Bicycle tour, MALBA, Graveyards.

We have had a busy 2 days here in Buenos Aires. We started the day with a 3.5 hour bike tour of Palmero and Recoletta with Dario. Dario and his buddy Luca ran a bike touring company which was strategically located on bicycle routes that took us up to the botanical garden, ecopark and Palmero forest which are a large interconnected green space to the north of Palmero. We visited the BA law school which had been built along Doric minimalist style which could have been taken out of fascist Italy. Juan Peron had spent time as a military officer in Italy and had been deeply affected by his time there. We visited the Floralis generica- a mechanical flower made from airplane wings that at one time opened and closed but was broken in the open position. Perhaps a reflection of Argentina's troubled economy. Dario treated us to mate, a caffeinated tea like drink drink with a straw. The mate comes from Yerba mate plant that grows in Northern Argentina. It was just Cheryl and I on the trip as no one else had signed up so we had a lot of opportunity to chat with Dario about his life in BA. After our tour ended Cheryl and I had a very pleasant Italian lunch in Palmero. People were lining up outside to get their take out which was a good sign. There is a very large population of Italians in BA and lots of great Italian food. After lunch we visited MALBA- Museum Art LatinoAmerica Beunos Aires. Lots of modernistic art from South America, some good but some bad. After an hour in the gallery we were all played out and headed home. After supper I headed out to get a haircut at a local barbershop. I got a good cut for 20 CDN dollars which is much cheaper than my haircuts in Edmonton.

Today was going to be very hot. It was forecast to go up to 30 degrees. As such we decided to get going early. We were away by 8 am and opted for an Uber rather than the bus as the bus connections to the Chacarita cemetary were poor. The rich and famous people between the late 19 century and mid 20 century buried themselves and families in these ornate mausoleums. It was like a city of the dead. Some of the mausoleums had fallen into disrepair and one could even look into them seeing the caskets of the buried. We found the much visited tomb of Carlos Gardel, a musician, composer, band leader known for his Tango music who died in a plane crash in 1935 at age 45. People come on the anniversary of his death to Tango at his grave. After wandering around for a while we tired of the cemetary. It wasn't to hot so we headed off on the bus to the botanical garden which was the most enjoyable thing we did today. It was one of the best botanical gardens we have visited. Like all gardens it was divided into various gardens based on the region and the design. My favorite was the Roman garden constructed to feel like an ancient garden with statues and ponds. The garden was beautifully shaded. I don't think that I have ever seen so many butterflies and we even saw a humming bird.Lots of school groups. The teachers of one school group were speaking English so we started talking to them. They were so excited as they wanted the students to interview us and practice their English. We were the stars of the botanical gardens for 10 minutes. We still had some energy after the botanical garden and it was only 12 noon so we bought some food for lunch at a grocery store and headed to the Ecopark/Zoo which was next to the gardens. It was difficult to figure out but I think the zoo had experienced some hard times during Argentine 's economic problems. More recently though there had been an attempt to resurrect it as a rehabilitation centre for injured animals but they still had their legacy animals like a NA bison, giraffes and some other large animals that they couldn't get rid of. Think Lucy the Elephant at the Edmonton zoo. The zoo wasn't as well shaded as the botanical garden so it was hot. The animals were also hot so many of them were hard to see in their enclosures as they were hiding in the shade. We did catch a glimpse of a puma, saw a giraffe, a flightless Condor, lots of Mara, vincas-llamas, a NA bison. It was a little too hot to enjoy the animals so by 2 pm we headed back to the AirBnB. Thankfully the Air BNB has air conditioning.Read more