A Day of Recoleta

Avenida Cordoba is the big major street near where we are located.  You have to be careful where you are crossing because the cars dont stop.  All the taxis around here (radio taxis) are black with yellow rooves.  So I forgot to mention before that Papa and I found an HSBC bank machine in the mall and weren't sure how high the limit would be on how much we can take out at one time/day or the fee we'd incur from the bank here- I took out 500 pesos with an 11,58 charge - total was 150.65 CAD!!!! weee....Guess that means down here I have some doe.


We are in another cafe - called Desiderio where they have pastries and coffees (full menu as well, but we didn't order).  It's still "winter" here and I use that term loosely because it's never colder than 10 degrees C but the observation is that everyone is still done up in furs and leathers and winter gear.  The intersection of Colonel Diaz and Santa Fe was crazy busy - 38000 cabs here compared to only 2800 in Toronto - well maybe not those exact numbers, but you get the idea.  We caught a cab at the Alto Palermo mall (another insanely huge mall with different levels and stores everywhere) to Recoleta which is the district where vacation tourists stay and has a reputation for nice housing and expensive places - this also has the cemetary where Eva Peron is buried.  We bought a cell phone for me outside the mall for 159 pesos...that's like 55CAD.  However,apparently the phone company sends you a text with the phone number in the next 3 days...weird, no?  Larry went off to get a massage and Papa and I went to the Recoleta cemetery.

view of the top of the cemetery from the Church

The cemetery is incredible....you have to see it to believe it. Neither one of us had seen a place so huge with mausoleums as big as small houses...it was impressive yet creepy at the same time.  Most of them say the family name on the outside...when you look in, there are usually 2 caskets and then, most often, stairs leading down to 5 or 6 more caskets on top of each other in levels.  Important family belongings are there.  Many mausoleums have their own altars.

it's a maze in here

We ran into a number of English-speakers tasked with the same mission as us...finding Evita's mausoleum.  Eventually, we all split up and went down different aisles trying to find her.  Someone found her and turns out she is buried there with the whole Duarte family - she was born in 1919, maried Juan Peron in 1951, but then died of cancer in 1952.  Today, she is buried 30ft. below ground and cemented in concrete because in 1955, her body was actually stolen and taken to Europe where she was stashed there under a different name.  When Juan Peron died in 1974, her coffin was sent back here to be with her husband (he's buried somewhere else though).

Evita's masoleum

The Cementario de la Recoleta itself gives you a sense of "walking into a city in miniature and...provides an architectural and artistic history of B.A. from its inauguration in 1882.  Nation's great leaders and enemies are buried...conflicting architectural styles and disagreement about who is buried there and why" (p. 177).  i.e.  Some tourism officials deny Evita is buried there because she is not in the same category as others that are there.  The cementery used to be an orchard back in the 18th century.

Papa and I wandered into the church - the Basilica de Nuestra Senora del Pilar which was also spectacular.

Walking into it there are these huge doors that open to a serene Church with a silver altar and enormous gold displays of holy figures.  The book tells me that it was built between 1716 and 1732.  We went into the Cloisters which was where monks used to stay and it was a 3-level museum for about 4 pesos.  Outside of the Church, there are a bunch of parks where there was the biggest and most intricate arts and crafts fair I've ever seen.  All these little booths that wound around the park...vendors calling out to you as you go by...(Oh, I forgot, on the Subte, you have to watch your purse and people will come by and put things on your lap which you either give them a bit of money for, or hand it back to them).  In Toronto, if you sold stuff on the Subway you'd be kicked off!  There was a live rock band playing at the Plaza Francia (another park) for a small crowd that had gathered.

Papa got a 10 peso calling card which would give us only an hour to NS.  But, for some reason, the landlines in Grand Pre were busy, which never happens.  I called Ian and it worked fine, so now we are slightly concerned about why we can't get through.  Funny thing is, since the phone system here is crazy, the same calling card will only buy 10 minutes to an Argentinian cell phone...Gosh, I feel like I'll never be able to get these knots out of my back from the airplane.

We wet for dinner in Palermo Viejo at a very nice restaurant that Papa was drawn to because it had big windows, a small menu, and less than a dozen tables - the social Paraiso - and across from that on Honduras was a very rowdy sports bar.  We got back to the apt. and one of the other apts. was having a birthday party - still going strong- not sure how I'm going to be able to sleep!