Friday, August 12, 2016

Heading To Buenos Aires 2016: Part 5 - The Planetarium And The Purge

It was our last day in Buenos Aires, but since our bus wouldn't arrive until 10 p.m., we had a lot of hours left to enjoy the city, and we knew what we wanted to do and that was to head to the planetarium, but we figured it couldn't hurt to indulge in some KFC one last time.
Of course, we couldn't leave without getting a smoothie from Wendy's either.
After recovering from a brain freeze, we headed towards the planetarium, but we walked and walked, and we hadn't spotted the freaking thing. All we knew was that it was this dome shaped building.
 Our legs were just about to give out when we saw the dome building in the distance. We made it!
The Galileo Galilei planetarium had three levels. They currently charge $70 Argentine pesos ($4.77 USD) per person to go in. It's a pretty cool place to visit if you're a science buff, or you're into space stuff. If you're wondering what the dome on top is, it's a theater with a 360-degree projector that shows the audience a spectacular representation of the stars. Of course, if you've been to a planetarium before, you'd expect nothing less.
Alright, so  we'd seen enough and decided to head back towards the mall. We still had about 6 hours left to kill and we wanted to sit somewhere comfortable.
 I found this tourist group and decided to tag along for about a block. Funny enough, no one noticed.
 Along the way, Zach decided to go Vanna White on me.
We'd walked a lot over the last five days, and our legs and feet were rewarding us with excruciating pain. So we took advantage of every bus stop we saw and sat down to rest... and take selfies.
B.A.s Botanical Garden looked beautiful from the entrance itself. I'd been dying to go to this place, but we opted to just keep walking. Maybe we'll take a look next time we come for a visit.
I don't know what it is about vacations. Everyone always says it's supposed to relax you, but sometimes it can really stress you out. Maybe it was because we were tired, but we got on each other's nerves now and then. 
We decided to go watch "The Purge: Election Year," but we had to wait an hour and a half for the movie to start. So we found some interesting ways to entertain ourselves.
I'm sure Daniel wouldn't mind just this once.
The latest "Purge" movie was suspenseful, but not nearly as suspenseful as realizing that we needed to head to the bus station before we missed our bus. 
Given the rising cost of just about everything, it might be a while before we visit Buenos Aires again. Actually, I'd like to go to the 2017 Buenos Aires Comic Con, but that'll depend on who the celebrity guests are. This year they had Robert Englund, aka Freddy Krueger and Billy Boyd, one of Frodo's Hobbit friends, whose name I can't recall. Zach definitely wants to travel to Tierra Del Fuego or some other province we haven't explored. For now, it's back to our host province of Cordoba.

Until next time.

Thursday, August 4, 2016

Heading To Buenos Aires 2016: Part 4 - Casino Time!

We spent a lot of money on shopping and food, but mostly food because we're serial foodies. So we thought, how about we try to win back some of that money we spent? So off we went to the Casino in Puerto Madero.
Close Enough!
This is NOT the casino, but I thought it looked cool anyway.
After an excessive amount of walking, we finally found the casino. It's not exactly in plain sight. So it took a little longer than we expected to get there.
The interior of the casino was very nice! The last time, we were in a casino was at the Miccosukee Indian Resort in Miami, FL. I didn't get rich there either, but I had fun, which is exactly what we came here to do.
We had to pass through a security checkpoint, and I had so much junk in my pockets that the guard actually laughed. I was really embarrassed! We were also told that we weren't allowed to take photos beyond the checkpoint. Bummer! Fortunately, Zach managed to snap this photo of me without getting caught.
Come on baby! Daddy needs a new pair of shoes!
Was it fun? Yes! I don't know jack about poker so I avoided that completely. The last thing I needed was to owe anyone money. Playing the machines was a lot more fun. We each invested 10 pesos on separate machines and we ended up earning 50 pesos each after playing for only twenty minutes. Then we both got a bit ambitious. We really wanted to earn 2,000 pesos. Unfortunately, we lost what little money we earned in the blink of an eye. 

Since we were nearing the end of our trip, we didn't want to risk gambling away a bunch of money. So we decided to leave. Then I decided that we should at least try to earn some of the money we lost. 

Zach and I prayed to his dearly departed grandmother, who loved to gamble, and would have enjoyed the casino with us. Well, it paid off and we managed to recover what we'd lost and win an extra 25 pesos. Granted, in USD, that money isn't worth a whole lot, but it's better than nothing.
How cool is this? A Concert paying tribute to the coolest band ever.
And this is what happens when you turn your back on him for a second
After the casino, we headed to the Alto Palermo Mall for some KFC and to do a little window shopping.
After pigging out on some crispy fried chicken, some fries and some Cole slaw, we decided to look around the mall. We actually found two books in English, and of course, we bought them.
This was our last night at the hotel and we weren't sure when we'd visit B.A. again, so we decided to go to Ugi's and order ourselves some of their delicious pizza.
We figured it couldn't help to compliment the pizza with some KFC side orders too
I didn't mind pigging out, especially since we weren't going to find this quality of food when we went back to Cordoba. One thing was certain, both of our butts would have to be glued to our stationary bike when we got home.
Check out the conclusion to our 5-part vacation in Buenos Aires as we head to the planetarium to gaze at the universe.