Fortunately for us, the people of Argentina start slowly in the mornings (how can they not when they’re starting dinner when Rebecca’s usually mid-REM cycle?). We headed to Plaza Armenia to grab lunch. We opted for the one restaurant that wasn’t sponsored by a major beer company (Heinekin, Budweiser, Miller). “I’m going to go light this meal,” Matt said. “Or maybe I’ll have a ribeye.” We decided to split the gnocchi and a salad. We ran into our first glitch of the trip at the end of the meal when we realized we couldn’t tip on our credit card and we had no pesos on us yet. Mass confusion ensued when we started asking waiters where the nearest bank was. You’d think we were asking what the price of gold was in China. We took off for the nearest Avenida (major road) to find an ATM and promised our waiter we’d be back with his tip – he didn’t seem convinced. Matt, suddenly empowered by his ability to speak Spanish (or, excited that his rapid hand motions used while talking seemed to translate), walked into a grocery store and very loudly said, “Donde esta un banco?” A young man looked back at him and said “Broken English I have.” We decided to push onward and not lose hope. Finally, the clouds parted and the angel choir sang out when we spotted it – un banco. Immaturity ensued when we took out 500 pesos and waved them all around only to later discover it was about $128. About 15 blocks later we were back at the restaurant and our waiter was so surprised to see us.

Next we meandered over to Plaza Cortazar and checked out the shops and stopped for a beer at Cronico - a solid dive bar with no less than four soccer matches on various TVs.

Afterward we headed to the zoo and botanical gardens near Plaza Italia. We stopped into a museum devoted to the life of Evita. Using restraint, we fought the urge to sing ‘Don’t cry for me Argentina…,’ but we did manage to leave her a love note in the guest book (see below).

We crossed  the largest avenue in the world (our exaggeration), but seriously Avenida del Libertador is 10 lanes wide (in each direction)!

Headed in no particular direction, we meandered through the plethora of Palermo parks, seeing the Rose Garden, Palermo Lakes, the Planetarium and various plazas and statues celebrating Argentina’s independence.

Naturally, we found a few minutes to get in a few ‘jump shot’ photos in amidst a field of flower pedals in one of the parques.

Sufficiently worn out, we headed back for a standard Argentinean siesta before hitting our dinner destination of choice for the evening – a trendy Palermo Soho hotspot called Bar Uriarte, which gets its namesake from the street on which it resides.