OHHHH...MY ACHING LEGS!

Man my legs are sore! You would be saying the same if you walked nearly ten miles through Palermo; the neighborhood in which I live. Today was all about discovery and becoming familiar with my surroundings. I will not lie; my first night was a bit overwhelming. It could have been because of the nearly 24 hours of traveling I did and I was tired, or because of the language barrier. I’m going to say it was a little bit of both.

After a good night’s sleep and waking up at 9 am , I was off to make my own map of Buenos Aires. I studied several maps my host provided me with for about 30 minutes or until I felt my routes were memorized. Basically, I didn’t want to be caught standing on a corner with a map in my hands looking like a tourist. LOL. I slipped my shoes on, put one map in my pocket for emergency use, and out the door I went...

saying adios y gracias to my host.

In general, I’m pretty good with directions. Just give me a destination and some street names and I’m good to go. That essentially sums up how I traveled today.  Not once did I need to pull out my “emergency” map; I was proud of myself. My first destination was to find a route to where I would be working. In my mind I knew my destination was southwest of my current location at the crossroads of Cordoba Avenue and Thames Street, so I started walking. Then I came to Honduras Street and decided to head southeast until I ran into Thames. I took Thames all the way to Cordoba Avenue and found where I will be spending my work days.

Now, it was time for the exploration portion of my day. I thought to myself, “What if I took this street all the way to its end?” So that’s what I did for the most part, until I ran into Honduras Street again and saw there was a feria (street fair) one block southeast at Plaza Serrano. After checking out the street fair, which happens every Sunday, I continued my journey. I walked all the way to the Zoo and Botanical gardens. Being winter and all, in was 60F and about half of the trees down here have their green leaves and the remaining half don’t; I wish Iowa winters were similar to this.

Now it was nearly 1:30 and I was starving. With an abundance of restaurants in my neighborhood it was tough to choose, but I decided to eat at Henri’s. Delish! Being a “foodie,” I think I will have my hands full! After lunch I made my way back to my house to put the leftovers away and prep myself for the walk to Jumbo, a Wal-Mart like superstore.

Jumbo = Wal-Mart; Easy = Menards

Jumbo was exciting to just visit, let alone shop. This Wal-Mart magnitude store was on the second floor of a building that had a first floor filled with specialty shops and…yes…a McDonalds. Unlike our escalators with magical steps that appear and disappear, this building had moving ramps so a shopper could take a shopping cart up and down different floors. You can also tell Argentina likes its Coke products because there was an entire aisle devoted to just Coca Cola.

Groceries purchased, I was on my way back home to call it a day. Buenos Aires…you are beginning to look better!

Did You Know! If you want plastic bags to carry your groceries in, they cost you 15 centavos! (Anyway at the stores I’ve done business with they did) Looks like I will be purchasing a reusable bag soon. Learn from this, United States. LOL.