Buenos Aires and time to Tango!!

Not for us, I'd need to buy special shoes, special dress etc etc! LOL!!!  But we sure hope to see others dance the tango 💃

We didn't make into Buenos Aires until Thursday late morning, a lot of driving from Ushuaia to here!  As we drive into the outskirts of the city after leaving the freeway we have a lot of people smiling and waving to us. Should be a nice city to stay in I think 😊  Of course the drive into the centre is busy busy!! It's been quite awhile since we've been in a city with approximately 14 million people!!! YIKES!!  Even see a cart pulled by a horse, just like we've seen in Honduras, a guy collecting metal etc. 

One of the places we stayed at near a creek on the way, had these huge eucalyptus trees that were hollow at the bottom and people had campfires in them. Think it was the fires that hollowed out the trees more!

But the trees are still growing

It was a nice quiet place for the night after a night of barking dogs the night before!

Yup think we are now in the Pampas area of Argentina!

Where there is smoke there will be an impromptu restaurant setup for the day on the corner. This was in the outskirts of BA, the guy was grilling up beef, chicken and sausages 😋

We eventually go back onto the tollway to get into downtown quicker because there is suppose to be an RV supply store we want to get to before it closes for the afternoon.  Once on the tollway it's 4 lanes wide each way and when we get to the first toll booth there are 17 LANES!! No lineup going into BA but there is going out and even with all those lanes, there is still a lineup. 

Toll booths

We go to where the RV store is suppose to be located, someone made a comment on IOverlander back in Jan 2020 that they were there, but we could not find it!  Nothing in the area. I tried to contact the own by phone and was able to get thru with text message, which is better since he doesn't speak English.  I told him we need our fridge fixed since only the freezer is working. I'm still waiting for an answer. Maybe he text me back tomorrow. 

We find a spot to park about 2 km from the main plaza. It's just 1pm so we have the afternoon to see some parts of BA today. We get to Plaza de Mayo which has Casa Rosada at one end - Pink House of the presidential offices only. This has the balcony that Juan and Evita Perón addressed the people in the late 1940's and early 1950's. It became a government house in 1882. There are lots of interesting buildings in this area.  Plaza de Mayo at one time was 2 different plazas with a building between that was eventually demolished and a large oval park was built. It's larger than most of the main central park we've seen so far. It also created many streets leading away from the park, making it interesting. 

Near where we are parked, lots of building going on

Lots of parks on the walk towards the centre

When crossing this street you really need to hustle because you have to cross 3 lanes for traffic, 2 lanes for buses, then another 2 lanes for traffic!

2 lanes of buses go up and down the centre of the main street

Casa Rosada

Plaza de Mayo 

Looking back at Casa Rosada across Plaza de Mayo with Píramide de Mayo in the centre bringing the 2 parks together - also being the centre where lots of demonstrations happen

Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral facing the plaza - with the columns. No bell towers. Completed in 1863. There is a dome but when we walked by this building I thought the church was behind this building so missed it in the picture. But we will be back there today because the interior is something to see

Then we walked up Florida Avenue which is a pedway only, so nice to be able to walk and look into the stores without having to worry about cars. Also no big potholes to step into 😊  We walk to Galerias Pacifico which is a shopping centre that opened in 1992 with 150 stores in a building that was built in 1891 and originally an office building.  Inside the main entrance are frescos on the ceiling, quite impressive.  The stores are all high end so we didn't stay long. We continued walking along the pedway then headed back to Vanna because we now walked 4kms and we still have to get back! 

Paintings on the ceiling in the Galerias Pacifico

Exterior of Galerias Pacifico

Another cool old building now used for retail on the main floor

Santa Catalina de Siena Church - 1745

Found these concrete recliners in the park for a rest :) 

HSBC tower

We walk back along the canal - known as Puerto Madero, that was built in 1897 to accommodate large ships that had to moor out in the river because it was shallow and prevented docking nearby so barges had to be used to unload the ships.  Once this new port was built it was used for only about 10 years before it became obsolete because the ships were getting bigger. So it was updated a few times but some areas became rundown. Then in the early 1990s the government started to revitalizing the area and changed the warehouses to upscale restaurants on the main floor and trendy offices and residential lofts on the 2nd and 3rd stories. The opposite side of the canal is built up with high-rises and also shops and restaurants on the main floor.  This is a really nice area to walk around.  Also very close to the old centre of BA.

Crossing Puerto Madero with the new buildings on the east 

Marina for mostly sailboats - you can still see the cranes that were used to off load ships when they use to come thru here

Parrots up in the ropes of an old ship permanently moored in the canal

More in the trees

This ship Frigate Presidente Sarmiento is now a museum

Walking bridge over the canal named Puenta de la Mujer (bridge of the woman) named that because lots of street on the newer side have women's names. It also turns on the middle pylon to allow large boats thru, as do all the bridges that cross this canal

By the time we get back we've walked 8.5kms! We stopped at the local grocery store on our way back to pick up few things for dinner.  We're both pretty beat!  It's a lot more humid here then we're use to but not so bad that we're sweating! Just right :) 

Tomorrow we'll head back into the old area and probably take a subway out a little further to check things out. Lots to see here!!