Third Week-Buenos Aires

Our third week in BA was packed full of activities.  We made it our goal to visit different areas of the city and also to do some shopping.  Being a great place to buy leather goods, many of us bought leather jackets and/or purses.  Janice continued to enjoy the very active night life and she and her friend took a side trip to Montevideo and Colonia in Uruguay.  They left part way through the week after many adventures.

We were coming to the end of our trip...the last week.   The time had flown by and we could hardly believe that it was almost over.   We were both looking forward to coming home, more than we had expected to.  Our last week would be spent taking in some last minute sightseeing and preparing for the trip home.

 

Calle Florida...the shopping district is full of people, restaurants, leather shops, buskers and souvenir  shops

 

 

We took a day to go and visit the Japanese Gardens where, in addition to the gardens themselves there was a special orchid show.

 

 

On another excursion we went to see a professional tango show.  

We topped off the week with a visit to the El Zanjon which is a restored colonial used for corporate events.  This home is notable because during the renovations tunnels were discovered below it.  These tunnels were built as a means to control water in a creek and to prevent flooding in the 1700's dating back to the beginnings of the city itself. .  These have also been excavated and now form a type of museum with a number of exhibits showing life in Buenos Aires at the time of the building of the brick tunnels.  The adjoining homes also built tunnels and these all joined together to form a continuous aqueduct to control the creek running through them.   During our guided tour we travelled under adjoining buildings through restored tunnels.

Just up the street from this building is the narrowest home in Buenos Aires.  This is only 2 meters wide and was part of an old colonial home which was given to slaves who were freed when their owners fled to the country to avoid a yellow-fever outbreak.  This building has also been restored, but is not yet open to the public.