I knew it was going to be a great day when we arrived early for our walking tour at the park in front of the Teatro Colon. I sat and watched the parrots and Quakers in the trees while John walked around the square.
Throughout Buenos Aires there are motorized scooters you can rent to get around the city. I briefly considered it but then decided that it was an accident waiting to happen.
The walking tour of the Recoleta district was again with www.buenosairesfreewalks.com and was really interesting. We started out at 10:30am at the Teatro Colon which is one of the last opera houses not to use technology to help perfect their acoustics. It recently won an award for having the best acoustics in the world.
Our group traversed the 22 lane 9th of July Avenue (one of the widest in the world) to enter the Recoleta District. I loved looking at the architecture including many old mansions, some of which are now embassies. This tour ended at the Recoleta cemetary at 2:00pm.
I rested my foot over lunch and we then met up with another walking devoted just to the Recoleta Cemetary. I totally loved this tour, so many human interest stories and the architecture of these tombs of the wealthy and important from Buenos Aires society. The cemetary is “the place” to he buried in Buenos Aires and is the resting place for many of the elite in society. It is now full and you can only be buried here if your family already owns a mausoleum or if you buy one from a family willing to sell it. One was recently sold for $250,000 USD.
The tomb of Evita Peron is located here and a whole tour could be done just about her. The stories of what happened to her corpse were almost as eventful as what happened in her life!
Most of the tombs are cared for but there are some that have a look of abandonment either because the family has died out or do not want to pay for the upkeep.
I got a kick out of the tomb of an arranged marriage where the husband and wife couldnt stand each other in life. He commissioned a sculpture of himself sitting in a chair. He died first and though she was to be buried in the same tomb when her time came the wife was damned if her sculpture would be beside his for all eternity. So she had her bust placed so that they were back to back such that their sculptures would never gaze upon each other. Then there was the story of a young women who legend says was accidently buried alive.
After the tour, we went across the road from the cemetary for a beer at Boca a Boca’s rooftop bar with a great view of the graves of the wealthy. The view was well worth the $5 price for two beer. Actually for $2.50 per beer any location would be worth it.
We went to an Argentinian Bbq (asago) meat place that our host recommended. All local people there. It was good. Except we went out for supper at 9:30pm. What is happening to me?