"I see dead people"... Well it is a cemetery

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A short word to round off our time in Buenos Aires before moving swiftly on to Peru. During our last days in BA, we managed to shift our backsides, and go and look at some touritsy bits. This was helped by the fact that all the cool people we met have shifted on out, so there was no reason to hang around the hostel and downtown.

Buenos Aires is a very "square" town. All streets are organised in "blocks" and this is also how you tell someone where anything is, 3 blocks down, 2 blocks right and so on.

We went to the Recoleta Cemetery, which was a surprisingly interesting few hours. Now, I know that looking around a place full of dead people doesn´t exactly sound like fun, but Recoleta is a little different. It is more like a city for the dead than your average cemetery, they have buildings, not gravestones, and streets joining them all together. The tombs there are for whole families, not just for one, and many have several rooms to them. You can see inside of them which makes it all the more interesting as some have very ornate interiors with alters, seats and pictures. A more morbid edge to it is that you can see all the coffins inside, some with pictures of the deceased on them, just in case you wondered whom was inside. We overheard, or a tour that so happened to be passing, that land in Recoleta is more expensive than in Japan and you have to be extremely rich to die here. Also the families of the deceased are liable for the upkeep of the plots, and hence, due to the expense, some have fallen into ruin.

The main tourist draw here is the grave of Evita, one of the most famous names in Argentina. We didn´t think much of her place to be fair, but then I guess that is to be expected, it would have been a dissapointment to see some DisneyLand style monument to the great lady. There isn´t much more to say about it than that, but look at the pictures to get a sense of the grandure, and if you are ever in BA, give it a visit, it is free and well worth it.

Our final night in Hostel06 Central was spent in a dorm of 10 due to a booking issue on our behalf which meant our private room was let to someone else. We had bunkbeds in what was possibly the nosiest room we have ever tried to sleep in, cheaper though than our private space. Being on the crossing of 2 roads in the center of town, on a main bus root, with building works going on, and it being too hot not to have the window open, all contributed to the noise. Even with earplugs wedged deep in the ears, everthing was merely dulled, needless to say it wasn't a sound nights sleep. Not such a biggie though, as it was only for one night, and also, we are gypsy travelers afterall so you have to put up with some annoyance to get it cheap!!!! 😊

Our final noteworthy event in BA was meeting a hospitality club member Silvia and her partner Matt. We went out for dinner with them on the last night and chatted the evening away in fine surroundings by the river. They were extremely generous to us, and also gave us a whistlestop tour of BA by night, ticking all the sights we had failed to see in 8 days of being there. A big thanks to them for their generousity and also their great company.

As our flight to Lima was quite late we spent the last day in Buenos Aires wandering around Puerto Madero which reminded us very much of Liverpool with the docks turned into stylish apartements. Close to that we visited the famous San Telmo with it cobbled streets and artists, a great stroll in the afternoon.

Finally we called a cab to the airport and made our way out of Argentina. But we will be back 😊 on our way from Punta Arenas, Chile to Bariloche, the last leg of our stay in South America.

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Photos

Through the cross
You will probably have to click and get the bigger sized version of this one.

Inside a tomb
A bit like through the keyhole, but without the annoyance of Loyd Grossman

Evita
This plaque is on Evita's place

Empanada
Nothing to do with a cemetery but there is no blog entry without food so we sneaked this one in :) This is basically a mini-cornish pasty, but very typical of Argentina. I will leave you cornish to fight it out with them who got there first and invented the thing. It's very good and it comes with various fillings.

Comments

[Sheila]

I would have thought there might have been a pair or two of shoes hanging around Eva's place. Reminds me of Pompeii ........quite dead. Looking forward to your photos from Peru..... Hope you are keeping a recipe book would like to try some of the things you are eating specially the pasty.Mmmmmmm Luv to you both Mum

[rmusse]

Have you come across Elvis there?
I once heard that Elvis was last spotted in Buenos Aires eating Tamales. Maybe Recoleta's cemetary would be the perfect place to look for him ahahha... been there and it's indeed a place worth a visit. :) Empanadas are just wonderful really. If you havent tried tamales, you'd better try it before you leave South America!! ;) Keep it up!! Love, Ruama