We did sleep late, finally rising around 9:45 in the morning. With some time to kill before the lunch places opened at noon, we decided to check out some spots on San Martin, a road bordering the hotel that we had not really explored yet. We quickly found a soccer shop and I soon noticed a dark marine Argentina soccer jersey that I really preferred to the traditional one with its vertical white and powder blue stripes. This one was navy, with powder blue and white stripes going down the shoulders and sleeves. For $30, I got it. It was an extra large and the chest is still kind of tight on me; I'm convinced I bought a youth jersey. But hey, it fit me better than any of the adult jerseys! Maybe if they had an adult large, I would have gone for that, but all they had was small and medium for adults. It all worked out for the best though.
We spent a few minutes inside a huge church that we could actually see from our room, called Basilica de Santisimo Sacramento, or the Blessed Sacrament. I had stepped inside so many churches on this trip I lost count. But the intricate interior of this one really stood out. It featured a very Gothic design and took eight years to complete, opening in 1916. It truly is a luxurious, sacred place to worship. I'm not Catholic, but I couldn't help but be in awe of this structure.
At noon, we headed up the block to Filo, which I heard was a great pizza place. I found it interesting that they served my Coke served in a wine glass. They gave a sampling of great bruschetta and a basket of thinly sliced Italian bread. One thing was weird to me about this place, as well as every restaurant I had been to in Argentina. There was salt on the table, but no pepper. I finally had to ask and they brought out a big pepper mill for me. We studied the menu which was in Spanish and Italian. It's kind of sad I knew the Spanish better than the Italian, but what can you do. We got a mixed salad of lettuce, hearts of palm, corn, provolone, tomatoes, and sprouts, a healthy, fresh way to start the meal. Then we ordered a large pizza with proscuitto (it turned out to just be regular ham), artichoke hearts, and mushrooms. It was a very light pie, a very nice combination of flavors, especially with some extra parmesan and oregano.
Then began the hour-long walk in the 85 degree heat northwest to Recoleta. We passed the Bartolome Mitre Plaza, the Eva Peron Plaza, and a statue of Louis Braille. I checked, there's wasn't any Braille on the latter state. Mom was getting tired, but I got us to the Evita museum. It's not enormous, it's like a decent sized two-story house with a lot of small rooms. I was glad there were a lot of English translations for the biographies and descriptions on the walls. Unfortunately, there were headphones available for guided audio tours, but the girl at the front desk didn't tell us about them. Maybe they were only in Spanish. But I took many photos, no flash. My impression was always that Evita was a very incredibly compassionate and charitable woman. Indeed she was. But as I listened to her speeches and heard her voice for the first time, she also struck me as very forceful and tough as well. This woman was no pushover.
After spending over an hour there, we walked around India Republic Street and around the zoo (I did get a look at a couple of flamingoes, and up Sarmiento Avenue toward Plaza Italia. We decided to take the D line of the subway or subte. It only cost us $1.10 per ride and most of the stations we passed appeared to be kept pretty clean. I was a little surprised by what I saw when the train came. The cars were covered in graffiti, but it looked like well designed graffiti, it didn't look like gangs had left their mark or anything like that. But I can't imagine a train in America having that kind of work done on it. And the interior of the cars was made of plywood. And as soon as we got on, our only hope was to be able to keep our balance. Forget any chance of finding a seat, there was barely any room to stand. A completely packed train with no air conditioning. If it was 80 degrees outside, it had to be 95 in that train. Anyway, we took the D line nine stops to the C line. We transferred and went three stops north to the San Martin stop, about two blocks from the Marriott.
Feeling thirsty, I treated Mom to Arnold Palmers at Starbucks. She wanted to stay and shop, but I was ready to head back and chill out. So I headed to the pool to get a little bit of tanning in. As luxurious as this hotel is, I was amazed how small the pool was. It was no larger than the pool at the Country Inn and Suites in St. Augustine, maybe even a little bit smaller. The wind was blowing pretty hard too, but I was determined to spend as much time relaxing outside as I could.
I headed back to the room and for the first time in three days, I checked Facebook. Then, we headed to Puerto Madero for dinner. We walked by maybe 15 restaurants, before settling on Cabaña Las Lilas, probably the most crowded steakhouse we saw. We got an outdoor table and through their computer kiosk, ordered a 2010 Malbec reserve for $30. I'm no connoisseur of wine, but I loved how well rounded and flavorful this wine tasted. It was created with love and attention to detail. This was one of those wines we had to drink really slowly to appreciate.
They brought out an appetizer platter that they give to all the customers. It was a white round plate with little sections for eggplant and black olives, roasted tomatoes, grilled salmon, buccatini, or tiny balls of fresh mozzarella, and roasted red peppers. Everything tasted fresh and delicious. We both ordered the strip steak.
The beef does all the talking. It's barely seasoned, but it doesn't really need to be. The meat is so lean and flavorful and juicy by itself. It wasn't as large as I had hoped, but it was enough. Actually it was probably enough because I wound up eating half of Mom's steak too. We also ordered mashed potatoes and sauteed vegetables, both of which were served to us on the plate by the waitstaff. Very courteous, very knowledgeable.
And we thought we were done. Just as we paid the check, the waiters came to our table again. They gave us more limoncello and tequila along with chilled shot glasses. After my third mixed shot, we called it a night and found our way back to the hotel. I wanted to have a beer in the bar but she convinced me to head back to the room. One more game of Scrabble that I was too tired to pay attention to. Nothing was on TV, so I decided to crash, which wasn't exactly hard to do.
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