Argentina: Day 4

Again we started our day by walking.  Our destination was Plaza de Mayo which is about 2.5 miles from our apartment. Since we were walking we got to see lots of things a long the way. We crossed 9 de Julio which  is the widest avenue in the world -- there are seven lanes in either direction plus there are bus lanes. There is no way I can take a picture of it so I thought it would be good to just provide the link to wikipedia.  It is quite massive and in order to cross it, it takes two light changes so you are generally waiting in the median for one light rotation. It's name is in honor of Argentina's Independence Day which is July 9, 1816.

On 9 de Julio is the Obelisk which was built for the centennial celebration of the city of Buenos Aires. They want this intersection to be the Times Square of BA. I did not realize that BA is a federal district capital similar to Washington DC. 

Our next stop was Plaza de Mayo. This square is the hub of political life in Argentina. Lots of protests happen here. One significant protest group is the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo which is a non-profit group that is searching for grandchildren of the children that were kidnapped or stolen during the 1970s and 1980s during the "Dirty War." This protest group goes to Plaza de Mayo every Thursday.  Casa Rosada is on the Plaza de Mayo and is the office of the President of Argentina. It is very pink!

One of the streets off Plaza de Mayo leads to the San Telmo Market which was our major destination for the day. It is a street fair on Sunday and seems to go on for miles. The streets are cobblestone so it is challenging to walk on and the items for sale vary from cheesy mugs with the Pope on it to nice leather goods to vintage posters and beautiful woven fabrics. It was pretty amazing to see. In addition it was a great place to people watch.

They also have some pretty amazing food at San Telmo and numerous food vendors. Nicola had been to this market before and wanted us to eat some of the items she had tasted and loved.

First we had fresh squeezed orange juice that was amazing and then Nicola and I got a choripan (chorizo sausage on bread) -- added to it was chimichurry sauce which was quite good! Katie on the other hand was holding out for a tasty empanada.

It was a long day of walking, shopping and eating! We found some really great items to purchase so it was a great success. We had very tired feet so we took a cab back to the apartment. Cabs are very inexpensive here -- the cost from San Telmo to our apartment was $5.00. According to my Fitbit, we walked 6.5 miles so I think I deserved it!

We decided to stay close to home and had dinner at a small pizza place, Cala Pizza which is just a 1/2 block for our apartment. The pizza was amazingly good. Soon after that it was time to go to bed.