We start the day with a walking tour exploring the city.  We cruise through a park and take a group photo in front of a statue of Carlos Pellegrini.  After some more walking, we come to another park, Paseo Del General, and another group photo this time in front of the Monument of General San Martin.  

Next, we visit the church Basilica del Santismo Sacremento (Church of the Blessed Sacrement) which was built in the early 1900s and consecrated in 1915. It has a stunning and quite large and imposing altar display decorated with flowers and candles presumably for the recent Christmas celebration.  The great custody inside the church is remarkable as it presents the Eucharist in the center of a grand white marble shrine.  The church has a great organ which has 4,983 sound tubes and was manufactured in Paris. There are some people already there for adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and liturgical celebration.

We continue walking and end up in the part of the city with the first modern skyscraper buildings we’ve seen in Buenos Aires.  Some have very cool and unique architectures.  There is a gigantic brand new looking building probably 50 or more floors with the name We Work proudly displayed.  This brings chuckles and Kyle quips, “it should say We Don’t Work because We Work has no money to pay us.”  

From there, we walk to a street which has stars on the sidewalk of famous Argentine stars akin to Hollywood Blvd.  We have entered the Theatre district where Hello, Dolly is being performed at the Orbis theatre.  After a quick coffee and snack at a café, we check out the Obelisk which is a white monument that stretches to the sky. The Obelisk is a national historical monument and icon of Buenos Aires in the Plaza de Republica.  It was erected in 1936 to commemorate the quadricentennial of the first foundation of the city.  Across the street, there are two huge hedge bushes that have been cut and trimmed into the letters BA for Buenos Aires.  We get some cool pictures with us in front of the BA and the Obelisk behind.

Time for lunch.  John has identified Pizza Guerrin as one of the best pizzeria’s in Buenos Aires which was also one of Kyle’s friend Sebastian’s recommendation thus confirming John’s choice.  We are seated and try to translate the Spanish menus.  Our waiter sees us and asks in Spanish if we want an English menu.  This helps a lot.  They have an extensive list of pizzas with different cheeses and toppings. We order in Espanol to practice and get better.  Apparently, Kyle is still shaking off the rust as he thought he ordered a pizza with onions but instead it came with corn.  “Well, that’s a first anyway, I’ve never had a corn pizza before.”  Corey generously shares his blue cheese pizza with Kyle who loves blue cheese. The pizza was amazing and we surmise that it must be the cheese they use that makes it standout.

On the way to the next stop, we walk through Plaza Levalle which has about 30 outdoor stands for holding music for outdoor concerts.  John takes his place in front of one and sings a song for Leanne.  Kyle wanders off to identify an impressive government looking building which turns out to the Supreme Court building.

We arrive at Teatro Colon which is Buenos Aires’ Opera House that is known for having one of the best acoustics in the world.  John has arranged for us to take a guided group tour of the theatre.  The inside is absolutely spectacular. It was built with the best marble and materials from Italy and Paris.  We pass through the foyer and head up the stairs.  The entry way on the second floor has eight ornately carved busts of the most famous composers (mostly opera) of all time.  Kind of like two Mount Rushmores.  The busts were of Mozart, Verdi,  Rossini, Bizet, Beethoven, Gounod, Wagner and Bellini.

We walk in an extensive set of rooms that is used to host important events.  Grand chandeliers reflect over and over again shimmering in the floor to ceiling mirrors.  The guide asks the group of 20 if this reminds anyone of a place in another part of the world.  Kyle wastes no time and jumps on it like a chip shot from the sky deck in business school. “The hall of mirrors in the Palace of Versailles,” he says knowingly.  “Exactly!” she exclaims apparently excited that someone knew the answer so quickly.  Of course, we have somewhat of an unfair advantage having just been there in September. 

Leanne then takes over for Kyle and starts nailing all the opera questions the guide asks.  “What makes for a good opera theatre?” she says and Leanne belts out, “the acoustics” before she has finished asking the question. “Exactly!” she exclaims. This continues for several more questions.

As we conclude the tour in the actual theatre, the guide asks if there are any singers in the group.  What a perfect set up for John who is not just a singer, but an opera singer no less. John sings one of his opera songs for the group and receives a hearty round of applause.  The guide is beaming.  I think we’ve made her tour a smashing success as no-one else in the group said a word the whole time.

Next, we walk to the Plaza de Mayo, the main plaza in the city center with an Argentine flag flying high.  The plaza has been the site of some of the most important events in Argentine history as well as the largest popular demonstration in the Country. We walk around and see the well-known Pink House which is executive mansion and office of the President of Argentina.  We walk to the last stop of the day, the Puente de la Mujer (Woman’s Bridge) which is a rotating footbridge as well as a swing bridge. 

From there, we opt to take two Ubers back to the Airbnb.  Kyle has researched and found out that Uber’s entry into Argentina was not well received by the taxi drivers and their union.  The government sided with the taxi drivers resulting in the police and taxi drivers harassing the Uber drivers.  One of the passengers must sit in the front seat for safety so that the Uber is not as easily identified.  Kyle’s Uber driver speaks fluent English and Kyle asks him if he’s ever been harassed by the taxi drivers.  He said that the police were actually the main issue as they will take and impound your car and if you will have to pay a big fine to get it back.  Kyle asks him how he likes living in Buenos Aires and he says that he loves it but times are very difficult right now.  They are in a recession with 50% inflation, high unemployment and 35% of the people living in poverty. Argentina had a new President take over a few weeks ago and the people are hopeful things will improve.

For dinner, Kyle has a good friend from Dartmouth who lives in Buenos Aires.  Leanne and Kyle are going to meet up with him at his house and go out to dinner so the kids opt to stay in the Airbnb and eat the food we bought at the store. Kyle & Leanne get another Uber and this time the driver speaks no English.  We have a 30 minute ride so we give it our best shot at speaking Spanish. Leanne is way ahead of Kyle in both speaking and understanding it but Kyle is slowly shaking off the rust and getting into the groove.  Somehow we manage to fill entire trip with conservation.

As we enter Tahta’s (first name Andrew) house there is a full-blown party going on. It turns out, it’s one of his kid’s birthday party. He thought it would be wrapped up by now but it is still in full swing.  We meet his two brothers, one of whom went to Dartmouth before us.  We have a blast catching up and getting to know his family.  Tahta has been to close to 80 countries and is trying to get to 100.  We have been to 55 countries so we still have a ways to go to catch up. Tahta told us about how he and his cousin sailed to Antarctica and their boat hit a rock and almost sunk.  Kyle is hoping our boat to Antarctica won’t meet the same fate.  Tahta ends up cooking us Argentine steaks on his home grill which looks like it could rival a commercial wood fire grill in the US.  We stay until midnight even though we have a 5:45am wake up call tomorrow. Big shout out of thanks to Tahta for hosting us.