It definitely didn’t feel like Christmas day today. We took a taxi from the hotel to the El Calafate airport to catch the flight back to Buenos Aires. For the remainder of the trip we arranged for an apartment rental in Palermo. The building looked like it had recently been renovated and the apartment was great. It was like actually living in the city instead of just visiting.

Outside our hotel, we saw this dog walker with 8 dogs. Some dog walkers have even more dogs than this. Everyone in Buenos Aires seems to have a dog and while they are at work they have the dog walker keep their dogs busy.

We took the subte to Plaza de Mayo and then walked to San Telmo down Defensa St. San Telmo is full of antique stores. We’ll be coming back to San Telmo on the weekend to check out the street fair and tango dancers. Today there were only a few vendors, but we found one who was making cool necklaces. On the way back to Plaza de Mayo we stopped for lunch at a place that ended up not being very good at all. It was busy but the sandwich was horrible. This was the only bad meal of the entire trip.

From the hotel in Palermo, it was just a short walk to Santa Fe street where the D Subte (subway) line heads downtown to Plaza de Mayo. The subway cost 70 pesos per ride – cheap and the trains were good and on-time. Only during the commute hours were the trains really crowded. The Casa Rosada (Pink House) is at one end of the plaza and is where Eva Peron (Evita) once appeared from one of the balconies. Today there were people there protesting some labor issues related to a casino.

On another side of the plaza is a cathedral. Inside was a young boy posing with the guards next to the tomb of a famous general.

We stopped into Cafe Tortoni for a coffee and a rest break. It’s a great old building and their coffee was good too. At night they also have a tango show that is supposed to be good.

Florida Street is jam-packed with people walking past blocks and blocks of shops. There are a mix of boutiques, leather stores, tourist stores, restaurants, and fancy malls. We found the Galleria Pacifico to have a lot of nice stores.

Since a lot of the places we were staying on the trip refused to take credit cards, we had brought lots of travelers checks along instead of cash. It turns out that travelers checks are nearly impossible to use. Very few places were willing to accept them. Even at Citibank changing travelers checks for cash was a lengthy process. The best scenario was just to take cash out of the Citibank ATM – no charge. Using other ATMs incurred a 10% fee.

After reaching the end of Florida Street, we found Plaza de San Martin and decided to continue walking on to the Recoleta Cemetery. Recoleta is a neighborhood filled with beautiful architecture and expensive shops. We toured the cemetery, including seeing the most famous spot – Evita Peron’s tomb. It was blazing hot in the cemetery and we were in desperate need of some water. Luckily there was a street vendor outside the cemetery. We could have walked back to the hotel, but decided to take a taxi instead. The price of a taxi is very reasonable and never seemed to amount to more than a few dollar.

For dinner, we went to Bar Uriarte, a restaurant someone had recommended. As the waiter brought us a bottle of wine, I looked around and noticed that all the locals that were there seemed to be drinking Coke. Some more investigation on this is required.

Today I started my trip to Argentina. First off was an 11 am flight from San Francisco to Chicago, and then a connecting flight on to Buenos Aires arriving at 11 am.

Total travel time… 29 hours.

We took a taxi to the Che Lulu hotel in Palermo. The room wasn’t ready yet, so we left our bags and walked around. First impression – this is a scary place. Run-down buildings with graffiti all over, dirty, abandoned streets. What did I get myself into?

We stopped at a corner shop and had some delicious ice cream. Checked in to hotel room. Wandered around some more. For dinner, we ate empanadas and pizza outside and watched the traffic. All the streets are one way streets and there are no stop signs. Somehow it all works out, usually with the driver with the most momentum leading the way through the intersection.