Argentina is in the news again...

I think anyone who has read my blog since August realizes that I fell in LOVE with Buenos Aires. In fact, during a five minute brain break last night I looked at pictures of Argentina on my P.C. and I could feel the brisk air, the coffee on my lips, the sales on handbags, shoes, just about anything and the love (the Argentine people are very affectionate!). Much to my excitement, I saw an article about Argentina on Slate today and obviously had to read it. Well, all of those sales in Buenos Aires are not just because the shops are locally owned (but that plays a big role), it is also because the economy crashed a few years ago and they don't have all of the wrinkles worked out. Which, as a tourist is why you can stay at amazing hotels, eat at great restaurants, and shop so reasonable (after the air fair that is). Apparently it has also played a role in the revival of the Argentine cinema, which is winning many awards. Anyway, the article is talking about their money and that people are hording the coins and smaller notes (Farley and I both ended up with a few coins and paper pesos). I sure didn't realize that we had such a hot commodity when we begrudgingly left that wonderful country. Here is a picture of a 100 peso note, courtesy of Farley:

I feel an excuse to post another picture or two of Argentina!!

Oh, I love Argentina...

Finally, I'll finish my Argentine tale.....

On Sunday, Farley and I decided to go to Argentina's National Museum of Art. It wasn't as amazing as the National Gallery of Art in D.C., but it was still large and fun. There were Picasso, Monet, and even Rodin (a very famous scalper). We even saw Rodin's the kiss which was so much larger than I would have guessed. The lovers int he sculpture were life sized. WOW. We had a great time at the museum and saw some beautiful art, but couldn't take pictures in the museum. However, I have some pictures of the museum:
Here is handsome Farley on the roof of the museum:
Oh and one thing that I found very strange was the soap in the bathrooms. They had a bar of soap on this metal arm rather than liquid soap. When I first walked into the bathroom, I had no idea what it was. Farley said that the soap in the men's room was blue.

The museum is in the same area as the flower that we saw on the city tour. We went to that park and took a few more pictures of the flowers.
Tango is everywhere, here is an advertisement on the walk way into the park with the flower. The art museum is actually just across the street.

To get to the park from the art museum, you cross over this big walking only bridge. Here is a picture from the bridge looking toward the downtown area.

Going the opposite direction from the museum, there was another park with a weekend farmer's market and crafts fair. It was fun to go to these parks on a Sunday because there were so many locals out and about. It was a very busy day, in part because there had been a road race earlier in the morning. Here is a picture from the other area and some of the beautiful architecture:

After returning to the area around the hotel, we wandered around and ended up at another mall. I have no idea where it was but there was a beautiful ceiling with mirrors all around. Here is a great picture that Farley took:

Later Sunday night, we went to see "The Dark Night." I didn't really like it too much because it was too violent for my taste, but Farley loved it. I did enjoy the movie theater. It was tall and steep--Farley said it was like the theaters in NYC. We bought the tickets for the movie on one block then had to go down two blocks to get to the theater. They had four or five screens at three different locations down the block. I thought it had been two or three different theaters before we went to the movie. After the movie, we went to dinner and it was okay. It wasn't our best of the trip but it was still good.

On Monday, we decided to take it easy and enjoy the neighborhood. We both decided to do some Christmas shopping and I had to buy a purse....I just couldn't leave the great country of Argentina without buying a leather purse! We had such a great day. I don't have too many pictures of the day, but here are some pictures from dinner:

Here is handsome Farley in his new Argentine tie. I got to help him pick it out

Here I am:

This was Farley's favorite restaurant and part of the reason we returned was because we LOVED the wine we had there. In case you run into any Argentine wines, look out for this one. It was fantastic:

One last picture of the outside of the restaurant. The decor alone was one of the reasons we had to go to this place in the first place, but the food and wine made us come back:

We left about noon on Tuesday morning, despite wanting to say for another few weeks. We landed in San Juan late Tuesday night then did some shopping and shipped supplies back to the Dominica. We did NOT have a good experience in San Juan and couldn't wait to leave the island. I never been anywhere that the locals, as a group, have been so rude and mean. I'm sure that not everyone on this beautiful island was being accurately represented by the cohort we met, but geeze, I sure don't want to go on vacation there.

belated posts....

I promise that I will finish posting about Argentina very soon and that I will let you know how the second year of medical school is going. I'm up to my ears in pharmacology to memorize tonight.

Saturday--A City Tour and a few hundred pictures!

We started Saturday with a bang: A three hour tour of Buneos Aires. I wish I could remember all of the names of the buildings that we took pictures of. I will do my best to tell you what everything is.

They picked us up about 9:45 and we headed down toward the pier where all ton of tour buses met and they distributed people based upon what tour they signed up for. First we saw the English Tower. I can't remember the exact story, but apparently there is some irony about the location of this tower because of a battle between the Spanish and English or the English and Argentians or something. Anyway, I liked the tower.

We putted around a few more streets and ended up in a neighborhood of town (Recoleta is the area of town, I believe) and many of the museums as well as the Buneos Aires Law School were located there. The Law school (and I believe the undergraduate programs) were FREE of charge to locals and foreigners. Farley and I think we should learn medical Spanish and move to Argentina. Near the Art Museum and the Law School there is a giant flower. I'm not sure it's exact name, but it costs over three million to build and it open and closes at dawn and dusk as well as when the wind is too bad. I hear it lights up at night too. We went to the Art Museum on Sunday, so I have more pictures of this area to post when discussing that .

After leaving the little neighborhood, we ended up on Avenida 9 De Julio (Avenue of July 9th--their Independence Day). This is the BIG 14 lane wide avenue and it is where the Oblelisk is located (more pictures to come). On this street, not too far from our hotel, is the Colon Theater which is the third most influential and important theater/operas in the WORLD. Unlucky, it is in the middle of a major remodel and we didn't get to go on a tour of the theater nor did we get to go to an opera, symphony or ballet. Bummer for us! Here is the building:

After leaving this area, we went through the fancy-dancy areas. Many of the mansions that were build initially for the rich European immigrants. Now, they are designer stores. I love Burberry as much as the next purse shopper, but I couldn't get any good pictures from the bus. Sorry!!

Next we ended up at May Square (it had a different name, but it was for a political movement that occurred in May) and it is located right near the Casa Rosa (the Pink House) or the place where the Present does his work. It looked a bit like the White House, and it sounded like the equivalent of the White House, except that the President does not live in Casa Rosa. Rather he lives 10 Km away and FLYS via helicopter to the Casa Rosa every day. Here are some pictures of the square and Casa Rosa. Argentina has LOTS of statues so there are many in the area.

After finishing up at the Capital we moved to the Football stadium and the neighborhood (I don't remember the name of the area).

Above: Football Stadium. The colors of the team are obviously Blue and Yellow. They LOVE soccer!!

After finishing up at the soccer stadium, we headed toward the La Boca neighborhood. It is BRIGHT, COLORFUL and full of life. This is also where the tango dancer attacked Farley. In retrospect, I think it is funny; however, if I was grabbed by a tango dancer, who is older than my grandparents, I'd probably think it wasn't funny either. Every time I look at the picture, I laugh, but Farley hates it. There were beautiful younger tango dancers, but they weren't so aggressive and thus I don't have any pictures of either of us with them. Throughout this beautiful little neighborhood, there were artists, restaurants, sculptures, musicians, dancer and such. Here are some pictures.

After finishing up in La Boca, we headed back toward the pier then we were dropped off by the Galerias Pacifico. We decided to walk past the mall (in the opposite direction of the hotel) and headed toward a park. Buneos Aires was beautiful, in large part, because of so many little parks. Here are some pictures. First where the pedestrian street ends (you cross a street and your in the park)

We wandered around the pedestrians streets for the next few hours. We took a few more pictures on Avenida 9 De Julio---remember, this is the BIG 14 lane wide avenue and it is where the Oblelisk. The Oblelisk looks a lot like the Washington Monument (see it behind Farley's head in the first picture).

Later that night, about 10:30, we headed out for Steak dinner. It was pretty good. In fact, it was Farley's favorite. We had an amazing wine, which we tried to get shipped home for Christmas presents but we couldn't find a way to send any home without having to pay an enormous amount. We went back to the Oblelisk to take a few night shots of the street.

Above: look at all those headlights--that's just half the road!!!

A Friday in Buneos Aires

Friday morning, we went to brunch at another little cafe. We both order a sort of weird dish. It was turkey, ham, pineapple, peaches and cream. Well, it was exactly THAT on a plate. To my surprise, it was pretty yummy, but I don't think I'll order it again. Next, we decided to explore "the mall" known as the Galerias Pacifico, which was about three or four blocks from our hotel. Well, this was one heck of a mall!! It looks a lot like the Venetian in Las Vegas. Farley and I didn't like the shopping as much as the street level because the mall was much more commercialized--we LOVED the local merchants on the street!! However, the mall was beautiful. Above: The ceiling of the street level of the Galerias Pacifico.

Above: the ceiling of the basement. Doesn't it look like a church?

The fountain on the basement of the "mall."

We had such a great time!!! After exploring the mall, we walked around the streets looking into little mom and pop shops (on the search for shoes and handbags...oh and ties, can you guess who those were for??) I found the cutest little wedge, brown round toe shoes and I got a great bargain! I wasn't intending on buying shoes in Buneos Aires, but I had a pair of cheap brown heals for our introduction to clinical medicine (we have to dress up) and I wore them one day and managed to get enormous blisters and couldn't walk in them (or any other shoe) comfortably for over a week.

For our anniversary, Farley took me out to the most amazing evening of wine, food and tango! We heard from several locals that THE place to see a tango show is La Ventana. First, they picked us up at the hotel, then we had a great dinner. There were three courses. We both had excellent veggie soup, then Farley had steak and potatoes and I had pork chops and sweet potatoes and then we had dessert. I had the most amazing Flan--oh my, my mouth is watering just thinking about it and Farley had fruit cocktail. There was a live orchestra, a parade of dancers, several singers, a traditional Argentinan Band, a gaucho (who did a tap like dance and used these traditional balls on stings, used to hunt--sorry don't know the name of them). They even did a portion of Evita, the famous musical. Here are some of the many pictures.

Farley and I before dinner was served.

Above: The restaurant has their own wine and it was yummy!
Below: The ceiling was really pretty with the stained glass

Above: one of the amazing tango dancers, who looks a LOT like my mom.

Above: one of the singers performing from Evita.

Below: the dancers after the completion of the show.