Monday, January 14 – Buenos Aires

Today was another beautiful day for walking – partly cloudy with a high in the upper 70s. I ventured back to explore more of the city centre and also checked out the newer and more exclusive area by the waterfront called Puerto Madero.

The pictures below are from Plaza de Mayo in the city center. The plaza takes its name from the events of May 1810, which resulted in the first successful revolution in South America’s fight for independence from Spain.

Here are a couple pictures from the city centre in the vicinity of Plaza de Mayo…

The Puerto Madero Waterfront is a short walk from Plaza de Mayo. The ship in the picture is the Presidente Sarmiento. It was launched in 1897 as a training vessel for the Argentine Naval Academy. It is now a museum.

I also went on a tour of Teatro Colón today. It is a beautiful venue. I took a bunch of pictures, but they really don’t do it justice. I’ll post one though – this is an upper reception area and is of note because it was used for a dinner gathering at the G20 Summit held here at the end of last year.

OK, it’s meal time! As you can tell from my previous posts, and you’ll see here, I like frequenting little, out-of-the-way cafes. As opposed to the places in the tourist areas, they offer a nice local feel, good food, and reasonable prices (and have I mentioned that I’m cheap?!?).

So today I ordered the chicken risotto, totally ignorant of the fact that its similarity to the chicken with rice dish that I had a couple days ago would be uncanny! Doh! Oh well, it was very good, and as you’ll see, I received a surprise at the end of the meal!