Day 3 Full Day exploring Buenos Aires

Slept in!

We started the day with a relaxing yummy healthy breakfast in the hotel, and planned our day. We walked back to the bus (stop 11) – the day was cloudy and storms were forecast.

Heidi had 'met' a Solo Female Travel blogger (online via an Antarctica Facebook group) https://thesanetravel.com/ who wrote - 12 things to do in Buenos Aires and so we chose to find the points that interested us - most of them.

We travelled back the same way as yesterday so that we could get off at stop 14 to see the Floralis Generica. We walked through Parque Thays to admire the sculptures – one of them being Torso Masculino by Fernando Botero. We were attacked by mosquitos so had to move quickly before we were carried away. The park was near the slums so we were able to see their colourful homes before continuing our way to explore the area around the Centro de Convenciones (which for some strange reason had Kangaroo Sculptures in front of it).

We crossed the main road over a beautiful colourful pedestrian bridge to explore the sculptures near the Museo Nacional de bellas artes.

When we got closer to the Giant Silver flower made from plane parts we realised it was damaged however still impressive.

We quickly headed for the cemetery having a short look in the market stalls, Centro Cultural Recoleta and Santeria Del Pilar on the way.

La Recoleta Cemetery was Grand. We searched for the pantheons of Maria Evita Duarte de Peron, Adolfo Bioy Casares, Luis Federico Leloir that were recommended and also followed signs for Domingo Faustino Sarmiento. On the way through the labyrinth we couldn’t stop taking photos of the intricate structures and stained glass windows we even found a ladies pantheon that was adorned with parts of her favourite car. We found the mausoleum of Liliana Crociati and later realised that this was written on The Sane Travel blog - "who died on her honeymoon in Austria in the 1970s. Her parents reconstructed her bedroom within her tomb, and at the entrance placed a bronze statue of Liliana in her wedding dress, with her beloved pet dog at her side.

The rain held off until towards the end when we headed back to catch the bus to complete the other side of the loop. On our way we found this man holding the tree branch. We also purchased water – this is a constant task that we are undertaking.

The line for the bus was long because of the rain. An empty bus came along but the commentary was not working – we decided to catch that once as the commentary was difficult to hear and to follow.

We stayed on the bus for the remaining time to return back to the hotel, again taking so many photos of this vibrant city, including the colourful La Boca, the Thinking Man, Evita on the Public Works Building and Women's bridge.

On returning to the hotel the ladies went ‘shopping’ in the Galerias Pacifico food court and ate expensive Salmon Teriyaki and saw someone drinking ‘Tea’ from a distinctive pot and metal straw – Heidi asked a couple about what they were drinking. We have since seen this drink everywhere and is a common tea drunk at home and carried to work school etc.

We returned to collect Bill and continue exploring. We had a hot walk to the El Ateneo – Theatre bookstore Grand Splendid. After exploring we had a welcome refreshment – yummy fresh juice recommended by the helpful waiter!

We treated ourselves to a Taxi ride back to dinner near the hotel. We chose well by eating at El Establo a popular local Restaurant. Bill ordered a medium beef eye – ‘while in Rome…a staple of Argentinian food, just steak arrived as his meal. Mum was looking for a cider and ordered Sidra and along came a whole bottle like Sparkling wine (Local Cider).

We were getting low on Pesos and asked at the hotel if we could convert some of our USD. They recommended that we head down Florida street and ask the spruikers as they had the best rates. Cambio! Cambio! We enjoyed the experience even though they tried to on-sell local wine!