We had a lazy day mostly due to the weather. The heat and humidity are really quite exhausting, so we spent the morning relaxing in the apartment. For lunch, we were in the mood for a light meal. Traditional Argentine food is heavy on meat and potatoes, but there are a lot of vegetarian options these days. We found an excellent vegetarian restaurant called Puerta a few blocks away. The place was small but the food was creative and delicious.

Then we went down the street and got gelato.

Then we saw this, and Chad said, “Huh, that’s not how we do things in the United States.”

In the afternoon, we wandered around the botanical garden. We were hoping the shade in the garden would provide a refuge from the heat, but we were still hot and sweaty. Exploring the garden did provide an interesting distraction, and we spent a couple of hours there.

We returned to the apartment at 5 pm just as it started to rain and continued to rain for the next two hours. We alternated between reading, relaxing, and watching the rain across the city. 

When the rained stopped, the temperature was much cooler, so we went back outside for a walk around the neighborhood. We don’t know if any grocery stores or restaurants will be open on Christmas day, so we picked up some food for our fridge.

We had dinner at a restaurant across the street called Ganzo. It’s up on the second floor, so it was an interesting vantage point to watch people and cars pass by below. We started with a cocktail and then had dinner at  9 pm, the typical dinner hour in Buenos Aires. The food wasn’t that great, but it was nice to sit there for a couple of hours, enjoying each other’s company.

After that, we called it a night and headed home.