A nice neighborhood, with shops and herds of cats.

Our destination today was the neighborhood of Palermo, which ended up being the nicest neighborhood we’ve been to yet in Buenos Aires. It was cute, clean and quiet (not so much traffic)… a great place to spend the afternoon. The sun even came out for us a little bit.

But first we had to get there. It was rather long walk that warranted a rest stop along the way: Starbucks, which was a complete madhouse. After a very sweet and tasty dulce de leche Frappucino, we walked to Freud y Falher, a small café in Palermo Soho recommended by Fodor’s. This place had a great atmosphere, good service, and a vegetarian menu del dia for only $10... sold! It was tasty and wonderful, although Steve thought the portion was too small.

From here, we went to the Botanical Gardens. As we walked along the wrought iron gate looking for the entrance, we noticed a good number of really huge cats lying lazily inside. I have never seen cats congregate like this, like cows. And…is this some sort of mutant variety? They were all enormous.  

The gardens were small but very pleasant. It was greener than I expected for early in the year. We just wandered around looking at trees and some interesting statues. And more of the low-energy cats… they were all over in the park. One of them actually got up to put his paws on my leg, as if saying, “hey where’s my food? I haven’t eaten in hours.”  

Next we stopped in to Palermo Alto, a shopping mall. We were looking for warm outer ware for our trip to Patagonia, but there were no deals to be found at this mall and we left empty handed.   

From there it was a nice walk home. The sun was out for most of the time and the wind had calmed down, almost tricking us into thinking Spring had arrived and was here to stay.