The Jacaranda trees throughout the city are in full, gorgeous purple bloom. Way back, the city planners did something brilliant; they planted three trees throughout the city that bloom at different times of year. That way, there is always something in full bloom.
Today its well over 30 degrees Celsius.
Our first stop was the Plaza de Mayo. This is a gorgeous plaza that is flanked at one end by the Rosada Palacio or Pink Palace (where Madonna sang “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” in the movie, Evita).
We watched a couple dancing the tango in the centre of the plaza. A couple Quaker birds flew overhead.
The other sides of the plaza have a museum and the Metropolitan Cathedral which looks neoclassical on the outside, but pure Catholic on the inside.
The Monument for Argentina Liberty is located inside the Cathedral, under honour guard.
We went back out into the heat and made our way across the Bridge of Women to the new waterfront district of the city called Puerto Madero.
Walking past all the nice restaurants along the dockside, I started salivating when I saw the sign in front of a higher-end restaurant called Villegas Resto and Grill…it was a big juicey steak. Argentina is known for their steaks. During lunch times restaurants often have an executive special. This special was a choice of entre and side, a choice of either water, pop or big glass of wine (well that’s a no brainer), dessert and coffee for the equivalent of $11.00 CAD. Delicious.
After catching some internet to finalize tour bookings, we walked to the San Telmo district which is known for its market and Dorrengo Plaza where people dance tango for tips. There were a lot of intriguing antique, wine, art, leather and home decor shops. Also some neat graffiti. Very cool area.
We walked back to Plaza de Mayo to get some pictures of the Pink Palace in the afternoon sun and caught the subway back to our apartment to rest up for our evening food and wine tasting.
Our dinner was at La Chozo Restaurant in our neighborhood of Palermo so it was a 15 minute walk away. Our AirBnB host had put us in touch with her friend Diego Asado who is a sommelier and he has various types of wine tastings with and without food depending on what you want and your price point.
For tonight it was just Diego, ourselves and Allen from New York City. We started off with sparkling wine and moved on to a white Malbec, Pinot, red Malbec and a Bartanado with a limoncello to finish.
We ate a delicious empanada, a melt in your mouth sausage, tenderloin,asado, a creamed spinach in cheese and dessert. The restaurant was packed with locals even though it was a Wednesday with people lined up.
Throughout the meal Diego talked about Argentinian wines complete with maps of the wine regions. He buys the wines we were tasting from small local wineries who sell in such small amounts you cant even buy their wines from wine stores in Argentina.