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October 16, 2007
Day 8: Buenos Aires
I couldn't pass up the opportunity to do some more bird-watching at Costanera Sur and for the first hour or so, it was really nice and relaxing as we walked along the main reserve trail and stopped and looked at birds. The highlight, however, was definitely watching two fork-tailed flycatchers glide into the air in search of insects but before I could get a good shot of these birds, we suddenly started getting bitten by mosquitoes (we had forgotten to put on repellent) and we started walking briskly towards the exit. I was wearing long pants, long sleeves, and a jacket but the mosquitoes still managed to get me on my finger and feet. The reserve is located in Puerto Madero, a waterfront neighborhood which nearly entirely comprised of skyscrapers and construction sites. We walked along the boardwalk to Puente de la Mujer, Calatrava's Bridge of the Woman and made our way to Centro, the historic core of Buenos Aires. We had lunch at Filo where I had the best steak I ate in Aregentina. It was a steak with morels (I've had a weakness for morels ever since I had them in Paris) and it was cooked perfectly (unfortunately, a lot of the restaurants we went to overcooked the steaks I ordered). We then stopped off at the Museo de Arte Moderno which was a big disappointment.
Since most of the stores were closed when I had gone there last Sunday, we returned to Palermo where I happily shopped while Adam waited very patiently (Adam definitely deserves muchas smooches for the patience he displayed while I went clothes and crafts shopping) and we had dinner at a very good Middle Eastern restaurant. Even though it was pretty brisk in Buenos Aires, I still managed to get bitten by more mosquitoes outside the restaurant. On a side note, I'm not sure why there are so many mosquitoes in B.A. but during our second weekend in the city (which I understand followed several days of rain), we got bitten quite a lot--at the reserve, at night in the city, in the hotel, and on the train to Tigre and I was told that B.A. experienced an invasion of mosquitoes last summer and it's expected to be even worse this summer. Can't say I envy Portenos in this regard.
Posted by Jennifer at October 16, 2007 08:50 PM