Day 5 January 1st 2009

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New Year, new life, new hair cut!

On the agenda today is a walk through the part of BA known for embassies and swanky shops and on to the Recoleta Cemetery to see the grave of Eva Peron and all of the other historical BA dignitaries.

Below is the Ralph Loren shop

which looks like an old french mansion - we suspect however it has been cut in two vertically at some stage and this is the left hand side. On the way we pass some trees in the Plaza San Martin with an amazing root structure - we think it is an "Evergreen Rubber Tree" also known as a Gomero.

Trying to avoid comments about the cemetery being in the "dead centre of the town" and the fact that "everyone is dying to get there", it is said that actually getting a place in the cemetery depends more upon who your family were and the historical importance of their name rather than wealth or current position.

The only living things in the Cemetery are the numerous "feral cats" (plus their fleas).

There now follows a series of pictures showing some of the great varieties of mausoleums in the cemetery - a whole family gets put in one and they keep putting in more of the family until it is full.

What is actually inside a mausoleum varies, from coffins stacked one on top of the other

to being neatly arranged with a place mat ready for the next visitor. If one can have a favourite mausoleum, ours is that of Liliana Cruciati de Szaszais 1944-1970 whose mausoleum has a lovely statue outside and inside a very nice painting of her. Our rudimentary Spanish tells us that she was a "much loved daughter.........."

Nearby is the Duarte Family Mausoleum which everybody comes to see and many people lay flowers at. One gets the impression that the authorities are not really in favour of such attention since it is not signposted and is quite hard to find.

Many of the family are inside as the plaques above show - below is the one related to Eva Peron

After the cemetery, it is back to the hotel for a rest and then another walk down to the docks for an ice cream. The docks were restored a number of years ago and now form a cafe culture area plus offices (a bit like Canary Wharf).

Especially for Sam, there is a picture of a dockside crane (note how tall it is compared to Nana Pat).

Below is the Puente De La Mujer - a bridge whose design is said to symbolise the outstretched leg of a Tango Dancer.

It pivots horizontally to let boats through. There are a few old boats - this is one (the Fragata Sarmineto) sailed to Antarctica.

This evening we sorted out our bags and tried to get the weight down for the flight tomorrow by planning on wearing the heavy items and carrying more hand luggage. Fortunately, most restaurants were open again after the holiday so finding somewhere to eat was not difficult (and the local Argentinean House wine was superb).

After four days here, we have seen all of the local sights and are ready to move on. When we get back in two weeks time, we know which Tango Show we plan to see and where we hope to eat.