South of Palermo: Part I

I've been taking my antibiotics for 3 days now and I'm feeling much better already!  I was so relieved and so tired of being cooped up in the house that I just had to get us out into the world again, but I didn't want to stray too far just in case I felt ill.  I found the perfect area: South of Palermo.  South of Palermo consists of blue-collar, working-class neighborhoods, largely untouched by tourists.  This is sort of like the "real" BA, no frills and no fuss.  South of Palermo basically came into existence because Palermo was getting too expensive for some of the locals, so they decided to move a bit south.  There isn't a ton for tourists to do, but we managed to have lots of fun just the same!
We took a 15 minute cab ride to the Mercado de Abasto in the neighborhood of Abasto.  It's a recently remodeled, giant shopping mall.  It was originally built in 1895 and used as a large vegetable market.

Let's get our shop on!

This is no normal mall, people!  There is a full on, working ferris wheel!

and tons of cool stuff for kids, including this Neverland amusement park (yes, the name is a little unfortunate):

Humongous food court:

They even have a kosher McDonald's (along with a regular McDonald's)!  I've never seen that before!  Aaron's kryptonite is ice cream:

They have a movie theater and a stage area for concerts:

Even though it looked like a mall you might see back home (except for the Neverland Ranch and the ferris wheel), very few of the stores were familiar.  The ones that were familiar (Roxy, Nike, Adidas) had such exorbitantly priced merchandise I couldn't believe it!  I'm assuming it's expensive because it's imported and it's American and everyone loves American stuff.  Seriously, I know Roxy at the Roxy store is stupid expensive, but a plain Roxy sweater was $120!  I could get a cuter one at Ross for like $20.  My God, why?

Anyway, I took some pictures of the store names because I've never heard of them before (other than in BA, that is):

Cheeky had super creepy baby doll mannequins:

They gave me the heebie jeebies!

They even had some copycat stores.  Thie one reminded me of Hot Topic:

and Anthropologie:

They had a Crocs store (my worst nightmare):

We didn't end up buying anything because there's really nothing we can take with us.  Plus, at a mall like this, there's nothing we can't find back home.  We exited the mall and walked down a small street with statues of important musical figures.

Carlos Gardel was a famous tango singer and his house nearby has been turned into a museum for fans of his music.

From here, we walked about 20 blocks (yes, it was rough) to Cafe Las Violetas.  On the way, we passed an entire block of mannequin shops and warehouses.  OMG creepiest place I've ever been!

Every building on the block had something to do with making and or selling mannequins.  They were everywhere and there were no people in any of the shops.  I have a feeling those mannequins are up to something...hmm...

We also passed a Shell gas station and gas is CHEAP!

Super is about $1.43!  

I read about Cafe Las Violetas in my lonely Planet guide and just had to see it for myself.  It is known as one of the most beautiful (and historic) cafes in BA (and that's saying something, since there are hundreds and hundreds of cafes here).  It was built in 1884 and renovated in 2001 and was just as splendid as everything I'd read.

They have a little gift shop and chocolate pastry shop:

We sat and took it all in:

I ordered a small, black coffee, but it was more like an espresso and it came with cookies!

Yummy!  They had a large drink selection, but not much to offer in the way of food (mostly sandwiches and burgers), so we shared a chicken sandwich:

It wasn't the best thing ever, but it was decent.  The coffee was super strong and delish (and so were the cookies).

After replenishing our bodies, we were ready for our next stop: Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales (a natural science museum).  It's located on the border of Parque del Centenario, a large, rather plain field of grass with a fountain and some play structures in the middle.  We took a cab this time, and passed the Observatorio Astronomico (observatory) on the way:

We're here:

Let's check out the museo!  Keep in mind, there didn't seem to be any logical order to the museum, everything was kinda just jumbled together randomly.  Also keep in mind, that the lighting throughout was horrendous, so these pics might not be the best.  ALSO, keep in mind this is LONG!  I took a lot of pictures, so feel free to skip if you're not interested (it won't hurt my feelings).  Whew!  Okay, let's do this!

Fake dino fossils!  It reminded me of "Night At The Museum."  Pretty cool.

Sea creatures!

A room of shells and mollusks:

Some of these are huge!  IT's hard to believe they exist in nature.

Giant clam shell!

Man, the pearl that could've come from that sucker would be the size of my head!

Sea specimens in jars (which remind me of "The Island of Dr. Moreau."  For some reason, I imagine an evil scientist trying to make hybrid animals or Frankensteins.):

Another dino room (see, I told you there's no order, it's chaos!  Just go with it.):

Random sea creatures:

Stuffed seals, penguins and birds:

Pictures of old BA.  First up, the Mercado de Abasto (the mall we were just at):

Next up, the building of one of the dikes (we saw this too at Puerto Madero):

Finally, the building of a Subte line.

Back to skeletons (the randomness is making my head hurt):

A bear:

An elephant:

This almost looked real, like he was about to get up and fuse a hippo with a camel or something (I realize I'm projecting my irrational fears onto a statue).

I guess he was the museum director at one time.

Then we found some stairs and I thought what better way to take pictures with a giant dino skeleton?

Can you see Aaron way in the back?

Room of old instruments and tools:

The bug room!  We saw most of these at La Paz Waterfall Gardens in Costa Rica, but it's always equally fun and sickening to see giant bugs.

These are flesh-eating camel spiders.  Aaron was very impressed by these.  I wanted to cry just thinking about them.

Random crabs in the bug exhibit:

Stuffed bird exhibit:

There were buttons you could press to hear what each one sounded like.  Aaron made a rap beat with them that was pretty funny, I should have recorded it.

I know this is a weird place to stop, but I ran out of room, so I have to start a new post.  Go to Part II!