On Thursday, we visited a part of town called Puerto Madero or "Wood Port." It used to be one of the original shipping yards, but it has been completely renovated in the last 20 years and is now home to sparkling high rises and modern office buildings.
The white suspension bridge here is called Puenta de la Mujer, or the Woman's Bridge. Couldn't tell you why it's called that, but it was pretty. Puerto Madero is an interesting little neighborhood because it is directly across the river from the Plaza de Mayo, so you have this very interesting dichotomy of old and new in one vantage point. We came to this neighborhood to visit a museum called the Museum of Imagination and Play, which was essentially a children's museum, which is a newer idea, in an older government mansion. The museum was on the smaller side, but it was a nice way to spend a morning. The one in Denver has it dead to rights though.
No afternoon in Buenos Aires is complete without a trip to a new playground. This one was near the Planetarium, so it was aptly shaped like a space ship and planets.
For dinner that night, I went out for Mexican with Lucia, the mom of the other family. Food prices in Argentina are higher than in Chile. Still not as high as they are in the States, but definitely higher than Chile. Much of this is due to the high inflation Argentina has been experiencing over the last few years. Argentina's inflation rate was at 134% in 2023 and 178% in 2024. Can you imagine that? Say a gallon of milk costs $2 one year, then it costs $4 the next year, then almost $8 the following year. The value of money becomes uncontrollable really quickly. In comparison, the US inflation rate in 2024 was 3%. So there certainly is extreme poverty in Argentina, but we were in neighborhoods where we couldn't see it. But this is one of the reasons our Argentinian friends moved to Chile. How can you afford anything with inflation like that? And the uncertainty of it all is hard to manage. Many of the restaurants we went to didn't have prices posted next to their products. They couldn't print the prices, because as soon as they did, they needed to raise the prices again to keep up with inflation, so the lovely menu they just printed instantly became obsolete. So no posted prices it is. Or else lots of stickers. When we went out for Mexican, it was the most expensive Mexican I've ever had, aside from Hong Kong I suppose. But the idea is the same. In countries far away from Mexico, Mexican food is considered rare and gourmet. In the U.S., it is not. But was it still delicious? Yes, of course it was.
Since Drew was solo dad-ing for dinner, he stopped by a gourmet sandwich shop down the street from our Airbnb. This gentleman has been hand slicing sandwich toppings for 40 years. Super tasty.
Friday was a rainy day, but that didn't stop us from doing some final sightseeing. Our first stop was the Congress Building, which honestly looked very familiar. We also saw the outside of Teatro Colon, which is a super famous theatre, as well as their Supreme Court Building. We wanted to also go see the Recoletta Cemetery which is where Evita is buried, but it cost $20/person to go in, so we skipped it. Maybe next time.
Lunch was a hole in the wall pizza place, which was super interesting. It was clearly an institution, one of those places where nothing has changed in 50 years. The pizza was amazing; we had a glazed pineapple and ham pizza. But some of the pizzas came with tomato sauce and some didn't. Our didn't, and it honestly didn't need it. But can't say I've ever had pizza with no sauce.
Our flight back home was Saturday night, but that didn't stop us from heading to ChoriFest Saturday afternoon to get our last Choripan fix. It was everything we hoped for and more. We tried 5 different variations of Choripan, and they were all delicious.
The icing on the Buenos Aires cake was getting to see a Military Practice Parade on our walk home. Our Airbnb was close to the Military School, and apparently every Saturday they do these parades for hours all throughout the neighborhood. Almost everyone is on horseback, even the band. Could you imagine playing your instrument while riding a horse? I think they do this so often for the horses to practice just as much as the riders. They do this parade so often that they don't close the streets, so cars were going right alongside the horses in the other lanes. Good practice, I suppose!
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