May 23: 21,924 steps in Buenos Aires, Argentina

This morning Kristi and I went out for breakfast because hostel breakfast was not enough! We ordered café con leche (coffee with milk), freshly squeezed orange juice, ham and cheese toasted sandwiches, and delicious croissants. I don’t even like orange juice and that shit was fresh, pardon the language.

We went to the Cathedral of Buenos Aires and there was a ceremony going on inside for someone taking the first step in becoming a saint, I think. The current Pope Francis is actually from Argentina, and this cathedral is where he is from and where he was a bishop at.

We walked by the Banco Hipotecario this morning too. If you look at the doors to the bank, there are marks and dents from the people beating against them. In 2001 the government collapsed and all of the banks closed their doors. The government and the banks took all of the money. The wealthy people and people who worked in the bank took their money before the collapse and put it in off shore accounts because they knew what was going to happen.

Later in the morning we met up with Ana’s brother and nieces and nephews to tour the Kirchner Cultural Center. It used to be the post office, but has since been transformed into a cultural theater. It is 100,000 square meters, and cost $200 million dollars to renovate. Ana knows the architect of the project, Claudio Ferrari, so we got to go on a personal tour of the building with him. The project was just completed and isn’t even opening until Monday (today is Saturday). They have been designing the new space since the early 2000s. Ana’s nephew Thomas even put on a small cello performance for us in one of the new performance rooms!

For lunch we had pizza. Never gets old. Keep in mind lunch ended around 4pm.

After lunch we walked to the market festival, which was booming with people and action! We were walking through the crowd and out of nowhere a drum group just started performing right in front of us! And then they did dancing too! It was epic. There are so many vendors and food markets along the streets. Kristi, Ege, and I bargained for some mate cups.

After that we headed back to the hostel for some down time. Kristi, Ege, and I went up to the roof deck café while the sun was setting to drink beer and listen to music and live guitar (played by Ege). Kristi and I sang along to Time of Your Life by Greenday. It was precious. 

For dinner we had an empanada party!