March 13, 2016
With the bike prepped and ready to deliver to the shipper on Tuesday, I have a few days to relax, wash gear, pack everything, and see the sights.
This is a very lively city, with tons of sidewalk cafes and beautiful parks. Today I walked about six miles in one direction, then caught a cab home at the end of my tour.
From the apartment, I walked to Plaza Serrano, a small park surrounded by bistros and sidewalk bars and cafes. Being Saturday, the park was covered with arts and crafts vendors selling their wares, while others continued to assemble more booths for Sunday’s large event. I stopped at a nearby cafe for a couple of empanadas and a smoothie, then continued walking northeast.
The trees and plants here are beautiful. The front of this cafe was covered in an enormous bougainvillea.
Saw this nice Triumph parked on the sidewalk while walking along.
My route took me past the Buenos Aires Zoo. Beautiful place…I might even go back and pay to go in. But for free, from the sidewalk, I saw flamingoes, giraffes, and hippos. For a moment I couldn’t help but think about the expense of shipping to and from Africa, versus walking past the zoo here and seeing the same animals.
Yeah, I know….I’m going to Africa.
Past the zoo, I walked through several more large, shaded parks. In the corner of one, near Plaza Italia, is the Jardin Japones, or Japanese Garden.
I found my ultimate dream job: I want to be the guy that changes the date every day on this rock calendar at the Japanese Gardens in Buenos Aires. The most stress he could possibly experience is leap year.
Eventually I made my way to the Cementerio del Recoleta. This huge cemetery in the middle of Buenos Aires is absolutely incredible. Well worth the price of admission, which by the way is nothing. Nada. Free.
Cementerio del Recoleta. Feels like a small city of buildings.
Evita’s resting place.
Next up was Calle Defensa, a street in the San Telmo district that is lined with flea market vendors on Sundays. Probably a kilometer of them. With a few side streets joining in with vendors as well. It ends at Plaza de Mayo, which is also filled with vendors.
I ran into this guy with a Luckenbach Texas t-shirt.
Great street entertainment.
This guy was quite entertaining as well:
And great street food.
Reflections of the past
You can tour Buenos Aires in a stretch limo Citroen 2CV.
I saw this on the way back to the apartment. Not sure what it means…
Then back at the apartment, I was looking through a coffee table book on Banksy, the graffiti artist, and ran across this. Apparently there is quite a bit of copy-cat Banksy artwork in Buenos Aires. I’m guessing the overpass sign is one of them.
FANTASTIC! Can’t pick a favorite! How exciting for you to be there!
Sort of tolerable for a city. Thanks for the Triumph shot, no mine is not here yet.
Folks there seem to really hold the dead in high regard.
Very cool. That looks like a great place to stay a while. Odd that the graffiti was in English.
Awesome Citroen!
Luckenbach T-Shirt……….what are the odds on that?
So was that guy with the Luckenbach t-shirt from Texas?
Nope. I asked him if he was from around there, and he laughed and said no, but I never did find out where he was from.