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Published: November 10th 2019
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Today was busy with places to go and much to see. We started out very early this morning to join a walking tour. Unfortunately they left before we arrived even though we were on time. Luckily we had planned ahead and had another walking tour in our plans starting one hour later. Maybe it was a good thing we missed the first because the second was very good. Dominique, the tour guide, has a degree in tourism and is very dedicated to her job. She did an excellent job and we learned many interesting facts about Buenos Aires and Argentinian history.
We stopped to view the Obelisco which is a national monument in the center of the city. It is a place where people from the city gather to celebrate events. The Teatro Colon was visited which is considered one of the important tourist attraction in Buenos Aires. Almost every important artist in the history of theater has performed here. It has a seating capacity of 2,500 and standing room for 500 more. We stopped to view a Jewish Synagogue and learned that Buenos Aires has one of the largest Jewish populations in the world. They even have
a kosher McDonald's here, only the second one in the world other that Israel. We crossed over Sante Fe Avenue Which is the widest street in the world, even is a Guinness World record holder. The challenge here is for people to get across all of the street on one signal light crossing since there are medians in between. We saw a couple of the original residences of the rich families that came over from England. In the 1930's stock market crash these families lost there homes to the government and now they are occupied by foreign country embassies, military clubhouses and government administration offices. Another site we visited was the Basilica of the Holy Sacrament.. We moved along to the Memorial for the soldiers that were killed during the war over the Malvines Islands. This was a political war to take back the island from England. However even after winning the war the inhabitants voted to remain under the English. We saw the Tower of English which had been donated by England but the people are unhappy with the name because of its' association with England. The name has been changed but the people still call it the Towere
of English. In the Recoleta neighborhood we saw a gum tree. We understand it is the oldest one in Buenos Aires. It was either planted in 1722 by a monasterian monk or in 1730 by a person from India who planted a seed. Near the tree a street art fair was happening. There were artists selling jewelry, paintings, wood crafts and many more artifacts. Our last stop in the tour was the Recoleta Cemetery It has the largest collection of mausoleums in the world. There are 4,591 vaults in this Cemetery are above ground.
On our return to our home away from home we stopped to have dinner. We chose Chicken Pamplona with potatoes and green sleeves. What a way to end the day after twelve hours on the move!
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Pearl T
non-member comment
Second stop
Never knew there was so much of interest in Argentina. What an interesting place.