RECOLETA CEMETERY, ETC.

Sat eve, 23 Feb 08, Buenos Aires

RECOLETA CEMETERY

In the richest cemetery ever seen,
Super wealthy dead lie serene.
Their souls off to heaven went,
And I really think the riches spent
Totally were obscene.

Last evening I noticed that a lot of the vehicles driving in the city at night use only parking lights or other very dim lights for headlights or, once in a while, no headlights at all.

This morning was our 3-1/2 hour tour of the city. We made four stops: (1) the monument to Evita Peron, (2) the Recoleta Cemetery, (3) the Plaza Mayor, and (4) Camineto in La Boca.

Recoleta Cemetery was opened in 1822. I’ve never seen anything like it. Well, I haven’t seen the cemetery in New Orleans. Some, including Helen, who were with us and have seen that one say it is similar but less opulent than the Recoleta Cemetery. A city of the dead. A city of dead who died very rich. Extremely opulent family mausoleums. In most instances you can look through a glass window into an ornate little room and see the caskets. We all took particular note of the Duarte family mausoleum where Evita Peron is buried.

The Plaza Mayor is the national square. There is an obelisk at its center, around which the mothers of the disappeared still march once a week. At one end is the Pink House, where the president works, but her residence, the presidential palace, is elsewhere in the city. At the other end is the city hall and next to it the one-time city hall which is now a museum. Also next to the square is a cathedral. Several blocks down the street is the house of Congress, but we didn’t see it. Homeless people are living in their makeshift quarters centrally in the square in the shadow of the obelisk.

“Boca” means “mouth.” The Boca is a section of town along the river, and it once was the main port of the city. It is where poor immigrants came to live. Traditionally they were mainly Italian with some Spanish and other countries represented. Nowadays people move to the Boca from Peru, Bolivia, and Paraguay. I don’t know if these are legal or illegal immigrants or both. Near the Boca is a squatters’ slum. The Boca itself is still a low-rent district.

The Boca was an area of many single men and prostitutes. The men sang about love and horse racing but never about work, and the tango was invented in the Boca. Camiento (meaning tiny road) is a little area within the Boca that is a tourist trap and attraction. You can pay to get your picture taken with a fake prostitute or a fake tango dancer. You can buy paintings and souvenirs and photograph the scene and surroundings.

We drove past the soccer stadium, which is in or next to the Boca. It’s odd to me to see a big stadium right in a very crowded urban setting. The stadium seats 60,000 and is decorated with painted murals.

All around town you see the payobora (spelling?) tree with its pink flowers.

We drove through the huge Palermo Park and saw runners jogging there. Other parks are scattered around town.

The main drag, 9th of July Avenue, is a boulevard 140 meters wide (four strips of pavement with three interspersed strips of greenway).

Our guide, Leo, said the Rive Plate is 220 KM (132 miles) wide.

Juan Peron was ousted in a revolution in 1955 and went into exile in Spain. We were shown some bullet marks on a building next to the Plaza Mayor that were from the aircraft of the Argentine military at that time. Peron came back to power in 1970.

A really nice apartment in Buenos Aires, Leo said, costs $4,000 a month to rent, or $3,000 per square meter or $500,000 total to buy.

There are a lot of statues around the city. There are statues of historical figures, as you would expect. Sometimes you also see a stylized statue of a couple dancing the tango. There is a small such statue a couple blocks from our hotel.

Helen and I ate an inexpensive lunch at a simple restaurant a block from the hotel.

I did an hour’s worth of walking, counted as 3 miles, in the afternoon before we went on our evening excursion.

The temperature was comfortably cool in the morning and warm but not too hot in the afternoon. I worked up a minor sweat on my walk and consequently changed my shirt and undershirt.

The locals eat dinner at 9 or 10 PM, and restaurants stay open until 3 AM.

Banks are open from 10 AM until 6 PM. Shopping malls are open 10 AM till 6 PM seven days a week.

:-)

Bernie