Puerto Madero & Barrio Norte (May 2, 2006)

This morning we tried to get on the go a bit earlier, but still only managed to leave the apartment by 11:30 to go with Roger to his new apartment that he’s renting for the next five months. It was a really nice place with a huge patio that gets lots of sun. He’s very excited, mostly because it includes a cleaning lady who comes to do his laundry and clean the place once a week, television, internet access, all utilities – and only costs US $460 per month. Since he’s traveling with British pounds, that’s next to nothing for him.

We went back to Adam’s apartment to meet up with Adam, who had managed to rearrange his classes to get the afternoon off work (Adam is an English teacher for a few companies in the city). We bought out tickets to Iguazu Falls – 125 pesos for a 17-hour bus ride. The buses are really nice though, and the seats recline almost fully. They also have two floors, and we reserved the seats on the top floor right at the front, which Adam recommended because the views are the best.

Next we had a bite to eat at the pizza place again and took the bus to Puerto Madero, which is the old dock area of the city that has been completely refurbished in recent years. The place is now a hip hangout with several expensive hotels and restaurants lining the water. We walked around the area, then headed to Plaza San Martin and Barrio Norte, which had some gorgeous old colonial buildings. We ate some helado (ice cream), walked around the park, and petted some of the dogs in the dog corral. Dogs are very popular pets here, and therefore there are also lots of dog walkers who you often see walking around the city with multiple dogs on a leash (minimum six, sometimes more than ten). Many of the parks have fenced off dog corrals, where the dog walkers can let the dogs run around and play with the other dogs. Being a dog lover, it was very amusing to watch.

We continued walking along Avenida Arroyo, which is a very posh street with fancy hotels that we dreamed about staying in. We are looking for a hotel to stay in on Friday night for our anniversary, but I doubt it will be as fancy as those places. We walked all the way back to Adam’s house, and then split up. Andrea and I went to the Intenet café (Andrea was excited because she just found out this afternoon that she got the job she had hoped for, so she wanted to send an email out to everyone, and I wanted to upload some pictures to the site). The guys went to the grocery store to get stuff for dinner. Adam cooked up a big BBQ full of yummy food, and we ate around 10:00 .

To see pictures of Puerto Madero & Barrio Norte, click here