Vacacion de Argentina - El Dia de Tres

Day Three...January 1, 2009...can't believe 2009 is here already! Any holiday in Argentina is mellow...they already have siesta during the day, which I'm sure most people are familiar with. But when it comes to holidays, it is a ghost town. We were a bit hungover and got off to a late start on this day, but ventured out and about anyway. It was our third day in BA, so a mosey was mandatory.

Example of the ghost town...on most days this street is completely filled with cars and people, lots of hustle and bustle. But not on New Year's Day. This street was right near our B&B and is a main vein in the city.

We hopped on the Subte to go see some sights...this sign says January 1st.

Subte stop...can't remember which one. Real nice subte system though.

We ended up at Plaza de Mayo, a plaza we wanted to check out. It is known for these ladies that go there every Thursday to protest the disappearance of a bunch of kids back in the 80's or something. Don't know the details of all that, but this is some government building near the Plaza. There were a bunch of buildings with similar architecture in this area. Makes sense that is where the protests would go down...

This is the Banco de la Nacion Argentina...probably the main branch, or at least it appears that way. It was closed on New Year's Day.

We wanted to see the protest, and luckily they only protest on Thursdays...New Year's Day was on a Thursday, what luck! We were so out of it that we forgot it was Thursday and wondered what was going on as we arrived at the plaza...then realized it was the protest. Don't know what the banner says, but probably protesty.

Another building at the plaza...think this one was a hotel or something.

Here we are, Plaza de Mayo, New Year's Day...hangover and all.

We didn't party at this trash can for New Year's, but someone did. This was in Puerto Madero, which in our opinion sucks. Very (very) touristy (we've decided we are travelers, not tourists...there is a difference) and bad restaurants, etc, etc, etc... Was the only place to get a bite to eat though so we ended up at a crap cafe. It was also chilly out this day.

Puerto Madero has a bunch of dikes, with bridges that cross the dikes. On each side of the dikes are aforementioned crap restaurants and what-not. There was a really cool bridge that we crossed...it is the white thing in the background.

Example of crap restaurant. Asia de Cuba...Asian food, from Cuba, in Argentina. Sounds great!

After our crap experience in Puerto Madero we decided to head for home. We were staying in Palermo Viejo, which is easily the best neighborhood in the city. Tons of shopping, restaurants, bars, etc... This store had a pillow with a stressed out pug on it...figured the Fullers would dig this photo (and probably the pillow tambien!).

So it is January 14th and we just got around to posting January 1st...doesn't seem we'll get it all posted before the trip is over. We'll keep it flowing though...

Ciao!