January 19,

We were up and around by 0730. No bird this morning either, yay! Humm… if only there were screens you could use – just saying. We had our Javas with breakfast of an egg sandwich with tomato wedges. The tomato was so good. We will definitely be buying our produce at the local little mom and pop place.

We went out around 1100ish for a walkabout. We walked by two nearby plazas. The first one was Plaza Espana. This little green space is decorated with cement, tiled seating areas. They are lovely and pop in the sun. The tile work is around the bottom of light posts also… definitely reminds one of old world Spain. There was even a tiled monument of pictures with a large statue, that basically paid homage to Spain as one of Argentina’s prominent progeny/cultural influences. One tiled picture was a boat of people with a title caption 12 de Octubre de 1492 – Tierra. I deduced this to be Columbus landing in 1492. There were other tile pictures with Conquistadors; one with Cowboys, and some Native “Indian” in a Mission setting. Beautiful painted tile work. In this plaza was also a working tiled fountain. A few local people were enjoying this little plaza, with a couple of homeless people sleeping on a couple of the seating benches.

Next we walked through another little plaza square, called Plaza Italia. This plaza has a large sculptured fountain of Dante’s Inferno, and also a statue, somehow paying tribute to Italy’s heritage in Argentina. The fountain and statue are right in the center of the square and definitely give an Italian vibe. Also a kid’s playground area that a couple of kids (with parents) were taking advantage of. There were some other people enjoying the shade and just green spaces. A couple of homeless people were also here as well – sleeping in a non-working fountain. We see why people really use these spaces, but homelessness could be an issue.

We walked on to the main park, our primary destination. It is called Parque San Martin. The parque was a nice, huge green space. Actually, it was larger than we thought it would be. It has museums, eateries, a Rose garden and a small lake! To get here was a little farther than I thought, but, oh my! It was worth every step. We did not by any means explore it all and will be coming back here a few times. We walked through to the rose garden and were rewarded with many different blooming roses. Most were actually past their prime, but there were buds for the next showy display! Many bees were frequenting them! The lake was on the other side of this garden. It is a long, skinny, man-made body of water. Jeff said he thought it to be perfect for scullers. There was a building – like a boat house on the far edge, and sure enough there were sculling boats tied up. No one – right now – was out on the water at this time of day… too hot probably.

From here we went to a large fountain statue depicting maidens collecting water and figures holding up the main center of the fountain. We then started to exit, going by a bike rental kiosk. That would be the way to see all of this park. As we did go to the edge, we passed through the main gate entry/exit. It was at the corner of the park at a light. Cars and buses have roads through the park. Anyway, we walked back to our place, stopping at a pasta shop, and bought some frozen handmade Raviolis. We took them home and had a “lunner” of Pink Salmon Ravioli with pesto and bread with some wine.

Later we had some popcorn and watched a couple short Star Wars sagas of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Simple living, just someplace else