Buenos Aires: Galleria Jardin, The Botanical Garden Cats, San Telmo Market, and the Casa Rosada

So now that we’ve had a little time to get adjusted into our home for the rest of the time we’ll be in Argentina (although we’re still getting acclimated to our new surroundings… just takes a while to settle in), we are getting out to do some of the toursity things. Kevin and Annmarie are down here, and like us, they like to walk.
It’s really the best way to see things, and really experience the place where you’re at.
(Not to mention the health benefits of walking.)
So, this post will catch you up on what we’ve been up to over the past few days.
But first, since most of the visitors to our site are American (and Americans are notoriously bad at geography) and because it might help someone wanting to visit Buenos Aires, we’d like to offer a little refresher about where in the world we are, and familiarize you with the neighborhood a little bit.

We are in South America

In Argentina

In Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is separated into a bunch of different neighborhoods, called Barrios. Our barrio is Palermo.

If you have been following the blog, you know that we have been in four different apartments up to this point.

The next picture gives you your bearings as far as everything we’re about to talk with you about. Everything contained in this post (and everything we have done so far in Buenos Aires) has taken place inside of this area on the map.

Buenos Aires also has the oldest and largest subway system in South America.

So we wanted to go down to the main part of the city, and Annmarie needed a computer cable for her laptop. We had read online, through the awesome power of Google, that Galleria Jardin might be a good place to go to get a computer cable. So we took the red line (Line B) subway (Subte) from the Malabia stop to the Florida stop. For anyone who might get to Buenos Aires without the right computer parts, Galleria Jardin, or Galeria Jardin, is on Florida Avenue between Correnties and Cordoba and is definitely the place to go. Galeria Jardin a 3-story computer store/mall made up of about 50+ computer stores that appears to have everything computer-related that one could need.
I got the correct cord for my computer so that I don’t have to use an adaptor plug. My cord was only about $3. Carrie’s cord though, has a different plug, and hers was going to be $17, so we decided to just use the adaptor plug for the time we are going to be here.
While the variety of stores at Galleria Jardin does seem to have everything computer-related that one could need, not all the stores are open on Saturday and Sunday. So, if you are going to Galeria Jardin, definitely go after 10:00 AM (because not much opens before 10:00 AM), and go on a weekday.
From Galleria Jardin, we wanted to walk down to see the water.
So we started walking, and ended up thinking that there was not really a good way to get to the water from where we were. Turns out (after looking at Google Maps) that had we walked about 10 blocks north, we would have been able to see the water pretty easily.

But ah well. We’ll head back there sometime during our time here… perhaps to take the ferry to Montevideo.
But, we did walk across a really neat suspension bridge, and got to see the ministry of defense, as well as the Casa Rosada. Most people who have seen the musical Evita know this as the place where Eva Peron spoke to a waiting crowd of Descamisados (the “shirtless ones” – the working middle class who helped put and keep Juan Peron in power), and is the same balcony where Madonna stood when she played Eva Peron in the movie version (which came out in 1998).
From there, we walked some more, and took the dark blue line subway back to the red line subway, and came back to our place.
We went out and had Parilla food, which is like the Argentinian equivalent of grilled food… It’s supposed to be some of the best meat and vegetables in the world, but there is a strike going on here right now, so there has been a huge interruption in the availability of a lot of fresh food, and so I think the steak I had was previously frozen, and wasn’t the best I’d had.
Check out this store shelf which would normally be stocked with chicken and beef

(Read more about the strike here)
We will definitely try some parilla though again while we’re here, and today there are talks of the strike ending soon, so that should help with that.
Every Sunday, there is a market at a square in a neighborhood called San Telmo. We found that the market was more like a flea market, or a swap meet, with lots of antiques and people selling things like glasses and silverware. So that wasn’t super-exciting for us, but there were street performers there and that made the market a fun experience for sure.

Here’s a video I put together with highlights from the market at San Telmo.

(By the way, if you’re coming to visit here, the market is only open on Sundays, is absolutely HUGE, and is a great place to visit at least once, but more often if you like to hunt through antiques and knick-knacks.)
From there, we came back and had Yerba Mate (pronounced Yer-buh Mah-tay), which you can see more about in the video below that Kevin put together.
Monday, we walked to the botanical gardens and visited the cemetery in Recoleta (another of the Barrios), and then walked back to our place. (About 9 miles round trip)
We walked from our place now to the botanical garden (which is close to where our first apartment was), and then walked from there to the cemetery in Recoleta
The Botanical Garden in Palermo is definitely worth a visit, is very nice and is well-cared for.

However, though we found that the garden wasn’t as quiet as being in the center of Central Park in New York City or Hyde Park in London.
The thing that people know most about the botanical gardens in Palermo is that the park is filled with cats.
We saw some…

And some more

And some more

And some more

And…

Yes. LOTS of cats.
From there, we walked to the cemetery in Recoleta.

I’ll talk more about the Recoleta cemetery more in a separate post, since this one is getting long, and since we’ll probably go back there when Carrie’s sister comes to visit later on.
So, I’m going to close this out with a couple of Kevin’s videos.
Kevin does a daily video on healthy living at Renegade Health, and we have been in a couple of his videos while Kevin and Annmarie are down here. So I’ve posted those below!

Related posts:

1. Mi Jardin es Su Jardin, Boquete, Panama
2. 10 FAQs about our stay in Buenos Aires (so far)
3. Stand Back, Buenos Aires!
4. Buenos Aires Apartment: Troubles With Our Palermo, Buenos Aires Apartment
5. Buenos Aires Is Burning: Smoke Is Everywhere