Por eso me gusta vivir en las grandes ciudades.

In other words, this is why I like living in big cities. These photos were all taken within a four block radius of the apartment Abram and I are staying in. City life!

I love being able to go out the front door and walk to things, such as "our" corner cafe that's open 6am-1am, just 20 steps from our front door. Every sort of shop and store. Two nice small parks in two different directions. Also two farmers markets in two different directions along with quite a few little produce stands and delis. A variety of cafes and restaurants with food from around the world. A dozen bus lines and the subway heading in all directions. (YES we finally got SUBE cards!)

Buenos Aires is divided into 48 barrios (neighborhoods).

We are in Recoleta. It's considered the most European of all the barrrios and has a large number of Parisian-style buildings. The neighborhood came into existence during the cholera and yellow fever epidemics of the 1870's when wealthier people fled the low-lying areas near the port and settled on higher ground. Many of them built in the Belle Epoque style and quite a few of those buildings still stand.

The famous Recoleta Cemetary is about a mile from us; we haven't visited it yet but it's on the list. That section of the barrio is rather touristy, but the area where our apartment is located reminds us of the Upper Fillmore neighborhood where we first lived together at Sacramento and Steiner in SF. A nice combination of families, little shops and markets, and good restaurants.

We generally have breakfast in the apartment and head out late morning. Wander around, do something fun, have lunch somewhere. Maybe split up for the afternoon. Meet for an aperitif. During this first week we've only dined out once; the rest of the time we've cooked at home or just had an extended aperitif. Dining is late here!

"Our" corner cafe where we've had lunch once and aperitif several times:

Here are some random photos from the 'hood:

Time for an aperol spritz and a sit-down! It's crazy how many miles you can cover on city streets.

We have another 10 days here then will head to Uruguay for a couple of weeks. Then back to BA for 2-3 months; we are narrowing down our apartment search and plan to stay here in the same neighborhood. If it ain't broke why fix it?

Hasta luego !