From Bmore to BA

Recoleta Cemetery - where Evita is buried

Allright. So now that I´ve pretty much settled into the routine, I decided to go out this past weekend - and this week - and actually see some stuff. While I´m no expert, I´ll try my best to break it down for you and tell you a little bit about what I saw. Then again, you really wouldn´t know if I took a few liberties…kind of like when DDubs worked in Congress as a tour guide (professional title: intern) and used to assure all of those wondering families from Oklahoma that the statues were made of Venetian marble, of course…

The above picture is from the Recoleta Cemetery, one of the most famous cemeteries in the world. Only the rich and famous are buried here, so apparently it was quite the controversy when Evita got her spot, being that she was one of her mother´s five illegitimate children. The whole idea of this place as a ¨tourist attraction¨ is pretty nuts - when was the last time you packed up a lunch and took a nice stroll down to the ´ol burial grounds? Either way, this is one ritzy place - its like even in death these people had to try to outdo one other:

This cemetery, obviously, is in Recoleta, the real old-money wannabe-European part of town. All of the nicest shops are there like Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Cartier, and alot of other places with pretentious single-word French names (although probably these days most of the people buying anything are foreigners). Either way, its the most exclusive, and probably most beautiful - architecturally speaking part of town. Another famous place in Recoleta is the Alvear Palace Hotel, one of the nicest hotels in the world. I haven´t been there yet, but I´m told they allow commoners in their bar , so perhaps I´ll roll up there one of these days in my fresh pinstriped suit.

The Alvear Palace

All of this talk about Recoleta and tourists brings me to another point: some of the tourist gouging in this town is pretty ridiculous. I for one, pay way too much for my apartment - but, to make a really, really long story short, being here on a tourist visa I don´t have too many other options. Anyway, yesterday I´m walking around Recoleta, when I spot a kiosco on the side of the road that´s selling a bunch of newspapers in english. This is kind of a big deal, because most only carry the local spanish papers and the one local English daily, the Buenos Aires Herald. Hmmm I´m thinking to myself…I care about ending apartheid, for one, and slowing down the nuclear arms race (another shout out to Dubs), so why not pick up a paper? I go over to the kiosco and see a New York Times: nice. Actually, not so nice. Take a look:

Can you pick up on anything? For one, this is Sunday´s paper, and today´s Wednesday. Allright, fine…the Sunday Times articles are more universal, and less timely, so maybe its passable. Now look at the price. Yes, this newspaper from three days ago is 60 pesos, or the equivalent of 20 American dollars. Yeh, that´s like spending 60 bucks on a paper…I mean, I know the NYT sets the standard and all..but sheeeeeesh.

I´m about to get kicked out of this internet cafe so a few more pics I took from the weekend.

La Casa Rosada (The Pink House - the Argentine equivalent to that place on Pennsylvania Avenue

It´s pretty funny - I basically hang out with a different group of people every time I go out. Either I go out with Argentines that I´ve met, or I go out with people from class or people from home. When my ¨classmates¨ and I go out, we must appear quite the Motley Crew: there´s me, a married couple from Tennessee, a middle-aged British woman, a guy in his mid-20s from Kalamazoo, and a guy in his lower 50´s from Northern California, whose about to retire and move down here for good. Of course, there are other students whose circumstances are more similar to mine…but that´s just not as fun, is it. Anyway, so a group of us went out to the San Telmo neighborhood- which is the old, colonial part of the city, where all of the tango bars are - on Saturday, and they had this really cool bohemian arts fair. Basically they closed off alot of the streets and you could go check out exhibits and museums all afternoon and night for free. Here´s a pic from the main plaza in San Telmo, where I hung out and sipped on a few cold ones.

Anyway, that´s all for now. I still don´t know if I´m taking off for Córdoba this weekend, or if I´m sticking around town…the only thing I do know is I´m kicked out of my apartment on Sunday! Everything will be revealed very shortly, so now I´m just playing the waiting game.

To all my boys heading up at Mich…pour out a cold one for me - or at least make a hole in one of the walls at 814 (shoutout to Dubs yet AGAIN - best.hole.ever.)

Go BLUE or Go Home,

Adam

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This entry was posted on Thursday, October 6th, 2005 at 8:46 pm and is filed under Buenos Aires. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.