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Published: February 9th 2009
On Sunday my friends and I went to the world-famous Recoleta Cemetery, the final resting place of Argentina’s most famous and important figures. It’s a sprawling complex of mausoleums and above-ground graves that one could easily get lost in, literally and figuratively.
I’m sure it’s only out first visit to Recoleta, as we didn’t get the chance to explore it fully. We jumped onto a guided tour that was all in Spanish. Good practice for our Spanish, but not so good if you want to understand everything that is being said (we managed to understand some interesting snippets, including how Evita’s remains traveled to Italy and Spain before achieving their final resting place in Recoleta two decades after her death). Then, shortly after we visited the grave of Evita we lost our guide! So after only half an hour, we found ourselves wandering around aimlessly, taking pictures without really knowing who was important to history or why. You definitely need a guide to understand the significance and meaning of everything.
That said, it wasn’t a lost visit. What we did hear and understand was really interesting, and it was fun (is that the appropriate word to use when you’re visiting a cemetery?) to walk around and see all the architecture.
It was also a bit unnerving. All the family graves have entrances and rooms above ground, so you can easily look in and see stacks of coffins, along with altars and mini-chapels inside. Some of the graves have been abandoned by the families and have fallen into disrepair; we looked inside one of the abandoned ones and found a decayed coffin, complete with bones! Morbidity aside, much of the architecture is beautiful and elaborate, and it’s in a beautiful part of the city. I’m looking forward to going back some day for the full tour so I can understand all the interesting historical snippets that lie within the cemetery’s walls. Definitely a must-see.
We also went to see a giant metal sculpture of a flower called the "Floralis Generalis." I’ve heard that it closes at night and opens in the morning like a real flower, but others have heard that’s not true. I guess we’ll have to go see one night for ourselves. We finished off the day by getting ice cream at a local place called Gruta. Buenos Aires is the place for ice cream fanatics; the ice cream here is so much richer and tastier than in the United States!
Also, we conquered the city bus system, known as the collectivo. There are around 200 buses or collectivos that you can take, but the collectivos don’t go back the same way they came. For example, if you need to take bus 152, you need to make sure it’s the 152 that’s going in the right direction, otherwise you can end up on the outskirts of the city. I had heard horror stories of students taking the wrong buses and riding around the city for two hours. Fortunately, with some help from my host mom, we took the right ones and easily got to Recoleta and back for a couple of pesos and some change (It was probably equivalent to less than a dollar. Hurrah for cheap public transportation!). Having easy and cheap public transportation is a great change from the rural U.S.
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Kimi Bennett
hey!
hey there! my name is kimi and i'm also going to study abroad in buenos aires! your first entry says you are in belgrano...living there or studying there? i'm studying there! anyway, your blog is great so far! very happy to see that the culture shock didn't overwhelm you...i leave tomorrow and i must admit, i'm really nervous! good luck with the rest of your travels! :-)