Day 9: Buenos Aires

Slept wonderfully in our king sized upgraded hotel room. Went to the gym to get the day started then hit the ground running. Our first goal was to find La Casa Rosada (The Pink House), famous for Argentinian presidents who would address the people in the plaza below from the balcony. The most well known figure is Eva Peron (Madonna played her in Evita). Eva was the first lady of Argentina from 1946-1952 who grew from poverty to be the presidents wife and was loved by the people for her work on labor rights and womens suffrage.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Per%C3%B3n



But before we got to La Casa Rosada we came across an art exhibit that is raising money for Unicef and promoting peace among different nations. The project had artists from nearly every country in the world (as many as those represented at the United Nations) to paint a bear. These bears now stand hand in hand around the Plaza San Martin in Buenos Aires. It was cool to see that artists participated from North Korea and Iran amongst all the others. Here are some pictures. Ilana is standing between the bear of her favorite country (Spain) and the one she was born in. Can you figure out which one is which?



Walking through the city of Buenos Aires we toured the sections of Retiro and Centro today. Amongst the sights, we crossed the largest boulevard in the world, literally. This thing is no joke. I counted 20 lanes of traffic across and it took two lights changes to cross the entire street. The picture doesn't even do it justice. It would be a good challenge for Rudy (sorry Aleks) to try to make it across on one light change. Pedestrians certainly don't have the right of way here so I suggest a helmet if you are going to attempt it.



To end the day we had dinner at Cabana Las Lilas which is rated one of the best parrillas (steak place) in Buenos Aires. To be honest we were a little disappointed having had much better in NYC but the atmosphere was excellent with the restaurant situation right along the marina while being seated outdoors on the terrace on a warm summer night.



If I may respond to some of the comments: Matt, I took a shower today but I'm keeping the goatee again. We'll see how long I can last this time. Barbara, Gus, thanks for the support (Matt sucks). Rudy, we are not divas, well ok, maybe we are. This bed is damn comfortable compared to the apartment we rented. Sandy, Jane, going to keep the goatee running until the weather gets to full on summer, or until Ilana tells me that she's had enough. :-) Nad, no squirrels here but we saw a flock of dirty pigeons that made Ilana nervous, some kid was feeding them corn and letting them sit on his hand, nasty.

Later

FJ