October 27, 2025 . Museums, Metros, Melei, Markets.

We are now up one ATM card and up one jacket… back to ground zero…except minus one international drivers license.

We opted to have breakfast at a little cafe down the street (eggs, medialuna/croissant, yogurt) and then headed to the bank that ate Mike’s ATM card.. We explained what happened and the guy was fairly nonchalant; I think it happens often. We needed to identify which ATM console had the problem and he went in the back… and voila! the ATM card. So Mike is “whole” again. Then as we walked along one of the boulevards we spotted a mens clothing store and Mike bought an inexpensive windbreaker (will probably last a few months) to last him for the remainder of the trip. Good thing, because it suddently got really cold. In the 50s! And this is spring here in Argentina. Seems like it’s going to be like that for the next few days.

From the bank we headed to the metro (Sube) to get to the Museum of Modern Art which is located in the San Telmo neighborhood. We now know the routine so public transit is a snap.

It was about a six block walk from the station to the museum and along the way we could see the remnants of yesterday’s election: lots of signs and posters for different candidates, including for Myriam Bergman, the Jewish Atheist Trotskyite who won reelection by a big margin.

San Telmo is an interesting neighborhood and very different from the Recoletto where we are staying. Clearly lots of artists and political stuff going on here.

The museum, affectionately called MAMBA, had an interesting show looking into the relationship between visual arts and theater, and some other exhibits. And the museum itself is an interesting structure. It’s a small museum, housed inside a former tobacco factory, so it’s easy to navigate.

After leaving the museum we strolled through the San Telmo neighborhood to the 100+ year old market, stopping often to walk randomly on small streets. Naturally we stumbled on murals, small shops, and tango dancing in the park. It is said that the tango originated in the San Telmo neighborhood.

The San Telmo Market must have been amazing in its day. Today, the structure remains, but the interior is filled with restaurants, rather than produce and meat stands. Still it was great to see. And along the way we also found the usual array of “influencers” and wanna be influencers being photographed and doing selfies.

It was now about 4 pm and we hadn’t had any lunch so we grabbed some empanadas at the market and then headed to MALBA, the Museum of Latin American Art / Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, was in a completely different neighborhood, across town. The good news is that everything is open late in Buenos Aires, so we were fine. MALBA is a pretty impressive museum, small enough to feel comfortable and intimate with the work, yet impressive enough to anchor decent exhibits. We strolled through the current exhibit, Tercer Ojo, the Third Eye. The title comes from Frida Kahlo’s work (Diego and I) and focuses to some extent on the obsessions of Frida and Diego Rivera also focuses on the kind of vision that goes into collecting art.

We taxied from MALBA to the hotel and about an hour later headed to dinner at Julia, a small (22 seats), modern bistro-style that says it serves “indie food, which the Argentinians define as experimental, new, not traditional Argentinian food. — “pushing the limits of the minimum”. It’s located in the Villa Crespo neighborhood, which is adjacent or at the edge of the Palermo neighborhood. We had heard about the restaurant somewhere–maybe NY Times?–and booked it from the states. The concierge at the hotel was impressed that we knew of Julia since it is off the beaten path and so tiny. The menu is small and very interesting. We selected the a la carte menu rather than the tasting menu. Started with oysters that were presented as “oysters bloody mary”— spicy with the shell rim having some kind of very spicy salt or maybe a paprika. They were great. Then we had some kind of scallops that were served like a mousse, and then we had carbona cordycep (a mushroom that grows like pasta) which was cooked with some kind of wine or sauce and was seerved with a raw egg yolk on top, making it creamy and delicious. For the main course we shared a flank steak that just melted in your mouth…and we ended with a scoop of curry ice cream and “yellow fruits.” if you’re headed to Buenos Aires, I’d recommend Julia for a special dinner.

By the time we finished dinner it was about 11:15 (some diners were just arriving at the restaurant!), we walked about four blocks to a major street and quickly hailed a taxi. By the way, taxis are incredibly cheap here. Our 20-minute ride cost about $6.00 and there is no tipping in taxis.

OK… maybe too much info on the food for today, but Julia’s was really special. Haven’t figured out tomorrow’s plans but that will come.It’s about 1 am now and I need to get to sleep. Hopefully, not too many typos. I will reread tomorrow and correct.