Buenos Aires - Days 3-4

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Our third day in Buenos Aires started off with a nice breakfast before walking once again to the hop-on-hop-off bus stop near the zoo. We waited for about thirty minutes, enjoying the dog walkers who were in charge of anywhere between 5 to 15 dogs; this is such a dog friendly city - we saw them everywhere! We just had two stops until we reached our planned destination: La Recoleta neighborhood. Here is where the famous La Recoleta cemetery is located but there are additional things to see, including some more colorful buildings. This is a very upscale neighborhood as well.

As we walked to the cemetery, we passed by the Basilica Nuestra Senora del Pilar, which is painted a stark white, in contrast to the adjacent multi-colored cultural building. It was surprisingly peaceful and the interior was tastefully decorated. It was a nice start. Then we walked to the cemetery next door and got some cheap tickets (card only). This was one of my to-do items; see the famous cemetery and the tomb of Eva Peron. L always teases me about 'taking long walks in the cemetery' but he agreed to do so this time! It is a beautiful, regal neighborhood and we had an intense discussion about the moral implications of people walking around to see their final resting places. There was a long line to pass Eva Peron's tomb, which I was not really needing to wait for - why is there a line!?!? So, we approached from the other end and, even though I could not get a full view of it, I got enough to satisfy my curiosity.

Eva Peron was a self-made woman who married her husband, Juan Peron, when she was young. She had a questionable early life and met Juan at a party before he was even in the political spectrum, but he eventually became president and she the First Lady of Argentina. She heavily promoted labor rights and women's suffrage and was named Spiritual Leader of the Nation. However, she died of cancer in her prime at the young age of 33. There was a lot of drama around her body which was stolen, hidden, and even moved to Italy, Spain, and back to Argentina before coming to her final resting place here more than 20 years after her death. Such an interesting story that I need to look at further.

After this, we crossed the beautifully painted, yet cracking pedestrian bridge. We had the intention again to try to ride the HOHO bus the rest of the route to explore, but there was a huge line and no bus in sight. After waiting about 10 minutes, we were like, we don't want to wait longer and there is no guarantee we will even get on, so we decided to walk. The whole HOHO bus thing was frustrating and this was our last attempt. It was pretty hot, but we took it easy. After walking about 30 minutes, we finally found a nice place to eat lunch. The Bakano restaurant is housed in a building painted a vivid purple and mainly serves pizza. We sat up on the balcony overlooking the busy streets of a cute neighborhood, while eating empanadas and pizza, with a cold beer. Then we walked back to our hotel, about another 25-30 minutes. There, we passed out completely. L slept about 15 hours.

The next morning we got breakfast from our preferred location before packing our bags and moving to the Sheraton Hotel and Convention Center that was provided as part of our next phase. Thankfully, our room was ready. We dumped our bags and then headed back out into the beautiful, hot day for our final day in Buenos Aires. For now.

We walked towards Plaza de Mayo, which is essentially dedicated to the revolution in May 1810. The Casa Rosada (presidential palace), Metropolitan Cathedral and the history museum are all in this area. We started at the Cathedral Metropolitana de Buenos Aires. It looked like a government building from the outside, but the inside is very typical cathedral layout However, the main draw here is the alcove to the right which houses the mausoleum of General Jose de San Martin. The black sarcophagus is guarded by three female angels that represent Argentina, Chile and Peru which were freed by the general. It was a touching tribute to this leader.

Next we visited the Museo Historico Nacional del Cabildo de Buenos Aires y de la Revolucion de Mayo (Cabildo). This museum is housed in the historical town hall and now holds the specifics of the revolution of 1810. It was all in Spanish but free. The information was easy to piece together and somewhat interesting, but the building itself is the real star. The view of the plaza is also lovely. So, we wandered around this building and grounds for about 40 minutes.

We returned to the plaza, past the Casa Rosada and made our way to the canal and Puente de la Mujer (Woman's Bridge), which is a pedestrian bridge with unique architecture. Sure enough, it was designed by Santiago Calatrava and opened in 2001 (he also designed the Liege train station that I love and the proposed al Sharq crossing in Doha). It opened in 2001 and is very nice. We also really like the waterfront restaurants on both sides, finally stopping for lunch and a drink. Lunch was nothing special - there were only a few places open of course, but it was relaxing. Except for the intense sun, which actually gave me a nice sunburn that peeled a few days later...

We continued our walk to the ecological reserve Costanera Sur. There are two lakes along the road, and two entrances into the large park area at the edge of the water. We went through the north entrance, free, and walked along the path for about 30 minutes. If I lived here or if we had been here longer, I would walk a longer route on the well marked trails. We saw lots of runners and many just enjoying the day in this lovely park. Indeed, I was pleasantly surprised about how much green space there is in Buenos Aires!

Getting thirsty and with no pesos to buy anything from the nearby food trucks, we tried to find a place for a drink on the way back to the hotel. There pretty much was nothing. So weird. So, we settled on just having a drink at the hotel lounge - I got a cold beer and cold pepsi and down them almost immediately. It was definitely the hottest day so far and we walked a lot today. I don' think we had a proper dinner that night, just some snacks at the lounge as we had a very early wake up call for the next phase of our adventure. We packed our stuff and left our bags outside our door and went to bed by 9.

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Buenos Aires
That's a cool building. We enjoy hop on hop off buses as it gives a good overview of the city.

[Ake Och Emma]

That's a cool bridge
I love that bridge. It looks awesome. /Ake