Buenos Aires- city of "cool"

My title is the first sentence of Candida's book about Argentina and my my how true it is. I am a big fan of Argentina and that is only after two days! Yesterday we went to Santelmo, this area of B.A. that is close to downtown. On Sundays they have markets with lots of touristy items as well as antique purses, trinkets, clothes, ya know the goods. I think this is my favorite place so far (okay so I've only been here 2 days, but still, some things you just know) and to top it off we met some really sweet people who are involved with a church and ministry in argentina- talk about an answer to prayer! :)

We started off with fresh squeezed oj and then walked around for hours looking at all the cool stalls. I regretted not changing more money into pesos, but Candida and I have decided to make this a regular sunday event- especially since the church is just 10 mins away! Interestingly enough, most of the vendors don't like to bargain which is a slight bummer. We also stopped by a cafe to enjoy some vegetable pie that consisted solely of spinach, pizza and yummy empanadas. Check out my pics on fb too if you would like to see more of what it looked like!

Today, we went shopping and then went to this tour of a palace built after Dante's Divine Comedy. The 9th floor and above were designed like "heaven" and the floors below were like "hell". I'm pretty sure the tour guide thought he came up with the best line ever when he said "see you in hell" when he sent us back down to the 8th floor. The view from the top was wonderful as you can see in the pictures and you could even see a tiny bit of Uruguay. We walked around the Congress area, took some much needed touristy pics and then jus walked the 45 mins back home. I love that we get to walk around the city because it is so beautiful and there are a million and one interesting/cute stores to look at :)

Hope you all are doing so well!

grace and peace

~shreya