Retiro and The Center

Today we started our expedition to the other neighborhoods of Buenos Aires (we live in Palermo, in the north-west):

We went to Retiro (pronounced re-tee-ro) and The Center (in the center of the map, duh).  I found this great self-guided walking tour in my Lonely Planet guide, and we followed it to the letter (except the few times we got lost).

It took us through both neighborhoods, hitting all the major sights along the way.  Let's go!!

We decided the best (meaning cheapest and fastest) way to get there was the Subte (subway).  We bought sube cards and put $5 each on them because a ride on the Subte is about $0.50.  Plaza Italia is the station near our house (about a 3 minute walk from our front door...I'm gonna have to do a lot better than this if I'm gonna walk off all the cheese I've been eating).

You scan your card to get through the turnstile.

It looked like most other subway stations I've seen, but it had some interesting wall art:

We rode the Line D (the green line at the top) for about 20 minutes:

This subway was different in that it was so stuffy and hot!  Most undergrounds are cold, but this one was as stuffy as the entire country of Costa Rica!  It makes me wonder what they're hiding down there.  I watch way too many stupid movies where creatures live in the subway, I was half expecting to see Ninja Turtles or some slimy villain (Men In Black, Spiderman, take your pick) crawl out and eat us all.  I'm really convinced something radioactive is going on down there.

We tried to transfer to Line C (the blue line going up and down), but made a mistake and got off on the wrong stop.  We had to walk about 20 minutes to get to our starting point.  Oh well, we needed the exercise.

We finally made it to Retiro.  It is a beautiful neighborhood, filled with historic buildings:

We walked to Plaza San Martin (our starting point):

This is the statue of General Jose San Martin:

We saw two different mansions.  This is Palacio San Martin:

It looked like heaven!  I don't think anyone lives there, it's used for mostly official purposes and I think they give tours (we didn't go inside).

We also saw Palacio Paz:

Palacio Paz is the biggest, most grand mansion in all of Buenos Aires.  It was once owned by Jose Camilo Paz, founder of the newspaper La Prensa.  All the materials for the house were shipped from France and it's supposed to be very decadent and opulent.  We wanted a tour, but they only do English tours on certain days, so we were unable to tour the house, which I so wanted to do!  We will try to come back another day.

Then we went around the corner and into the Museo de Armas (Museum of Arms).  I picked this museum mostly for Aaron, I thought he would dig it.  Here's the outside:

The lobby:

We paid $8 each to get in, and we walked around for over an hour, just looking at different weapons from long ago.  It was a pretty impressive collection and Aaron loved it!  I took a bunch of pictures (since most of the weapons were behind glass, many of the pictures have my face in them, sorry).

a sword with a gun attached!

Bayonets (ALL my weapons knowledge comes from Aaron, I have NO idea what I'm talking about):

Canes with pointy swords in them (believe it or not, some of the swords we saw weren't pointy! OUCH!):

This one had a gun in it!

Guns:

Bazooka:

This Savage Quality Brand is crazy racist!

The videos I took are terrible and Aaron's talking to his Go-Pro in the background, so I apologize.

Tour of the gun room.

Weirdest looking guns ever:

Onto cannons:

Tour of the cannon room.

They had an Asian room and these guys creeped me out big time!

Gas mask for a horse:

Bullets:

Cannons:

OMG it was the most extensive museum on weaponry I've ever heard of!  I'm the furthest from a weapons expert (I've never fired a gun, wielded a sword or shot a cannon) and I have to say that each looked so intimidating and painful I couldn't believe the weight of it all.  I can't imagine the sheer pain of getting shot, stabbed or blown up.  It all just seems so awful and pointless, war is just plain shit, if you ask me.  There's gotta be a better way, right?  Sorry to get all political, let's move on!

We left the Museo and walked to Calle Florida (Florida Street), which is a popular tourist street because there are tons of shops and street performers.  There are all tons of annoying locals trying to hawk their tours, wares and money (exchanging U.S. dollars for pesos) and since I was with a walking with the whitest white guy in the whole of Buenos Aires (like neon sign above his head that says "WHITE!!"), every one of them was on us like flies on shit.  So annoying!  

The beginning of Calle Florida:

This store had sculptures and figurines made of semi-precious stones and they were beautiful (and expensive).  The pink stone is called Rhodochrosite, AKA Inca Rose and is indigenous to Argentina:

These are jade:

Amazing!  I wanted a tiny turtle in Rhodochrosite and it was over $100!  I just couldn't bring myself to do it.  I'm not really a knick-knacky person, I don't collect figurines or anything decorative that doesn't serve a purpose (especially since I have dogs that will eat ANYTHING I leave out).

Our next stop was a mall called Galerias Pacifico:

It's supposed to be stunning on the inside.  You can be the judge:

They had this amazing Sistine Chapel ceiling that was just stunning.  Nicest mall I've ever been to!

We kept on walking along Calle Florida and saw this statue street performer:

She was so still, it was hard to tell if she was real!

We walked along Av Corrientes, which is known as the home of the theater district.  

After a few blocks, we got to the Obelisco, a giant landmark in the middle of Av 9 de Julio (the widest street in the world with a whopping 16 lanes!):

I tried to capture the length of the Av 9 de Julio, but it was impossible:

It's impossible to cross the entire street in one shot, so there's a tiny park in the middle (I guess if you get tired in between?).  

After the longest crosswalk on Earth (seriously, I'm not exaggerating this time), we walked to Teatro Colon, a gorgeous opera house. 

We couldn't get a tour there either because they ran out of room in the English tour!  Lame!  We plan on going back for the tour at some point, hopefully.

By now, we were starving!  We saw a really cute cafe that we were walking towards and then across the street we saw a hole-in-the-wall, dingy BBQ place filled with stinky men and we knew it was a hidden gem!

They had chimichurri, but it didn't even compare to Don Julio's:

However, they had this cilantro, garlic, onion, olive oil sauce that was to die for:

Chorizo appetizer:

Yummy, but salty.  I ordered cuadril (rump steak):

Best $8 steak I could ever have in life!  OMG it was good!  Aaron got chicken:

He absolutely loved it.  This place was legit!

Then Aaron got ice cream:

He got banana dulce de leche:

Then we went back to Calle Florida and shopped for souvenirs.  Pope Francis is from Buenos Aires, so his face is all over:

Mate cups made of hooves:

The old guy in the middle is Jorge Luis Borges (the street we live on is named after him):

Calle Florida:

A "mall:"

Each brown sign is a different store.  The stores are tiny rooms with stuff crammed in and hardly any room to move.  I guess it gets the job done at half the rent, but it was weird!  Never been in a shopping center like that before.

Street band 1:

Street band 2:

These guys were awesome!  He was playing the buckets, luggage cart and some symbols on the ground!  I even took a video.  Man, they were really going for it!  It reminded me of the movie Whiplash, just because he was so sweaty and drumming his heart out (if you haven't seen it, it's amazing!).

This guy was standing like a statue looking like his clothes were blowing away, even though there was no breeze whatsoever:

Strange and kinda funny.

Just thought these buildings were cool:

Weird statue (the one on the left has me perplexed.  I'm sure it's something innocent, but it looks way too grody to make any sense).

We ran into a couple with a random marionette show:

It doesn't get weirder than this.

This guy was engraving metal mate cups by hand:

These flowers were made of wood:

We walked until we got to Plaza de Mayo, the main attraction and the last stop on our tour (thank GOD, my feet hurt!).  Plaza de Mayo is surrounded by important landmarks and the plaza itself is a big, historic park: the site of numerous historically political events.  Let's start by looking at the buildings surrounding the plaza.  I think this is the Cabildo, a random historical museum:

Here it is later that night:

I don't know what these are, but they were purdee:

and at night:

The Banco de la Nacion is an architectural dream on the inside, but we didn't go inside (sorry):

In the plaza, there was a protest going on!  There are many protests that go on in the square, it's the site of many political rallies and marches:

The cops were on standby:

On one side of the plaza is the main attraction: Casa Rosada.

The pink color is said to have been caused by painting with bovine blood, which was common practice back in the day.  Unfortunately, they're doing some construction, so pardon the scaffolding.

That balcony is where many leaders have made speeches, including Eva Peron AKA Evita (and Madonna, for that matter).  The current president's office is here as well.

  

Believe it or not, this is the back of the building, so we walked around front, but it was gated off, so I tried to snap pictures through the gates:

The wave building at the bottom is the Mueso de Bicentenario, an underground museum dictating Argentina's political history.  Just our luck, it was closed, so we'll have to come back.

Across from Casa Rosada is Piramide de Mayo, made to mark the first anniversary of Buenos Aires' independence from Spain.

It says May 25, 1810 at the bottom.

Here's the garden in front of the Piramide de Mayo:

It was dark at this point and we were tired, so we decided to head back to the subte station, but not before I took one last video.  Once we found our station, we found a cafe/bar nearby and sat for a drink before heading into the sauna of a subway.

Then we went back home.  Long eventful day!  We can't wait to explore the other neighborhoods.  Each is unique and steeped in history.  As Aaron would say, "My dogs are barking!"  Time to put 'em up and relax!

P.S.  Just wanted to wish Aaron's dad, Tim, a very Happy Birthday!  Hope you had a great day!  Wish we could be there!