ARGENTINA #2 . . . Here in Buenos Aires, where Andrea, Sam and I will be spending our time through October, we're staying in a neighborhood called Recoleta, which has it's own Wikipedia entry--

Recoleta is a neighbourhood (barrio) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This typical "French architecture-style" district is known for its squares, parks, cafés, galleries and the Cementerio de la Recoleta (Recoleta Cemetery), one of Argentina's most important cemeteries. The neighborhood was named after the Convento de los Recoletos Descalzos (The Monastery of Barefoot Franciscan Recoleto Monks).

We're about a half block from the Recoleta Cemetery, where Eva Peron and other famous Argentinians are buried. Next to the cemetery a church called Basilica Nuestra Señora Del Pilar, the city's second-oldest church, founded by the Jesuits in 1732--really not very old! Here's a picture I took the other night--

More after the jump--

We're happy with our apartment, which was everything it was promised to be. Living in an apartment is unlike living in a hotel in that it practically guarantees you have to live like the locals--set up house, that is, which you can't do until you've searched out all the stores that are selling what you need, which in our case, means everything we couldn't pack in our five pieces of checked luggage. There are plenty of stores within walking distance, being that the city has 13 million people, most packed in apartment buildings that are above the shops on every street, but until you've walked around quite a bit, you don't know which stores are where, and what they're selling. We've done a few grocery stores (though the items and the brands they sell aren't comparable to the US--plastic bags and pepper have been hard to find, and peanut butter and the cheeses we like, impossible) and a few malls. After some hard work, things are up and running. Now we have a home base from which we can take longer trips outside of Buenos Aires, if we want. We probably will.

Some more photos--

Sam and Andrea outside of Recoleta Cemetery:

Sam on my shoulders in the park where we've been playing frisbee--

At the Buenos Aires zoo, scary Alice-in-Wonderland giant earless rabbit things, running loose--

 

Group shot in front of scary rabbit things--

More later, almost certainly . . .

Comments

[Federico]

Congratulations!
There are so many nice places to go. You can try going south to Rio Gallegos and take a look to our Perito Moreno Glaciar or up to the north to our falls Cataratas del Iguazú. Right now, I´m writing this from Mar del Plata because I´m traveling myself, a nice city near the Atlantic Ocean where I came to enjoy this long weekend and rest a bit.
If you want to blog about our judicial system, you can take a look to our main courthouse, a few blocks from your apartment at Recoleta. (Talcahuano 550, main building).
If you want some thoughts about the practice here, feel free to contact me.
Bests,

PS: I can see you take your family to Temaiken, that fabulous Zoo at Escobar.

[Evan]

Federico--Thanks for the comments and the suggestions!