It Takes Two to Tango

Julio 25, 2005 – Lunes

I had typed out quite a bit, then it mysteriously disappeared (mystery keystrokes that make your entire post delete..ugh)…so here´s a shorter version of what I did yesterday…

…I went to the tourist office on Santa Fe to pick up a map of the city. From there, I headed on to Plaza San Martìn since it was just down the road.

Plaza San Martìn is an area with a park, huge trees, and a few sculptures. There is a monument with General? San Martìn on a horse, a 3D sculptural relief on the bottom depicting a battle.

I walked to the other side of the park to find a nice view of the Torre de lost Ingleses, a clock tower in the middle of a park. And then walked down the steps donated by American Express to find 2 armed military men standing in rigid military form in front of a memorial wall (similar to the Vietnam Memorial Wall in DC) with the names of fallen soldiers from the Falklands/Malvinas war in 1982. Their names etched in stone, with an eternal flame on the top left corner of the memorial wall. As I left the memorial, one of the guards gave me the evil eye.

From there, I decided to make my way up to Recoleta to see the cemetary made famous by the Amazing Race. Along the way, I encountered many beautiful plazas in Recoleta. A note about Recoleta — you have to watch where you step because there is dog shit everywhere!!! Professional dog walkers walk many dogs at a time. I saw two fo them, each with at least 7 dogs. And I can´t even walk the 3 of mine!

I arrived at Plaza Francia, a shaded green plaza with a huge tree and a large monument. Then headed on to the cemetary.

The Cemetario Recoleta was inaugurated on Nov 17, 1822 as the first public cemetary in the city. It is 54,843 square meters in area and has about 4800 vaults. The mausoleums in the cemetary are anything but simple. They are the most ornate I have ever seen. You can see varying styles of architecture, sculptures, and stone material.

The cemetary holds many of Argentina´s elite and famous, and military heroes. The most famous mausoleum is of the Duarte family. That is where Eva Peròn lies at rest. At the Duarte Family mausoleum, it is all about Eva Peròn. there are posters decorated with drawings of her, plants and flowers. There are plaques lining the side of the vault, dedicated to Evita — the good she did for the workers, a plaque commemorating the 1 year anniversary of her death, and more.

Besides the Duarte Family mausoleum, the cemetary was eerily quiet. I walked around there alone, not encountering a living soul for most of it. It was a bit…creepy.

After that, I headed back to the center. I hadn´t eaten lunch, and it was almost 4, so I stopped at a cafe and decided to be adventurous and try Argentinian food. I had no idea what i was up for!!!

I ordered a Bife de Chorizo, a steak and fries. The steak ended up being bigger than my head, and the fries swamped the rest of the large plate it was served on. I ate about 1/4 of the steak before throwing in the towel and becoming delierious. Next time, I´ll ask for small portions!

It was a treat, at about $7 of a huge honkin steak, appetizers, bread, and fries. Something that would have cost about at least 4 times as much in the states!

After gorging out, I decided to explore a bit. I was near the Obelisk. I took the stairs down into a ´pasaje subterraneo´not really knowing where I would end up. But I just ended up on the other side of the Obelisk. Then headed down Cerrito, where in reality, I wanted to go to Plaza de Mayo, got turned around and lost, then found my way to Plaza de Mayo near dusk. There were many police around the park, so I felt safe. Then headed back to the hostel for a short rest.

I headed back out to the Lavalle ped mall to find an internet place. I passed by a huge place and figured, thye must have USB compatible computers. Boy was I wrong! I was on an old IBM PC 300somethingorother that had gunk caked on it, the computer and keyboard were blackened with finger dirt…yum!!

I decided to head back to Viamonte on 9 de Julio rather than Suipache for a change of scenary. I somehow missed Viamonte (not paying attention) and ended up at Av. Cordoba, where I then felt like i was in the middle of a COPS episode.

The scene — 4 cop cars with flashing lights in the left 2 lanes, a man cuffed laying face down on the ground in the street with a sweater covering his head, a girl standing — cuffed, one man in the back of a police car, a taxi stopped in the middle of the mess, and a crowd of people gathered to find out what happened.

I became one with the crowd. Probably not the smartest thing to do — at night in one of the largest cities in the world, about 7 feet away from a crime scene, in a foreign country. But I was curious as was the rest of the crowd. I stood there with a core group of people. Rumors started flying. That´s when I wish I really understood them. But what I got from the conversations was that the 2 guys and girl tried to rob the cabbie with weapons. I´m so unsure if that´s what happened, but it is what I understood as to what happened.

We watched as the guy cuffed on the ground was read his ARgentinian verision of the Miranda rights. They picked up his ass violently from the ground, shoved him in the back of a cop car, the cops turned on the sirens and took off. Then the car with the guy in the back took off. It was the girls turn, a well dressed youngster, maybe about 20 years old. The crowd moved to see her get read her rights. I was 1 person way from her — so close, I could touch her…and the police did not care that we were so close. Then they put her in the car and left, with sirens blaring. The show was over, so I headed back to the hostel.

I met up with one of my roommates in the evening. Her name is Angie, from Wisconsin. She has a grant from her university to do research about the Dirty War. She said that there are children here, about 25-ish years old, who are the descendants of those executed during the Dirty War. She is here to interview various groups, like the Madres, the Abuelas, and the Hijos. From what i understand, the Madres are a group of women who march around the monument at Plaza de Mayo on Thursday, with pictures of lost ones pinned to their dresses; the Abuelas are a different group, who are looking for the children; and the Hijos are the children, who go in front of the assassins´old houses, tell of the story of what happened to their family, and throw red paint on the house as a symbolic vengeful gesture. I don´t know much about the Dirty War, but I am now curious.

Angie and I are going to meet at Plaza de Mayo at 3:45 to visit the Casa Rosada, which you need permission to see. She is going to get us two tickets this afternoon. Then, she said that there will be some sort of gathering at Plaza de Mayo at about 6pm, possibly in commemoration of Evita Peròns work. I did see signs around the monument, about the trabajadores (workers), but just glanced..did not read the signs. We´ll check it out this evening.

Tags: Buenos Aires, Travel

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