2nd in a series about my trip to Argentina with Elaine Benes…
Morning of Thursday, December 28:
Up early in the morning after a fairly decent night sleep. Breakfast in the garden and then out on our adventures! I think this was the first Uber that we hired? He took us to an area called Recoleta, where we were to take a tour of the neighborhood. It worked out perfectly well, so we were excited about Uber…for a while.
Tour took us through the Recoleta Cemetery, which I hadn’t done much research about. It’s the resting spot of Argentina’s elite - including Eva Peron (Evita!) and several past presidents. But you guys, it’s much, much more than a cemetery as we soon found out. It’s more like an outdoor museum with so many types of architecture, sculptures and artwork…like a whole city unto itself! Literally blocks and blocks of ornate tombs and alleyways. If you look at it from above, it looks like a giant neighborhood, doesn’t it? I was blown away.
Our tour guide was a tiny little woman with many, many words! At first, I thought it was going to be super annoying to have to listen to her talk and talk and talk…but soon I found that it was not just words - her stories were fascinating and you could tell she had so much pride for the history of this beautiful old city! She told us the story of the past president who fell in love with a Spanish opera singer and stalked her from city to city until she accepted his marriage proposal. She told us the story of the woman on her honeymoon who died in an avalanche in Austria who is buried with her dog. She told us of the girl who was buried alive and when the tomb was opened, there were scratches on her face and where she was trying to get out! So many stories - so many ghosts in that cemetery.
And finally, to the tomb of Eva Peron, which was surprisingly hard to find (way off the beaten path and in a nondescript tomb). There’s NO WAY a random person could find that tomb without a map or a guide, and that was done on purpose because for several years, her body was moved from location to location…Italy, Spain, etc. until it was finally laid to rest in a break-in proof vault in a tiny graveyard alleyway. Kind of odd, but fascinating.
And as we were on our way out of the cemetery, another amazing sight: a funeral actually in progress! We heard somber music and then saw people tearfully walking along the main pathway, behind the coffin of what appeared to be a baby from the tiny size of the structure. It was sobering, yet fascinating to see. Our whole group stopped and was silent to pay our respects. Never really imagined that they still had ceremonies there because the place is full, but of course, the mausoleums are big enough for whole families. Seeing that made this tour very real.
Then we went around to another area of the Recoleta and down past a big, pink museum and through a park, and down around to one of the most amazing sights - the Florales Generica - a GIGANTIC metal flower (steel and aluminum) that blooms every morning and closes every night! Photos don’t do it justice. It’s like the biggest giant flower you’ve ever seen in your life!
Elaine and I took a bunch of photos and I discovered that I’d forgotten to bring my selfie stick, which is a recurring theme during the entire trip - meaning, I forgot to take the selfie stick to every single location where I could have used it! Why did I even bring it?
Oh well.
By that time it was after lunchtime and we were both getting hungry and needed to get back to the hotel anyway so we could freshen up for our shopping tour that afternoon.
Trouble was, no taxis at the taxi stand and Uber was being a dick…meaning, we’d order up an Uber and they were like 15-20 minutes away! We tried to hail cabs on the street and had no luck. We went back to Uber, who’d say 15 more minutes. One cab showed up at the taxi stand but didn’t understand what we were asking for and he took off.
Finally, some cabbie took pity on us, I guess! Two middle-aged, white tourists from the US frantically hailing cabs probably looked like an adventure to him, so he let us in and off we went back to our neighborhood. Of course, the cabbie wanted to talk politics…and this was before Trumps “like, really smart” comments. He told us about an Argentinian president who they considered just as awful as Trump. I forgot to write his name down, but the driver pulled him up on Google and showed us. We had some good yuks in that cab.
Soon, back at hotel and ready to EAT before we started on our afternoon adventures!
stay tuned…
xox,
GS
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