Day 32 -- Buenos Aires

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Hard as it was, we rolled out early again today for our last day in this beautiful city. Carol’s main desire here was to visit the crypt of Evita, aka Eva Duarte Peron. Check out the crypt with the dog with the shiny nose. Legend has it if you rub the dog’s nose you will return to Buenos Aires. We’ll be back! We hit the streets and walked north to the Recoleta Cemetery which is in our area of the city, passing through embassy row and a lot of very nice apartments and homes in the local neighborhood. Housing prices here are outrageous, with the average cost for a “nice” two-bedroom, one bath (that means with a toilet and a shower or a bathtub in the same room) and a place to park your ride (if you are dumb enough to attempt driving in this city) at between $300 - $500K. The heat had not yet come on so many people were out walking their pets, having coffee in sidewalk cafes, and the bells were ringing calling the people of Buenos Aires to Sunday morning mass, as this country is seriously Roman Catholic. We cruised through a street flea market and then took a nice “tourista bus” ride through the major portions of this large city, from the La Bocha ghetto (of Argentine Futbol fame), to the wealthy Rio de la Plata district, out amongst the city’s gardens, plazas, polo grounds and many monuments. We are not big bus riding fans, but we figured by last night we were just not going to be able to see all of the stuff we want to see walking the city in one day. This is a city teeming with 22 million people, and as we have written in the past, there are tons of little neighborhoods here that just really need investigation. We finished the day at our favorite little neighborhood restaurant and said good-bye to our friends there, packed up all of our gear, and are prepared to roll at 0400 manana for Cuzco, Peru, where our adventures at Machu Picchu begin.

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