Because the muesum was created by an organazied that loved her, the biography was positve.But as we learned while in Argentina, many people have no love for her, still to this day...
We also went to the Casa Rosada, the presidents house. This is where Evita gave her famous speeches to the thousands in the Plaza de Mayo square below.
Rich learned to speak spanish well enough to order bisteak and una copa de vino tinto and I topped up my spanish speaking abilites enough to stay one step ahead of Rich.
Buenos Aires is a great city, but now its time to head back to Brazil. Carnival awaits....
