Sunday/ Domingo/ Vasánap

Back home in Yanquilandia, I never felt like Sunday was anything special. It was a day to sleep late, hang out at home, get ready for the coming week, do laundry, homework, or whatever, get over your hangover from the night before, and dread getting up for work on Monday.
Not so in Buenos Aires. Porteños take their day of rest seriously. Most shops are closed and good luck finding an ATM that has any money left in it. The streets are finally quiet and (relatively) empty. Sunday in Buenos Aires in the summer is a day to be spent outside, sipping mate in a plaza, going on a picnic in the park, making out with your novio/a, playing fútbol, working on your tan like it's a job. Above all though, it's a day for family.
So what is an expat to do? Well, there are some very nice street fairs - San Telmo, Recoleta, and especially Mataderos (folk-dancing, helado artesanal, very few tourists, Northern Argentine food...)
But this Sunday I tried something new and went to the Reserva Ecológica Costanera Sur in Puerto Madero. It's basically a long boardwalk, lots of sunny, grassy areas, a little crafts fair, some random carnival rides for kids, and a huge nature reserve/ bird sanctuary. For a nature reserve, yeah, it's not spectacularly pretty. But it's a lovely scene anyway, lots and lots of families, little kids running around, dogs, a parrilla stand every 10 feet and ice cream vendors on bikes.
Sophy and I made it our mission to try as much food as possible and between us ate a choripan (chorizo on bread), a homemade alfajor, and a bondiola (a sandwich made with grilled pork), all delicious and very fresh. I could tell you other nice things about Costanera Sur but really, aren't the 700 parrillas enough reason to go?