Buenos Aires. . .

We left Porto Alegre Friday night and flew into Buenos Aires. I was thinking since we knew Portuguese, we'd be able to at least get by with the Spanish. Nope. The accent there was so difficult to understand. We were surprised at how much English we heard while we were in the city. It was so nice. Saturday morning we woke up and decided to take the bus tour around to the different neighborhoods. There were so many sights to see and we only had two days to take it all in. The bus tour visits some of the more popular neighborhoods and explains everything in English, so we stood in line waiting for our tickets. Emma needed to pee, so Kevin stayed in line and I took Emma to search for a bathroom. I saw a Burger King, so I figured we were safe. But then, just about 10 yards before the BK, I turned to my left and there, with the sun shining on the letters and music playing in my mind, I saw the letters of one of my favorite businesses in the world. STARBUCK'S. Choirs were singing, I swear. I glanced back at Kevin who was studying our city map and ducked inside. I almost passed out due to the intoxicating smell of the coffee beans. It was wonderful. It smelled like Starbuck's. It looked so American. It felt so American. Then I went to order a coffee, an Americano to be exact, and the lady said, "Como?" I said it again, "Americano." "Como?" I looked at the menu, just to be sure. There it was, "Americano." Huh. I said it again and pointed to it. "Ai. Americano. Anything else?" Huh?? She speaks English?? It was weird. I'm not sure what the difference between her saying it and me saying it, but we finally got it right. We used the restroom and danced our way back to Kevin. I was as happy as a clam. Kevin said his first thought when he saw my face was, "I wonder if she found a Starbuck's." We found two more during our weekend in Buenos Aires. I had enough espresso in my system to keep me awake for the next week.

An old building on Florida Avenue. The avenue is a pedestrian-only avenue lined with shops and vendors. Kevin found a really cheap leather wallet there, but other than that, we kind of felt like the items were way more expensive than what we could find in the States, including the Starbuck's coffee.

Such a big girl! She loved the bus tour!

Cabildo was the government house during colonial times. It sits opposite the Casa Rosada on Plaza de Mayo.

Casa Rosada on Plaza de Mayo, is the presidential palace.

A replica of The Thinker

La Boca neighborhood

Emma was a little scared of the live statue, but I think they're just amazing.

Caminito is a street (and surrounding area) that is full of the history of Tango. Dancers perform on the street during the day. Pretty entertaining. I loved the brightly painted buildings and the murals were incredible.

Murals in Caminito

I bought Emma this cute hat while we were walking around the Caminito area. I love love love this hat. I had planned to use it as a prop in many future photos. Had planned. A few hours after I bought it, we were riding in the open-top bus and Emma leaned over. As she did, her hat fell off down to the street below. Oops. I was so sad. At least I caught a few fun pictures of her in it! She was so tired that she fell asleep in the backpack carrier.

Floralis Generica, a giant metal flower that opens and closes as the suns moves across the sky. Puente de la Mujer is a pedestrian bridge in the Puerto Madero neighborhood.

Trash in the river made the waterfront a stinky place to be! I was saddened to see this little boy juggling for money. He was really good too. My heart always breaks when I see young kids having to beg for money so they can eat. I want to rescue them and feed them and care for them. At such an early age, this is his life.

Recoleta Neighborhood

Another live statue.

Pilar Church in Recoleta neighborhood, the oldest church in Buenos Aires.

She looks just like me when I was her age! (OK, she's cuter.)

Kevin took this picture at Recoleta Cemetery and I love it!

She was having way too much fun. She would have been shrieking up and down the steps had I let her! She loved the cemetery!

Such a contrast: a beautiful, bright, lively, young little girl in the middle of a cold, quiet, dark, old cemetery full of dead people.

Recoleta Cemetery was a city of mausoleums; street after street was lined with tombs for the dead. It would have been easy to lose myself here. Oddly, this was probably my favorite place to visit in the whole city. I think the reason for that was because it's so peaceful. In the middle of one of the world's most famous cities, there's a place to go that's almost silent. I enjoyed the stillness of the cemetery.

Mausoleum on the left, coffins on the right

Puerto Madero

After a long day of sightseeing, we took a taxi to Puerto Madero for dinner. Our restaurant was close to the river and we had a great view of the water. Emma wanted to throw rocks in the water, but we didn't find any. We settled for enjoying the pretty lights. Puerto Madero is the name of the riverfront area and it's full of restaurants and some shopping.

Sunday morning we thought we'd go on the bus tour again and stop at a few other places, like the zoo. We went to Starbuck's for breakfast and as we were enjoying our coffee, it started to downpour. We waited about half an hour and then ran to the bus. The top portion was closed because it was raining so hard. We rode the bus for a few hours around town and listened to the explanation of sights. We stopped for lunch at an incredible pizza place and researched our options for the afternoon. Since most of what we wanted to see was outside, we decided to go to a mall where we knew they had a children's museum. We hopped on the subway and made our way around the massive mall to the kids area. Emma was about to explode with excitement!

Museo de los Ninos at Abasto Shopping

I love that we paid for all of us to get into the Children's Museum and Emma squealed all the way to the top of the ramp. Her first stop: the cleaning bucket and washcloth that had been left out by the cleaning lady. She turned to me and said, "Mommy, I want to clean something!" Seriously, I can give her a few wet washcloths and she'll be busy cleaning things for hours. I just can't seem to figure out where she learned that?? She was a little disappointed that the washcloth and cleaning bucket weren't part of the deal.

We took a little break in the "library". After realizing all the books were in Spanish, none of us were interested in staying. I can hardly read Portuguese, let alone Spanish!! I love the mural on the right. It's just cultural. There's a girl with a pacifier in her mouth. Almost all the children here (and maybe in Argentina too) have pacifiers. I mean, kids Emma's age and older are running around with their little "chupetas". Call me judgmental, but come on, I just don't think a 5-year old needs a pacifier! One day, I watched as a mother gave her 5-year old daughter her milk in a baby bottle. NOT KIDDING! Five years old. She took the bottle and laid on the couch and watched cartoons while she sucked on her bottle. Cultural thing I guess. The other funny thing I noticed about the mural was the lady to the left of Emma, wearing a pink, kind-of-flashy coat. She's wearing matching pink heels and showing some cleavage. Who puts that in a mural for kids?? Maybe it's cultural. It certainly reminds me of some of the women here. Emma didn't really like the mural. She said the people looked funny and she didn't want to be by them.

We stayed at the museum for a few hours and then stopped by the Starbuck's before hopping back on the subway. We picked up some sandwiches and had a picnic in our hotel and then watched some Law & Order before going to bed! It had been a fairly relaxing and fun day, especially for Emma Jae.