Right now the temperature is 15degree's Fahnerheit. So we're used to skiing at this time of year. In addition, the town is only 100,000 people strong. Not 3-7 million depending on the information you read regarding BA. My noise decibel level at night in Bend was the cat fight beneath me when the racoons attempted to get in through our kitty (cat) door. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind the noise and I'm actually getting used to it. In actuality, the noise level is minute compared to the multiple visits to Sacramento/San Francisco, CA when we used to visit our friends for a weekend. It seemed that there was always a siren from police or ambulances attempting to save another soul... Let's get back on track! We've been in BA for a total of 3 days now. We are enjoying ourselves. The city truly has its own feel and beauty with its European accents throughout the city. On day three of our adventure we are actually able to go to the grocery store and pay for our groceries without feeling like I sat on a blackberry bush without any clothes on. I'm skipping ahead here, but it needs to be noted that my wife, Jen, was awesome at our neighborhood restaurant where they sell empanadas. We, mainly she, was able to order our food and say "To Go" without the porteno blinking an eye. For those who don't know and want to know how to request "to go" in spanish (truly castellano) para llavar. (however, our eyes were truly open when we were told that ll (double "L" is "shh). We are learning things everyday. It's only my ignorance that I thought we could learn the language in a day.
I would have to say that everything is within walking distance. Friday, we walked to a park Parque Las Heras. It was a nice and clean park with plenty of pigeons for Payton to run after. One porteno boy even tried to kick a soccer ball toward my head. Lucky for him, I've been on alert mode, and my reflexes were quite startling to this young boy! If anyone knows me, they will realize that this is truly a big thing for me to say. Especially Mark Portillo. (Mark, just wanted to let you know that the first bottle of wine that I drank down here was Portillo from the Mendoza region-Malbec- it was only 3 USD. It was quite good! Will send you photo later) Like I was saying, the best part of our day Friday was the walk back from Parque Las Heras. We had the fortune to come across a heladeria (ice cream parlot) named il Diverso. It truly had some of the best ice cream I've ever tasted. Including ice cream in Italy, as well as, Tillamock, Oregon. I think I might have had an orgasm in my mouth. I don't think I thought about sex for the entire 20 minute walk back to our apartment. Believe me, for any guy to say that, that's roughly 10-15 minutes where my mind didn't wonder off (Individual male results may vary depending on time served in a relationship).
Saturday we went to the Jardin zoologico in BA, which was approximately 45 walking minutes from our apartment. It truly is a great zoo. They had so many different types of animals! Definitely more than the San Francisco zoo, which we just visited prior to coming here. Besides the normal monkeys, elephants and rhinos, they actually had a greater selection of lions/tigers than I've been exposed to previously.
They actually had a white Bengal tiger. I've never seen anything like it, except for the spray painted tigers on movies. Payton had a wonderful time. They had a playground within the zoo, which Payton loved. She actually was playing so hard she was ignoring all of the other kids and one boy tried pulling her out of his way from the slide (because it was his turn, she ignored him and went first). I realize it wasn't the best thing to support, but he was much bigger than she was. So for my daughter's sake, GIRL POWER!
That night we walked to a tourist area around Recoleta cemtery. I know, tourist area. Unfortunately we paid a little too much for a great dinner. For 30USD I had a Tenderloin steak, roughly the size of my head and Jen had a "thick steak," literally 1 inch thick with no fat. I know we were paying too much, but we were hungry and couldn't find the place we were truly looking for. Although we didn't get any pictures of our meal, I'm sure we will come across some impressive steaks in our travels for others to be envious of.
Today, we walked a significant amount around Recoleta neighborhood, ie. La Recoleta cemetery (not bad for a tomb),
the British embassy, Avienda Libertador and watched tango dancing across from the Iglesia de Nuestra Senora del Pilar. We had a great day. Once again, after coming back to the apartment, Payton said, "I had fun today!" She has said this every day since Friday. This truly brings happy thoughts and tears to my eyes! Our time with our daughter has been priceless and time I will never forget. I'm also enjoying time with my wife as well! The only bad thing that has happened to us so far was that I lost my Nalgene bottle. I either didn't tighten the cap of my Nalgene bottle when attaching it to my bag or forgot it at the ice cream store today. (We went to an ice cream store called Freddo, HORRIBLE!) If we ate there on Friday, I might have given up on ice cream altogether in Argentina. Plus, for those who know that I'm frugal---they short changed me on the 
exchange rate - 2.95 pesos to the USD! it should of been 3.0+pesos...BULL-HIT!
On our walk back Payton found yet another playground (I can't believe how many parks and playgrounds are in this area of BA, it's truly AMAZING) and she wanted to go down the slide. The actual slide itself was wooden? I've never seen anything like it. Luckily no splinters for Payton! She's actually becoming quite confident in her abilities to climb things now. See below...
On our walk back we went to a local restaurant called (will put in post later). They were truly great! I think we will have to compare the recommendations of saltshaker.net to ours. We will be trying La Cocina soon... Let's add an important note. See this pic below. The Stella Artois cost me 1.00 USD. Another reason to love Argentina!
Thanks for the emails and comments. Please keep on sending them.
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