It's not all medialunas and dulce de leche, you know...

Alright, so it's mostly medialunas


We tried the national snack, empanadas, for lunch today

I liked the choclo (corn) ones best.
They were recommended by folk at the Grupo De Ingles, an English Conversation group in Baires. They also explained the plethora of flags - apparently June 21 is the flag's anniversary.

Which still doesn't explain the obsession with potplants. These are inside a tomb in Recoleta...


We leave our apartment today for a short trip to the snow. This is the building we've been staying in:

oddly enough this is not the swanky part of town.



This is.

Other significant Recoleta constructions

The magnificent, unfinished, crumbling Facultad de Ingenieria (Engineering Faculty - not sure which university). Guidebooks tell us the building was originally intended for the Law Faculty, but was never completed. Evidently engineers are not so fussy about appearances...or maybe they're more romantic than the stereotype suggests?


The spectacular, no doubt soon to be crumbling National Library


The tourist must-see gigantic mechanical flower sculpture which guidebooks also tell us shuts its petals at night. Ooo-er.


And the little known, ephemeral, but equally profound performance art installation: Torre de Helado, Av Callao, Recoleta, 2007.

Rest in what? Sorry, I can't hear you...

Last night, around midnight local time, Boca beat some Brazilian futbol team and won a cup.

Baires went nuts, Boca fans stormed the Obelisco, and horn tootin', flag wavin', fan-filled cars zoomed around the city until well after 3 in the the morning.

This morning it was sunny, so we returned to Recoleta Cemetary to rest our ears


and take photos


it's muy dramatico


even the resident cats assume tragic poses

Rainy Recoleta

Today we walked to Recoleta, planning to take photos in the cemetary, but it rained so we had sushi here instead.


We saw this removal van on the way.


Portenos are very patriotic


Even their umbrellas are in Argentine colours.

A theory to test

The more potplants and flags, the better a Baires confiteria or restaurant is.

Our favourite steakhouse, El Establo

(No steak pix. Yet...)

Yesterday's breakfast


which we had just around the corner


And today's lunch, the famed panqueques de dulce de leche


eaten just around the other corner, here at Medio y Medio


I saw this dogwalker at work out of the window at Medio's

Serious research

It took four days just to choose where to go dancing

including snack breaks for facturas (pastries)

I don't think they dance Tango here, but maybe they have Feldenkrais classes?

And I don't think I'll be buying any jewellery from this shop.

Baires Toorak

Portenos know how to spend money on infrastructure. An attitude Melbourne could benefit by adopting?
This was the Baires waterworks building. No, not administration offices. Inside are huge, empty tanks.

Breakfast in Baires is the same, no matter which barrio.

And everyone wears fur in winter. Even to breakfast in barrio Palermo.

Today was sunny and Dia del Papa - "Day of the Potato" aka Father's Day so the parks were full of strolling families.