Day 4: Buenos Aires, Palermo & Recoleta

The plan for the day was to go to the Recoleta and Palermo areas. We had my good friend Andrea as our tour guide this day as well. The first stop was the flower in the Plaza de las Nationes Unidas (UN Plaza). Our guide said that sculpture used to open up to the sun every morning and close down at night. It only stayed open on special nights, but apparently the mechanism is down and it is permanently open. 

 

We walked about 1 mile towards the famous Recoleta Cemetery. Normally I don't visit cemeteries as a tourist attraction, but this one is special. I heard about it before because Evita's grave is here. An urban cemetery is different to what I've seen before. The entrance to the cemetery is free.

 

Entrance to La Recoleta

 

Evita's Grave

Recoleta Cementery

 

Since it was Saturday there was a flea market on the streets. I got a few things to bring back including alfajores. Alfajor is a sugar cookie sandwich filled with dulce de leche. My favorite is just the basic cookie, but the most popular is covered in chocolate. We took a break at Plaza Francia and continued walking towards El Ateneo, a bookstore located on Santa Fe Street. We walked at least another mile, but we were distracted by the beauty of the Recoleta neighborhood and the shops on Santa Fe Street. The building used to be a theater, and it is the most beautiful bookstore that I've ever seen. We had a coffee break just to sit down where the stage used to be. I tried taking a picture inside, but I still don't know the settings to take a good indoor picture.

El Ateneo. Photo Credit: Wikipedia

After El Ateneo we were meeting our other friend for dinner. We were meeting at Plaza Serrano located in the Palermo Soho neighborhood. We took a taxi this time, we were exhausted from the previous day. The plaza is surrounded by restaurants and bars. If I go back to Buenos Aires I want to stay in Palermo Soho. There were so many trendy stores to see!!! I decided to stay on my budget and shop at the crafts fair. I bought MANY things including enough rings and earrings for me and my sisters. We walked looking for a place to have dinner distracted by the stores. We ended up walking over 10 blocks without even noticing. We had dinner at Forneria. I had the best pasta that I've had in my life!! Even better than in Italy! It was that good!!!! I had the "Penne rigatte con ave ahumada, espinacas, tomates asados al horno y crema" = penne with chicken, spinach, tomatoes and cream sauce.  The following day we had plans for another intense tourist day so we decided to go home. That pasta was the end of another perfect day in Buenos Aires.