Shopping

Talk about a successful shopping trip. I left my hostel around 12:00 to head down to the calle Lavalle (calle means "street"), a long open-air pedestrian shopping area. A little on the touristy side, of course, but some nice stuff in there regardless. I was very much in need of a white t-shirt, because the one I brought had wine stains all over it (I rock at packing), and I finally found a nice fitted one at Zara, of all places. I know: you come all the way to Buenos Aires and you shop at Zara? It's a little lame, I admit, but were there a single local clothing store that didn't sell football jerseys, and nothing but football jerseys, I'd go there for my t-shirt. I guess I was in the wrong part of town if I wanted to buy an Argentinian shirt without blue and white stripes.

The beautiful Avenida 9 de julio, "9th of July Avenue".

A better shot of the obelisk that pins together two major streets in Buenos Aires: the Avenida 9 de julio and the Avenida Corrientes.

Next up was sandals, and I had been looking for these since I had arrived, with little success. Not many men's sandles being sold around here, and not for less than $120 pesos, which struck me as absurd. $45 CAD for sandals? I pay $0.50 for a perfectly good empañada and you want me to give you $45 for sandals? Not happening. So what would the calle Lavalle be able to offer that the areas I had already searched couldn't? How about a sandal warehouse liquidation sale! Think I'm joking?




Not a great picture, I admit - I just snapped it on the fly - but you get the idea. So that went pretty well: a nice pair of brown leather sandals for about $25 CAD, a much more civilized price. Hurrah. So I came back to the hostel and grabbed a nice prosciutto sandwich along the way to celebrate. The folks in the sandwich shop were quite nice and patient with my poor Spanish, as has been almost everyone here. The guy who has been the friendliest to me so far was looking to scam me for a few pesos, I think, but numbers two through ten in the top ten nicest porteños were all genuine, so that's pretty good.

calle Lavalle

I think the sign in the background reads "Jesus Christ is the Lord; Universal Church of the Kingdom of God".

One of the many beautiful parks in Buenos Aires. This one is in the Plaza San Martin.