Buenos Aires on foot

Cute dog watching the traffic from balcony

After a fairly good night's sleep for one of us, while the other struggled with the street sounds of a Saturday night in Buenos Aires which our fourth floor window did little to abate, we arose for a fairly late breakfast.

However we made up for the late start with a fairly full day of exploring the city on foot. First stop (of course) was the famous Antique Markets which stretches out over a number of blocks. We also explored the redeveloped dock area and had a quick look at the "Rose Palace", from the balcony of which Eva Peron gave one of her famous speeches. We stumbled across an Italian Cultural Festival shortly afterwards which fortuitously has some very nice pasta vending stalls in operation.

Continuing our ramblings we had a look at The Obelisk en route to the "Hippy Markets" which are located near the Recoleta Cemetery. The latter are like no cemetery I have ever seen with elaborate mausoleums wall to wall. As the guide book suggested, you only had to follow the crowd for a short time to find your way to the memorial to Eva Peron.

Couple dancing at the markets

With our explorer legs not yet spent we walked on to the Japanese Gardens, with enough time to explore before they closed at 6:00pm. However with only so much we could expect of our jet lagged legs on day one we opted against a lengthy walk back to our lodgings and walked to a metro station instead. The metro was a little crowded given it was now Sunday evening, but since it cost about 25 cents each for 12 stops back to our hostel we weren't worry. A nice meal at a nearby restaurant, followed by viewing of an impromptu drum and dance group who samba-ed by, and we were done for day one.