Trip Report 3- BA Zoo

Fri. April 8

The breakfast spread at the hotel, included with the price of the room (US$58/night), was pretty decent. As much as I enjoy cafecitos, cortados and other variations of espresso, nothing beats a cup of strong black America coffee to start your day. A couple of sweet pastries (medialunas) with some coffee and orange juice and I was ready to start my day.

------------------------------------------- Sidenote: typically one should leave their ticket, passport and U.S. housekeys in a safe deposit box at the hotel when traveling abroad. However, it is nearly impossible to exchange money at a bank here without a passport (a color copy or drivers license will most likely not work (and you will prob. have to wait in line), although the latter did at like the 3rd bank I tried. Having brought a lot of US$ with me (as mentioned previously), I was at last able to find a change place (gratefully recommended by the hotel) right around the corner that exchanged money, at a good rate, with no questions asked.

--------------------------------------- Although I have not had any problems so far, I imagine that BA has air pollution problems given its density and heavy traffic. I couldn't help but think this as I walked along a busy street towards the BA zoo. It is prob. worse in the summer.

---------------------------------------- As I suspected from a perusal of a map, it indeed was a long walk. The unquestioned highlight was my discovery of a joint called Solo Empanadas on Avenida Las Heras. I stopped in and got 3 of them: spicy meat, chicken and vegetables (the latter of which was spinach & cheese, very much like the appetizer dip found in the States). The empanadas are made to order, and even though I got mine to go and ate them outside of the zoo about 20 minutes later they were still hot. They were by far the best empanadas I have had thus far (note: they were the best ones I had the entire trip. although not ubiquitous, branches of this places are interspersed around the city, so if you see one don't hesitate to stop!).

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The zoo itself is quite nice, and I spent a while wandering around, taking a lot of pictures of the animals. They have a lot of animals native to South America that you probably won't find in a North American zoo, especially the reptiles, and there are ducks wandering around all over. If you like entymology, there is a cool room full of mounted insects, scorpions and spiders.

---------------------------------------------------------- It is in the low 70s during the day and can get warm while walking around, esp. in the sun. In need of some refreshment on the walk back, I stopped at an ice cream shop/cafe on Avenida Santa Fe. Without knowing exactly what it contained, I got a 5 peso (more like a bowl) of chocolate italiano and a cortado. The ice cream was extremely rich and tasty, and contained chunks of chocolate and walnuts. I now have a sufficient sugar rush to walk back the remaining 19 blocks to the hotel and check out whatever sights on the way.

----------------------------------------------------------- Dinner at a trendy restaurant in a trendy neighborhood (Central/Palermo Viejo) and 1st taste of Argentine beef in the form of a T-Bone. One can eat a lot of beef down here, and I certainly ended up doing so. While other sources can discuss this topic in much more depth, I would suggest to at least read up a bit of the different ways that different parts can be prepared (at a minimum, to learn what to NOT eat). For instance, you probably wouldn't want to get meat done rare; medium or better is the best way to go (however, I have seen the Spanish word, a punto, defined in different texts as medium and medium rare). I don't want to focus on prices, but even at nicer spots the exchange rate is very favorable for dining. For those who may be interested, a full-out dinner (3-course) + bottle of wine cost will run about US$ 50-60 (total for two persons, inc. tip--customary tip in this country is 10%, which is lower than the 15% in the U.S. that I am used to. Nevertheless, I pretty much always tipped more than 10% during my visit).