Metal tulips and cheesy keychains

It's second to last day and we have yet to walk around outside of Recoleta into Barrio Norte and Palermo. We put on walking shoes (for me it was flip flops due to my million skeeter bites on my heal- go figure). We walked past Recoleta's Plaza Francia (in front of the cemetery) and over to the Plaza Naciones Unidas to the Tulip Sculpture. On the way there, another dog starts to hang out with me. What's with all the dogs on this trip?? Onto the flower....The real name is Flor de Metal, I think. It's pretty cool looking, but after about 10-15 min. and lots of pictures, it's time to move on.

We are just amazed at how many parks and plazas BA has-TONS of green space. We move on over to find the Japanese Garden. According to my book it's free and in the direction we are going. So we go to check it out. Well, inflation has made my book out of date once again, as they now charge $5 AR, not much but we really don't care if we see it or not so we pass and look over the low fence. Our next stop is the Evita Museum in Palermo. On the way we pass the city zoo and ungodly amounts of dog poop. Good thing we passed on the $5 Peso charge at the garden, because the museum is now $10 AR instead of $5. ;) It was pretty interesting to watch the videos and see her amazing clothes, they were GORGEOUS. The museum is located in house that was a women's shelter she founded. Nothing spectacular, but a nice visit. The only think I saw at the "gift store" counter were some cheesy keychains, but they were about $10 AR and

We then start to walk back in the direction of our flat along Ave. las Heras. We are now tired, hot and hungry. We find a restaurant on the corner of Bulnes and Cervino and it has pasta and pizza and probably regular fare too. So we sit on a table outside and relax. I order a ham and cheese sandwich and Greg gets a pasta with half Mediterranean sauce and half spinach Alfredo. Both are good for different reasons, but the Med. sauce is soooooooo good. I found a recipe that is similar and we are going to try it out. Basically olive oil, balsamic vinegar, green olives, capers, tomatoes, and basil.

We start to walk a ways and TA DA!!! Volta is just around the corner and of course, calling my name! I think it was on the corner of Cervino and Col. Ortiz. The manager there spoke pretty good English and upsells me from the "tazita" little cup at $9.50 AR with two flavor options, to the small to go container at $11 AR with THREE flavor options and is packaged in it's own lovely Styrofoam ice cooler type container. Perfect. I choose banana split, dulce de leche and tiramisu. The guy scooping my ice cream sounds like he is trying to be a voice over actor in English. "Threeeee Scoops!" in a low, superhero voice. We try not to laugh and just smile. Is this is "American Voice"? Now we have to get home pronto and get a cab for the rest of the walk. Once again I am not disappointed with my helado.

We get home and take a nap. That night we venture out to the casino in Belgrano. We thought Edgardo told us there were cheap eats there, so we assumed it was a buffet. We couldn't find it if it was actually there. We play some slots. Sadly the "Trailer Park Party" was occupied the entire time. Greg got some weird bonus spin that was literally going on its own for like 10 min and he kept winning. So we cashed out and basically broke even.

Off to Palermo Soho for dinner. We tell the cab driver we just want to go to Palermo where there are restaurants. He drops us off at the main Plaza Serrano. We walk around a bit and then settle on a place that is hopping with people our age and younger- Brujas Soho (Serrano 1640). Hippies abound, fire jugglers, drum circles, etc. I get a steak sandwich, "Lomito" combo (it comes with a beer or pop) and greg gets a hamburger combo plus another litre of beer. The food was okay, ran us $59 AR (about 20 bucks), but it was more of a bar scene which meant bar food. The eye candy was fun and we just hung out watching everyone.