Anderson South American Adventure Day 3 - "Don't Cry for me Argentina, but Your Sidewalks Really Suck." March 6, 2020

Anderson South American Adventure Day 3 - "Don't Cry for me Argentina, but Your Sidewalks Really Suck." We got a good night's sleep, which is bound to happen after not sleeping on the plane the night before. We ate breakfast and headed out to the sidewalk for our bus tour of Buenos Aires. We had a 9:00 am pick up and they were already out there at 8:53. Donna and Jim were also on a bus tour but they had an 8:50 pick up at their hotel. I looked on the bus, nope, they must be on a different tour which we did know was a possibility. They tell us that they have one more pick up and we start driving. Driving in Buenos Aires is kind of like combining the worst of Chicago, Boston and Detroit into one city with narrow streets. I still maintain that Rome is worse. Traffic laws appear to be mere suggestions. Motor bikes do whatever they like. Anyway we drive and drive and I lost count of the number of turns that we make and pull over. The guide decides that this is close enough to the next pick up and he will go get the people. Sure enough it is Donna and Jim and it is now 9:10. Yeah, they were a little nervous. Our first stop was Plaza de Mayo. This is between the Casa Rosada and the town hall. They have a changing of the guards every two hours. Our guide said that they really do not do anything but walk back and forth. Nearby is the cathedral where Pope Francis was bishop. There is still a mothers' march on the Plaza every Thursday at 3:30. It was started by the mothers demanding to know about their children who "disappeared" during the military dictatorship between 1977 and 2006. The white head scarf is to honor these mothers as does the monument. U2's song "Mothers of the Disappeared" is based on this. The Casa Rosada is where Madonna sang in the movie Evita. We then went to La Boca and walked on Caminito or little street. This was area where a lot of the Italian immigrants settled. They built their houses out of whatever building materials they could salvage so the houses were different colors. Clearly they did not have an HOA. We walked down to the river front where we discovered that the cobblestones had been painted different colors. I mentioned this to the guide when we got back on the bus and he said that must be new. There was a little art/craft show setting up and I saw a pair of earrings on our way through. I was still thinking about them when we came back. They were 250 pesos which is about $4.00. I am not sure what the metal is. I swear that he kept saying "alpaca" and told me that it is a blend of metals. Oh well, I like them. We stopped at the Recoleta Cemetery. When we entered we were greeted by a cat. Well, it was a cat and we did not have food so it ignored us. The entire cemetery is now a UNESCO site. This is where Eva Peron is entombed. It is fascinating to walk through and of course I did get pictures of Eva Peron's tomb. This was actually her father's family and they did not acknowledge her or her siblings until she became famous. Our guide told us that the mausoleum next to Eva Peron's was for sale recently. His grandmother wanted him to buy it for her so that she could spend all of eternity cursing at Eva. BTW he said that a mausoleum there goes for about as much as a two bedroom apartment in Hong Kong. Ouch. One of the largest mausoleums there is for Luis Frederico Leloir. He earned a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for separating lactose from milk. He also held a patent for inventing 1,000 Island Dressing. Wow, that is a trivia question. After this we left the bus tour and went to a cafe. I had a lovely lentil dish with three kinds of meat. I know that one was chorizo, not sure about the others and I did not ask. Donna was able to order in Spanish which came in handy because when I said that i wanted #15 he said "in Spanish." Rob just pointed to the menu and had a venison dish. The meat was tender. Off to MALBA Museo De Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires. I stopped to take a picture of a huge sculpture of a flower that is supposed to open and close with the sun but does not always work. HMB people, does this sound like our gates? I liked the art museum, nice to follow the movement of the art over the years and to see it evolve with the times. I saw the original self portrait of Frieda Kalo with her monkey. At this point we were all hot and tired and decided to put the yarn district off for another time. I should have gotten a picture of Rob and Jim doing their happy dance. We started back to our Airbnb, I was assured that it was "not that far." Actually he was correct we were back faster than I had thought that we would be. We had Coke Zero in the fridge and A/C. Both are amazing incentives. I did get a chance to take a picture of the only monument for Eva Peron. When we saw it on the bus tour I was on the wrong side of the bus. As we were walking along I hit and uneven section of the sidewalk and rolled my ankle. I was wearing sandals so my foot slipped rather than roll all of the way. Of course this is the ankle that I hurt 18 months ago. I did see that there was an ice pack in the freezer so that helped. I also tossed in an ankle brace at the last minute. We liked the empanadas last night so much we decided to have them again tonight, because how often can you eat real Argentinian empanadas? Rob decided that since my ankle was swollen and he walks a lot faster than I do he would go to pick up dinner and bring it back here to eat. As promised here are pictures, each kind had a different edge crimp. On the left is cheese and onion, center is ham & ricotta cheese, below that is beef and right is spinach and egg. They were very good and I am surprised that I took a picture before eating all of them.