Buenos Aires day 1

Liz and I were up early as usual. Rather than rousing the boys too soon we went up by ourselves for breakfast and brought them something back to the room. We had to get them going for the 8:45 rendezvous for our city highlights tour. We managed that and were on our way with our guide Juliana. First stop was the Recoleta Cemetery, which is filled with mausoleums of old rich Buenos Aires families. There are no headstones or grass of any kind, just huge mausoleums. The closest thing I can remember ever seeing are the cemeteries in New Orleans where below-ground burial is difficult with the high water table. But this was done by preference, with the old families seeing it as a sign of prestige. This has unsurprisingly fallen out of favor recently, with people preferring to buy housing for the living. But it has left an amazing legacy. We paid a visit to Eva Perón’s grave and spent about 30 minutes wandering among the rest. Really interesting.

After the cemetery we went off to the Plaza de Mayo, featuring the “pink house,” which holds the presidential offices and from which Evita gave her speeches, and the Metropolitan Cathedral, where Pope Francis presided when he was bishop of Buenos Aires. The church is done in a neoclassical style, making it look more like a government building than a church from the outside. But inside it’s beautiful. I especially liked the sculpture of a homeless person sleeping covered on a bench, his feet exposed and showing the stigmata and a plaque reading “Cristo de los pobres.”

The next stop was in the Caminito neighborhood where the tango is said to have originated. Along the way we stopped to pay homage to the Boca Juniors fútbol stadium. The whole neighborhood was painted azul y oro…the team is kind of a big thing. The Caminito neighborhood was originally a migrant settlement where they painted their simple houses various colors. That tradition lives on and was cool to see. The rest of the experience was pretty touristy, but overall the tour was very good. Juliana was our best guide to date.

We returned to the ship for some lunch, then went back out on our own. Our goal was the Ateneo Grand Splendid bookstore, which is in an old theater. We walked there and it was well worth the effort: the inside of the store was spectacular. There’s a café where the stage used to be, and the rest of the space is taken up by books. We had to have a drink in the café – banana smoothie for DJ, frozen lemonade for Thomas, iced latte for Liz, and an “iced Havana” for me, which was iced coffee with dulce de leche, so basically a milkshake.

The walk to and from the bookstore was nearly as good as the store itself. The buildings are a treat to see. Many French-inspired, but many other styles as well. Big, broad boulevards and tons of shady green parks. It was really nice. And always fun to mix with the locals doing their thing on a Friday afternoon. The boys are still trying to wrap their head around it being summer vacation here. The schools knock off at Christmas and go back at the end of February.

All in all a great day. Liz is in love with the city. I threatened to move to Montevideo; she may move to Buenos Aires. At least they are close to one another!Leia mais