Cementerio de la Recoleta
We spent our final day in Buenos Aires visiting Recoleta, including the famous cemetary where Eva Peron (Evita) is buried. At first the whole cemetary could almost look like miles of abandoned buildings (see picture), until you look inside and see the coffins… The cemetary is 60,000 square metres and arranged very neatly in squares with tree-lined avenues inbetween. Obviusly burial is hugely important in the Catholic faith and the mauseleoms here are testemant to that, many of them incredibly elaborate and grand. The flowers on the Evita tomb (with her family in the ‘Durante’ mauseleum) are a reminder of how important she still is to the Argentine people, in Argentinian politics today there is still frequent reference to the ‘Peronist’ era (when Juan and Eva Peron ran the country) and politians and policies are often dubbed ‘peronist’ or not.
A fascinating if not eerie experience.
Cementerio de la Recoleta
A day on the Delta
A local guy we met on the plane recommended we take a trip to the Paraná Delta, so we did just that. 1hr outside B.A we arrived at Tigre, which is the furthest place connected by road and rail on the Delta. The Delta is an amazing place, half the size of Switzerland but with only 8,000 people living on island homes along the complex river system (although most of these are holiday homes for people who work in Buenos Aires, so during the week many of them are unoccupied). Map of the Paraná Delta below:
We took a water taxi and travelled through the delta past many houses (only accessible by boat) arriving 1hr from land at a wonderful Island called ‘Bonanza’. A lady lives here, and with the help of a Gaucho to assist with the horses, she invites people to join her for a day of activity. We had a lovely lunch by the river (more meat), followed by horse riding (Chris failed to mention he didnt know how to ride and created much amusement trying to steer the horse), a swim in the fresh water, and finally a go at canoeing. The weather was well into the 30’s and a day by the river was perfect.
La Boca
La Boca is the poorest yet most colourful part of Buenos Aires, the streets filled with Tango dancers, cafe’s and brightly painted buildings. Apparently the paint originally came from the cargo ships in the port of La Boca (La Boca is also known for it’s iconic iron bridges at the port). As there was only the odd tin here and there people would paint small sections of the buildings, hence the patchwork look. La Boca is home to Boca Juniors football club, and there is an incredibly strong love of the team throughout the area. We visited the stadium which isn’t that large but apparently holds 65,000. It’s amazing how close the fans are to the pitch, literally about 5 feet behind the goal in the standing areas. Despite being the poorest area in Buenos Aires and having the higest crime rate, La Boca seems to have a lot going on in terms of art and culture (including the Fundación Proa) – quite like East London in some ways.
¡Hola Buenos Aires!
Buenos Aires; the start of our South American adventure. We were immediately stuck by the vibrant atmosphere of the city… lively people, vivid colours, tango and history. A completely different city experience to Cape Town, Buenos Aires is much bigger, older and almost entirely flat. It feels a lot more like a european city, with a mix of old buildings and ultra modern architecture, and being built on a grid system. It also soon became apparent that the residents of Buenos Aires are very proud and passionate about their city and country. We flew in just days after former president Nestor Kircher had died, and the city was full of posters and graffiti mourning him and supporting his wife Christina. It’s hard to image similar scenes if a British political figure were to pass away.
On arrival we were told that Sunday was market day in Palermo, the chic and stylish area of BA filled with small boutique shops. On market day many of cafe’s and bars are also converted into make-do stalls where independant designers and traders sell their goods. Needless to say I made Chris drop the bags immediately and head straight there for the remainder of the day. We returned several hours later with more clothes to fit into our already full luggage.
We spent the following day in San Telmo, the oldest part of the city which has tons of character with piqturesque cobbled streets and plazas lined with dusty antique shops and cafe’s. Chris found much excitement in the ornate hand-painted signs on everything from shops to buses. After a gruelling 2hr Spanish lesson we head to Puerto Madero , a modern harbour deveopment (not dissimilar to London’s South Bank) for an evening walk and dinner. Dinner consisted of a large steak and a nice bottle of wine – this was to become a consistent theme in Argentina…
Southern Hemisphere Shenanigans... 