Open 25 Hours A Day

A visitor cannot understate how late Buenos Aires operates. Perhaps the most accurate observation is that it rarely closes other than late Saturday and Sunday morning. Our dining reservations at 8 PM found us in empty restaurants.  Eating at 11:00 pm at home or in restaurants is common practice. Bars open at midnight and folks apparently don’t really show up until 2 am. We wouldn’t know of course, because our American clocks had us wiped out by midnight. With this nightlife culture comes the need for beverages, cigarettes, snacks, and lottery scratch offs at odd hours. The chain “Open 25 Hours” dominates nearly every street corner, all with seemingly different offerings. We wondered why they even needed doors. 

Our first adventure took us to the Museum of Latin American Art (known as as MALBA). In a very posh neighborhood by our American standards, the grocery store apparently comes to them rather than vice versa. Streetside was a nearly full service grocery (if you exclude cheap processed foods), with fish, meat, eggs, dairy, cheese, bulk grains, breads, and produce. 

MALBA impressed us all!  The permanently collection was lively and imaginative. Unlike Latin American art museums I have seen in the US, this museum didn’t solely focus on indigenous experience, wars, and workers rights. The art was imaginative, colorful, and a physical representation of the cosmopolitan culture of the city. 

The museum featured a temporary installation of a Latin American textile artist, a real treat. We marveled at the planning, patience and attention to detail necessary to make her creations. 

After the museum, we went on a big shop through the city, making numerous neighborhoods with a X on our maps.  On a cultural note:  stores love their front doors (even in perfectly safe high end neighborhoods).  One must walk tot hr door or ring the bell to ask to be admitted.  The shop attendants then decide whether they think it’s worth letting you in and unlock the door.  Shopping in Buenos Aires is dominated by local Argentinian brands with very few exceptions.  Portenos (Port People aka Buenos Aires residents) are fashionable and image conscious, reflected in their posh fashions and thriving fashion design community.  

Well-designed shopping interiors display only a single item of each offering. Store workers offer other sizes from the back and get a brand new item out of a plastic package when you buy it.   

Joel unlocks a new coffee level, Coffee and Tonic. 

Jane couldn’t stop snickering at how Caterpillars is a high fashion brand in Argentina, one of the very few imports beyond Zara, H&M, Bath & Body Works, and LaCoste. 

After a hearty day of shopping and roaming, we had reservations for the “world’s best steakhouse”, Don Julio’s.  This is a hot ticket reservation, made immediately after reservation period opened.  While we waited to be seated, the crowd of diners were offered empanadas and sparking wine.  Both were a hit, Jane and Teaghan’s first empanadas.

This one is for you, YZ:

After a long day of walking and eating, we prepped for an early morning tomorrow. We are off to Uruguay!