After less than six weeks in the United States, basically Thanksgiving and Christmas, we hopped on an overnight flight south to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Automated electronic passport controls made entry a breeze.
Our Airbnb is in the Palermo Soho neighborhood, about an hour by car from the main international airport, Aeropuerto Internacional Ezeiza (EZE). Two things quickly stand out. First, this is a huge city. Ridiculously large. (It ranks around 20th in population in the world at about 15.5 million for the metropolitan area.) Second, there are a lot of green spaces and trees.
Palermo Soho rapidly became one of our favorite neighborhoods anywhere. It’s quiet. The sidewalks are wide and generally flat, with lots of trees and shade. Nice restaurants, cafés, and shops are everywhere. There is minimal vehicle traffic. A metro station is minutes away.
We arrived at the tail end of a heat wave, with high temperatures nearing 100° F (about 38°C) for two days. Cool water out of the tap is not an option during a heat wave. We got hot water and really hot water. After the temperatures dropped down to a more normal 85° F, we were able to at least get room temperature water. It did not take long to get into the habit of keeping a glass or two of water in the refrigerator.
Our new city, new grocery store routine continued as expected. In the first two days we visited five grocery stores: Carrefour Express; Carrefour Market; Dia; Coto Market; and, Hipermercado Coto.
Carrefour Express is just a small convenience store. Close by, it is good for cokes, milk, and juice, but that’s about it. Carrefour Market has a very good selection, is reasonably close, but is the most expensive. Dia is just too small. The Coto Market is a bit larger, but very crowded as it has the best prices.
Hipermercado Coto is the most interesting (as it is a small department store), the least expensive, and has the best grocery selection. It is also the farthest away and at times is just crazy busy with shoppers. The first time we went there, Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire was seemingly played on a loop. It drove me up the wall.
We returned to Hipermercado Coto a few times if we were anticipating buying a lot of groceries. Otherwise it was easier, quicker, and more enjoyable to run over to the Carrefour Market.
Grocery stores in Buenos Aires still input identification numbers in their systems if a credit card is used for payment (not sure about cash). The law requiring this was repealed a few years ago, but the software used at checkout still has an input screen for this information. Coto religiously asks for an identification number. Carrefour usually bypasses this step, but you can see the identification request pop up on its screen if you watch.
From what I gather, any 8 or 9 digit number will work. No one really cares because the number is not validated. We showed a passport a several times, my driver’s license once, and occasionally I just rattled off a random 9 digit number in Spanish.
We tried self-checkout once, but the machines (at least at Carrefour) did not have an option to switch to English. Navigating self-checkout via Google Translate is not worth the time and effort.
As New Year’s is only two days away, beer tasting is urgent. We bought a selection of six beers from Carrefour. It did not take long, maybe 15 minutes, before Imperial Golden was declared the victor. That is to say it is the best of the bunch. Really they’re all mediocre.
Even mediocre is leaps and bounds better than what we got in Portugal, so we will be alright.
A few blocks from our place is Ecoparque Buenos Aires, the former zoo. The Buenos Aires Zoo, the first in Latin America, opened in 1888. The zoo closed 130 years later, to reemerge as the Ecoparque, with an apparent focus on conservation of local species.
The infrastructure of the zoo still exists: buildings; exhibits; cages; wide sidewalks; fences; ponds; bridges; bathrooms; food trucks; a playground; gift shop; and, even turnstiles at the entrance. Nothing was taken down or demolished.
Some former zoo animals are still found here: hippos; giraffes; flamingos; ostriches; and, a monkey or two. They are awaiting transfer to another zoo or are basically stuck in the Ecoparque. Freely roaming around the park are the Patagonia Mara (Cavy), basically a large rabbit look-alike rodent, and peacocks (the universal zoo bird).
It is both interesting and bizarre to walk around a zoo repurposed as a park. The giraffe and hippo exhibits are just like you would expect in a zoo. Yet other exhibits are either obviously empty or totally overgrown.
Being free, the park is very popular with walkers and families even though there are few real animals to see. The grounds, at least, are mostly kept up and there is a decent playground.
Across the street from Ecoparque is Jardín Botánico Carlos Thays, the botanical gardens. The gardens are divided into sections, with native Argentinian plants comprising the largest section, along with smaller areas for American, European, and African plants.
Think of this more like a high-end park, with a lot of shady paths with benches. As with the Ecoparque, it is free and a nice place to walk.
After a few days here, we’re still feeling the impact of the weirdest jet lag ever. Our sleep has not been disrupted as the time adjustment is negligible. Argentina is only two hours ahead of Eastern Time. It took us a few days to realize is the impact of flipping from the northern hemisphere to the southern hemisphere. Instead of 5:30 PM sunsets, we get 8:30 PM sunsets. Our innate sense of time is completely blown.
While trying to guess the correct time, unsuccessfully, Stephanie began raving about how much she likes Buenos Aires. Perhaps not as much as Kraków, Prague, or Nice, but not far behind. We’ll see if that holds up over the next month.
Garrett and Stephanie
If you have not already done so, read our other posts about Buenos Aires:
Buenos Aires, Argentina (January, 2026, Part II). Learning the Subte, and Sube; getting cash; exploring downtown.
For additional posts about Argentina, or elsewhere in the world, check out our Travel Blog. It contains collected links to all of our travel posts.
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