For some unknown reason, we slept like babies last night, neither of us budged until I woke up around 6:00 AM. It was getting daylight outside, but just barely. I headed back to sleep until the sun was really up and it was a lot brighter outside at 8:00 AM when I decided to get up.
I went ahead and showered. Afterwards I woke up Stephanie so she could get ready and we could go to breakfast downstairs at the hotel breakfast buffet We did not want to go too late since it is a buffet, we were worried that they might not have as much nearer to the end of the breakfast serving at 10:00 AM.
It was about 8:45 AM when we arrived at the breakfast area on a floor called “M” on the elevator, There are four floors including the Lobby before the elevator gets to what is labeled as floor “1”. There were only a few other people at one of the tables when we arrived and sat down. There was a good selection of foods, some meats and cheeses, scrambled eggs and potato wedges, and lots of breads, rolls and sweet rolls. There was also a good selection of fruits.
The scrambled eggs were very runny, I guess they don’t want them to get dried out sitting over a burner to keep them warm. Neither of us like our eggs that runny, especially Stephanie who likes her eggs cooked hard no matter how they are fixed. These were very runny, almost watery, and not very warm.
Everything else was good. I had a pastry with a jelly filling on one side and cheese filling on the other, a yogurt and some fresh orange slices with my scrambled eggs and potato wedges. Stephanie had some fresh fruits, cheese and sliced meats, eggs and something that was similar to slices of carrot cake.
After breakfast, we went back to the room and got our gear packed for this mornings adventures out in Buenos Aires. I was going to take my DSLR Camera today, and we also took a bottle of water, something we really needed yesterday. Did I say it is hot and humid here, about 86 degrees in the afternoon. We packed everything into our backpack.
The Obelisco
Our plan for today was to visit the Obelisco, The Obelisco is a 57.5 meter tall obelisk constructed in 1936 to commemorate the fourth centenary of the foundation of Buenos Aires by Pedro de Mendoza. We did not go inside or to the top, we just took photos from the outside and enjoyed the area where it is located.
The Obelisco
Next, we decided to head back to the Catedral Metropolitana Buenos Aires to take some photos from the outside, which we did not do yesterday, and some better photos of the inside with the better camera. It was much more crowded inside today that it was yesterday afternoon when we visited. There were several tour groups both inside and outside when we headed inside. It was not terribly crowded, but more than yesterday, and photos were tougher to get without people in them.
Plaza de Mayo
One of the reasons we headed back there was that there is also a nice plaza across the street, Plaza de Mayo, as well as the Casa Rosada, which is the office of the President of Argentina, I guess it is similar to the US White House, but it is made of rose colored stone, hence the name Casa Rosada, or Red House. We do not know if there were any type of tours, but we were not planning to do one anyway.
We walked around the north side of the Casa Rosada and headed to the riverfront, which is the same area we will walk to tomorrow when we transition to the Hilton Hotel as part of the cruise package. It was quite a walk to the riverfront, but at least it was a little downhill. We crossed over one of the moveable bridges that span the river and saw the Hilton Hotel nearby. We were thinking about going there and acting like we were staying there because we needed to use a bathroom. I had forgotten that one of the places recommended to eat in this area was the Dandy Deli, which was located on the waterfront near to the Hilton.
Dandy Deli
It was noon, and we needed to eat anyway, so we just headed to the Dandy Deli, knowing they would have bathrooms inside to use. Once we got inside, we saw a sign indicating the Banos, or bathrooms, were upstairs. I headed upstairs while Stephanie waited downstairs for her turn. When I got upstairs, I saw that there was a keycode for entry to the bathroom, but luckily, there was a man upstairs waiting for someone in the women’s bathroom, and he punched in the keycode so I could enter the men’s room. We saw later that he worked there, possibly the manager.
There was someone going into the woman’s room when I got out and went back downstairs. I told Stephanie about the code, and that she just needed to wait for the person to leave and enter when the door was opened, which is what she did. I guess the code is how they control usage by patrons only. We have to admit, bathrooms are almost non-existent in Buenos Aires other then in bars and restaurants.
We got in line and ordered our food. Stephanie ordered a “classis hamburger”, and I got a chicken wrap. Both came with fries and a canned soft drink. Stephanie also ordered a draft Stella Beer. The food took a long time to cook, several orders came out ahead of ours, so I went to the person who looked like the manager earlier when I was upstairs at the bathroom and asked about our order, which apparently was almost ready. The food was OK, the hamburger was better then the chicken wrap. I did not know the wrap was toasted, which is why it took so long, and it was almost too toasted for my liking. In the end, the fries were the best part.
Waterfront Area
There were a lot of Americans around this area, I guess many are staying at the Hilton, maybe some are on our cruise and staying there ahead of time. We did look into staying there during our trip planning, but it was almost $600 to stay there for two night in a basic room. Plus, it is quite a long way from many of the sights and our hotel, while maybe not as nice, nor as expensive, is much closer to many areas we have visited, well within walking distance.
Stephanie at the Waterfront
After lunch, we took some photos of the waterfront area. It looked like many of what used to be warehouses have been converted to multi use properties, and there are many restaurants on the bottom floors. There is a newer pedestrian only bridge crossing the river, and apparently it swings or pivots to allow boats to pass by. We decide to skip crossing that bridge, it was in the opposite direction that we needed to go to get back to our hotel. We wanted to get some more water and wine and drop off those items before heading to stroll on Florida Street, one of the main streets for stores, and vendors selling items on the street.
We ended up walking past a skating arena, and Stephanie wanted to see if it was open for tours. We walked along two sides but did not see anywhere to get access to the inside, so we gave up on that idea and headed toward the hotel. We took the items we had out of the backpack as well as the camera gear and headed back downstairs to find the nearest grocery for some additional bottled water as well as a bottle or two of wine for later. We wanted to get the wine now so it could start to cool off in our very weak refrigerator while we went back out touring. We used Google Maps to locate the nearest Carrefour Express grocery, which was only about three blocks away. Had we known it was that close, we would have just gone there before coming back to the hotel and just taken everything back to the hotel in one trip, live and learn.
The store was quite small, but we did find one of the same bottles of wine that we purchased yesterday at a much larger store, which we still had a little bit of leftover in the fridge. Maybe after 24 hours it was finally starting to get cold. We picked up two bottles of wine, which is a Rose, as well as a large water. We paid in cash today since we had found out that our State Department Federal Credit Union Visa credit card that we normally use for all of our foreign travel, is NOT getting us a good exchange rate.
This is the story that I mentioned in yesterday’s post that I would cover today. This morning, just to check out what exchange rates we were getting with the State Department Federal Credit Union (SDFCU) Visa Card, I logged into their App on my phone. I was quite surprised that we were not getting the higher MEP rate, close to the Blue Money rate for the two charges we made yesterday with that card. I had already checked out the exchange rate on the Costco Citi Visa we used at the airport, and that exchange rate was 334 pesos to the US dollar.
When I looked at the two SDFCU charges from yesterday, I was shocked at the US dollar amounts shown. I knew the answer, but did some calculations anyway, and found we were only getting 187 pesos to the US dollar using that card, which is the “official” bank exchange rate.
So, our lunch that we though was only $15.00 using the MEP rate we got with Citi, really cost us $26.83 with the SDFCU Visa. OK, we won’t go broke, but that is a significant difference. We had one other grocery purchase with that card yesterday also, and the amount that should have been $8.50 was $15.10. It is not the amount, but the variance that is frustrating. We put the SDFCU Visa back into the safe and retrieved the Costco Citi Visa for my wallet.
Luckily, we are using our cash now anyway that we got from the “Cambio” exchange yesterday afternoon at a rate of 365 pesos to the dollar. It is just the best way to pay for things. Cambio is the spanish term for the money exchange and is what all of the money changers shout out on the street to attract people into their exchange stores.
Now back to today…….
Buildings on Florida Street
With our supplies back in the room, we left to go walk up Florida Street to the north to see how far it went. It was a nice stroll to the end, or at least where all of the stores and street vendors ended. All along the way you see, but mainly hear people, men and women, shouting “Cambio” for the money exchange. They are all out on the pedestrian only Florida Street, and there are lots of them. Supposedly If you stop at one of them, they will escort you into a nearby building to make the exchange. Maybe, or maybe not, the exchange rate on Florida Street is possibly slightly higher than we got yesterday, but so is the risk of getting fake bills. It would be interesting to see if you can ask them the exchange rate, but we were not sure they understood English, or would tell you even if they did. They are everywhere, and so are people trying to get you to go to a Tango Show, or sell you a leather jacket, or other items. Street solicitation for goods, shows and tours is ever present, but they are mostly polite and not pushy. Apparently, Tango Dinner Shows are one of the main things to go to here, but that is just not us.
We walked back south and then east on another pedestrian only street, just walking off our lunch and letting the housekeeping staff get to our room to clean it. It had not been done since we left this morning, and so we were hoping it would be done soon, we were getting leg weary and thirsty. We had not walked enough before this trip and it was showing, we just did not have time with all of the things going on before we left, as well as a lot of rainy weather.
At about 3:45 PM, we had had enough walking and headed back to the hotel. Luckily, our room was finally cleaned, and we were pleasantly surprised that housekeeping had left the key card we had left in the slot that controls power to the entire room to keep the air conditioning on. That also may help the fridge to cool down more than it did yesterday since it has now been running constantly for over 24 hours.
We rested and drank some much needed water when we got back. It is a double edged sword, drink enough water to stay hydrated, but need more bathrooms, that are non existent as public facilities. Maybe they are available in the underground metro, but we have not ventured down the stairs to see, knowing those are usually some of the dirtiest bathrooms available, not so bad for men with urinals, but not good for women at all having to use toilets.
La Estancia Restaurant
Stephanie napped a little while I got caught up with the blog for today. At about 6:45 PM we started to get ready for dinner. Tonight, we are going to La Estancia, an Argentinian grill. We had found it doing some Google research before we left for this trip. It was not near any really touristy areas, and not near the waterfront, where reviews for those types of restaurants were very mixed. This particular restaurant had great reviews and was well known to locals and tourists alike.
Fire Pir for Cooking – La Estancia
We headed to the restaurant about 7:15 PM, wanting to beat the crowds, which were known to be worst about 8:00 PM. It was about an eight block walk to the restaurant on the block just to the south of the hotel. We spent a little time looking at the menu before going in, just to see what they offered before we were seated. We headed inside and they told us just to select the table we wanted. The tables for two looked small, so we chose a table for four in the corner.
Inside La Estancia
We still needed a while to figure what we wanted to order, some of the mixed meat sharable meals had items on it we just did not want, liver, kidney, chitterlings. Then we looked at the wine list and it was A to Z in prices, and of course, included a lot of Malbecs from the region. We decided on another special that just included pork, ham (not cured) sausages and some beef, wrapped brisket and beef ribs. Fries were included and we ordered a Malbec, asking the waiter for his recommendation. We won’t say that the wine was half the cost of the meat, but we will.
Our Dinner and Wine
It did not take long to bring out the meal. All of the meats were on a platter on top of a metal container that had glowing coals in it to keep the meat hot. It sizzled the entire time we ate, and it really got hot at the table from the coals. There was also a giant plate of fries.
The wine was brought out right before the meat platter, and it was really good. We were not sure we exactly understood the price, we thought it was 5,000 pesos and change, but hoped we had not misunderstood and it was 15,000 pesos. There was a “cinco” somewhere in the price we were told by our waiter.
Hot Coals Inside Bottom Container
Everything was good, but all of the meat was really greasy, especially the pork, go figure. We just do not eat that much greasy meat. It had a great flavor, but we had to really work around all of the fat.
We were glad we had come, and I am sure it was a great place to eat, it was just too greasy for us. They did have separate meats to order, maybe we should have done that, but we wanted the real experience of an Argentinian grill. In the end, it was about 45 US dollars, including the bread and the water we ordered, as well as the meat and the wine. Sometime it is just hard to look at the peso pricing and not be a little shocked, but a calculator really helps to put it into perspective. We were impressed that the restaurant listed that they would give a very reasonable exchange rate if you paid in US dollars, it was just a few dollars les than what we paid with our Blue Money exchange rate.
The Obelisco At Night
After dinner, we headed over to see the Obelisco again, which was just a few blocks away, and well lit up at night. We got some nice photos. We wanted to go to Florida Street to see it lit up at night, and had to pass by there on the way back to the hotel anyway. It was not as impressive at night as we thought it would be, having seen the light strings overhead during the daytime.
We walked back to the hotel, and headed up to the room to relax and have some of our wine we purchased earlier today.
It had been a long but productive day, we walked about 18,300 steps today according to Stephanie’s phone. It is not as accurate as her Galaxy watch, but we did not want her to wear that out on the street, they are really popular, and we did not want to tempt anyone to take it.
At about 11:00 PM, we headed to bed having had a great second day in Buenos Aires!
To be continued………..