Buenos Aires Day 2

My legs felt a lot better after I woke up.  I slept until 8am but finally got going around 9.  The breakfast at the hotel is impressive.  So much to eat, fresh fruit, croissants, cereal, pastries, etc. 

I had to hotel send a taxi to bring me to the area of San Telmo.  They have a big Sunday market that I wanted to check out. 

It felt like a big flea market with all of the little stands set up. There was a band and a couple doing the Tango right in the center of the plaza.  The couple dancing was kind of funny. They were a little older and over animated but it was fun to watch for a bit and I'm definitely not one to judge their technique.

I was just kind of roaming around the market and I was approached by a huge camera crew of some people on a travel show teaching foreigners how to tango. I didn't want to do it because they looked a little over the top but I did it anyway and they taught me a basic 8 step Tango.

I did only a little shopping and the relaxed in Starbucks for a while.  There were a lot of people coming to the area as the afternoon came. I decided to walk over to the Plaza de Mayo.  It's impossible not to be impressed with the grandeur of the Casa Rosada. The pink hued presidential palace is on one end of the Plaza and it's balcony was the site of Perón's speeches to his followers below. 

I went on a tour and met a nice Canadian couple.  It was nice to have someone to talk with for a while. I had been feeling like I hadn't spoken with anyone because they all speak spanish.  The tour brought us through some massive rooms and we were able to go out onto one of the balconies.  Not the one actually used by the president or Evita but rather the one Madonna used for the movie Evita.

Around the side of Casa Rosada is the Ministerio de Economía y Finanzas Públicas which still has chipped marble walls on the outside from where navy planes strafed the Casa Rosada in a 1955 coup attempt.

The tour had lasted an hour and then I walked with the Candian couple to Puerto Madero, right along the riverfront. There are a lot of trendy shops, bars and restaurants.  The pedestrian Puente de la Mujer bridge is a beautiful site.

I took the evening pretty easy because I have a 4 am wakeup call for my flight to Ushuaia in the morning.