Buenos Aires at Night

Eager to explore the city on our first day, we headed out after a nice nap. The city is very much a large, urban city with crazy-busy streets (and even crazier drivers) every block. However, they have turned Florida Avenue into a pedestrian walkway. Numerous shops and restaurants line the corridor and make it easy to get across town without battling raging taxi drivers.

Our hotel was only a few blocks from Florida Avenue, and a few blocks down Florida, we discovered the Galeria Pacifico Mall. It was probably the most beautiful mall that I had ever been inside, including the lovely ceiling in the above photo.

We'd had a fairly late lunch, even by Portenos standards. Instead of a big dinner, we wandered into Acapulco Restaurant for snacks and a drink while getting out of a light rain shower. See my delicious strawberry daiquiri/martini, Argentina-style. It's funny because you almost feel bad eating at a Mexican/Italian/Japanese/etc restaurant while in Argentina, but you quickly realize that many of these restaurants are very authentic because they are settle by the numerous immigrants.

We kept walking until we reached 9 de Julio Avenue, the main boulevard in Buenos Aires and the wides street in the world which was named for (one of many) Argentina Independence Days. The cars were all lined up like racers, and our guide later told us that driving between the lines (instead of all over them) is a sign that you are drunk!

As we walked towards the Obelisk, we came up this intersection, where you could look down a road and along the avenue and see 3 separate McDonalds restaurants. They were literally every few hundred feet on some streets.

My hubby was quite excited to be in Buenos Aires, but I wasn't so excited about the light rain coming down on my camera!

What girl can resist the lure of a large phallic symbol?

On our last night in BA, we grabbed some excellent sushi at Morizono restaurant, which was a block away from our hotel. I've never been a huge sushi fan, but lately I find myself craving it more and more.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: I early voted this morning & now I'm off to the Obama rally! WHOOT WHOOT!!!!