On Friday, May 5, 2017, the second half of our Buenos Aires city tour was filled with numerous colors and important history.
La Boca or Mouth of the River
We toured the brightly painted houses in the Caminito area. This “little area” (Caminito) in La Boca consists of shops, cafes, and homes made of wood and corrugated tin siding.
The colors used in this area make it very beautiful, but inside the buildings were reserved for the families of poor immigrants who built them. These immigrant families would use whatever building materials they could get their hands on from the river docs. Construction wasn’t professional, but they ended up with enough space for 5 or 6 families to each have a small room with shared kitchen and bathroom facilities.
La Recoleta Cemetery
Unlike any Cemetery in the world, La Recoleta has hundreds of above ground family mausoleums. However, many of the mausoleums also go 10 or more meters under the ground in order to have room to bury all the family members.
Eva Peron’s body was elaborately embalmed after her death. However, due to changes in the government, her body was finally laid to rest in the La Recoleta Cemetery 24 years after her death. She is in the black stone tomb of her father Juan Duarte. They laid her to rest several meters deep inside the mausoleum so her body would not be disturbed.
There are many other impressive mausoleums in the cemetery. The largest and most expensive certainly cost over 1 Million US dollars to build. It is a massive stone building with an elaborate copula. The below ground section has room for 50 people to be buried:
Street Art
Graffiti is all over the city. But so is street art (like this art from La Boca).
We saw some efforts to remove the Graffiti with power washers while we were in the plaza. The other approach is to paint over the words, but at times it seems like graffiti is on every surface in the city. Perhaps a better approach is to give space for street artists to express themselves. As we drove by the soccer stadium we saw several walls on the side of the apartment building that were being transformed into professional works of art:
Meat, Wine and Conversation
(On the evening of May 5, 2017)
Two of the things we were looking forward to the most in Buenos Aires was the legendary meats and wine of Argentina. We splurged by going to Don Julio in the Soho district.
The six of us shared two sausage appetizers, a huge T-Bone steak, a sirloin steak, sides of mushrooms, sweet potatoes, and mash potatoes; two desserts and an nice bottle of Malbec for the adults. We were surprised that that bill only came to $200 US for all that food!
As we sat around our dinner table we also remarked at how much the people around us look like Californians. We could have easily been in California and it would have looked similar. That reality is a testament to the fact Argentina is also a country of immigrants: Spanish, Italians, Germans, Jews, etc. all came to this country seeking a better life. The only difference is that Spanish is the primary language instead of English.
Even the history of Argentina is closely tied to the United States and Europe. Those with money tried to build homes reminiscent of Paris. When they lost their money in the US stock market crash of 1929, those homes had to be sold. Many governments purchased them and they are used as embassies.
We will remember our time in Buenos Aires and Argentina fondly. We have much to learn about their complex history. It is a beautiful country filled with beautiful people and wonderful attractions.
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