Day 20 - City Center

Day 20. Today we shall see the city center; all the important, historical stuff. After our hotel breakfast (which is all bread and sugar by the way) we make our way down past the Plaza San Martin, named after the country’s liberator. Inside this plaza is a fenced in dog park. We walk down the pedestrian shopping street, Florida and come to a McDonalds where we decide to grab something to eat to make it through the day. Ordering proves to be a severe challenge, as does paying for it. The gal keeps repeating the cost (we believe that’s what she is saying anyway) while the cash register is displaying the numbers for the guy right before us. Our intergalactic sign language is lost on this gal and she doesn’t have much patience with us. This McDonald’s food, however, is the best either of us had ever had. It’s not pre-made, but made to order. After eating, we proceed down the street and come to a mall where we go in for a peek. Quite a ceiling for a mall! We proceed to weave our way down Micro Centro, their version of Wall Street. We come to a park that seems to be acting as monument central:









We come to the Casa Rosada, or the Pink House; Argentina’s version of the White House. The big difference is that the president only works here. She lives in a compound in the Olivos district. We get to the front of the building and hear what sounds like gunfire. We turn and notice a rally going on in the

square out front… and riot police at the ready. There are news crews everywhere and trailers from where radio shows are broadcasting live.

More gunshot sounds. They are coming
from down the street we have planned to walk down next. They are not gunshot shots we are hearing; it’s firecrackers and it’s startling the birds.
These people are



wearing masks and look ready and capable of doing anything right now. Some of them are wielding baseball bats. We decide to take another route. We’re smart that way occasionally. We find out that today is the anniversary of something to do with the government and workers
rights. Great timing! We come around to the back side of this mob…
And continue on our way taking a cue from this man.
We come to the Obelisk which is a monument built in 1936 to
commemorate the 400th anniversary of the city.
We see the city getting ready for Christmas.
And we come to the Colon Theater which opened in 1908 after twenty
years under construction. The auditorium is horseshoe-shaped, has 2,487 seats, standing room for 1,000 and a stage which is 20 m wide, 15 m high and 20 m deep. The acoustics are considered one of the best five acoustics in opera in the world. 20 years to build and it’s under construction again for four more years. Bummer! We make our way back towards the hotel and hang out in a park for a while under this curious
tree with danglies. It nears 6:00 and we head back to the hotel for our transfer to the bus station where we catch an overnight bus: Destination – Mendoza.
Again, the communication gap is hurting us. We finally settle into our luxury bus seats and start on our 13 hour ride. The seats are very comfortable and nearly recline all the way back. The food is very good, and the movie is interesting to watch - not knowing exactly what they are saying. We enjoy it anyway. These seats are very easy to fall asleep in.