Yikes! Our time in Buenos Aires is winding down so quickly! We had a great day, though, that started off leisurely (as a Saturday should) and ended with some culture.

Just a few blocks from the apartment is Buenos Aires’ Jardin Botanico (Botanical Garden). Ryan can only “relax” for just so long, so he went exploring the garden this afternoon. It’s a free venue operated by the city and it was quite busy today. Here are just a handful of the photos from there …

Entrance to the Jardin Botanico

Tipa Blanca trees, which drip big drops of liquid. It feels like a light spring shower when you stand under the trees. They can be found all around town. At first we thought it was birds, then realized it was just the trees.

There are ferrel cats living in the jardin and this one reminded me of our Dixie.

There are lots of ponds, statues, and resting places throughout the jardin.

One specimen they have is the Washingtonia palm from the U.S. The Washingtonia is native to the Palm Springs area.

Dramatic orchid

Jacarandas on the perimeter of el Jardin Botanico

Once back at the apartment, there was time for some picture taking of the apartment grounds itself so we can remember where we lived for the past two weeks …

Palermo Uno 1 - our home for the past couple weeks in BsAs.

Palm tree sculptures outside our apartment building

This evening, we walked back to the Recoleta area to enjoy some hamburguesas … hamburgers. We’ve enjoyed Argentina’s steaks, but haven’t had any burgers yet. We had researched good hamburgeusa joints before coming to town and found beFrika … a unique restaurant concept that sells mini burgers they call “Tini Minis.” The burgers were very tasty!

beFrika in the Recoleta. (Photo credit: travelavenue.com.br)

A couple of our Tini Minis. There are several different styles of burgers to choose from and you can mix and match them. Here is a "Classic" and a "Honolulu."

After dinner, we walked over the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes. Once a year, Buenos Aires museums host “La Noche de los Museos” and tonight was that night for 2010. All of the museums are open, free of charge. We had grand plans of attending a couple museums at least. However, when we arrived we found the line to be enormous … but it did move quite quickly. There was so much to see, though. We were in this one museum until well after 11pm.

Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes

A look down one of the museum's galleries

We did get a snap (without flash) of this Picasso, Femme Alongee, before a security guard asked us to put the camera away. Oops!

We saw pieces from several artists throughout time: Renoir, Degas, Manet, Picasso, Monet, Van Gogh, Gaugin, Rembrandt, Cezanne, Lautrec, many Rodin sculptures, and many others. There was also a nice exposition of contemporary Argentine artists. We felt really fortunate to get to see so many fine pieces in one night.

Now we’re back in our apartment, ready to set an alarm (what?!?!) for tomorrow morning. We’re taking a biking tour up the Rio Plata and we have to be at our meeting point early (by vacation standards, that is). Photos and story tomorrow!