Don’t Cry For Me, It’s Fanatic Hour!
Friday, October 24th, 2008Day 210
We waited on the steps of MALBA (Museo de Arte Latinoamericano Buenos Aires) for Eli and Bronwen. They had arrived in Puerto Madryn and also found an apartment in the city. It was a beautiful warm sunny day, such a contrast from the wind and cold of Patagonia. We eventually met up with Eli and Bronwen and went inside to explore the modern art museum.
The building was bright and open, a modern building and one of the most beautiful I’ve seen in the city. Inside we walked around the mostly Latin American collection. It was small but good museum, although I’m just not the biggest fan of really modern art. I will say I did enjoy some of the paintings though. From the museum we walked through along the wide avenues of Recoleta to the real attraction of the day, the Recoleta cemetery. Its not everyday that a cemetery is an attraction, then again this isn’t your everyday cemetery.
Cemetery of the Recoleta is almost a miniature city. With its streets, alleys and family mausoleums. Politicians, writers and war heroes are buried here but non as famous as Evita Peron. We entered the cemetery and strolled around the huge mausoleums that are built in every architectural style you could imagine. Most were in good shape although a few were crumbling and you could peer through broken glass to see coffins below. Yes, a very creepy place at times. I’d imagine it would be quite the place to wander during Halloween in a weeks time. Most of the monuments however were grand structures, some a bit to grand. A massive statue of some unknown greek god looking figure topped one guys grave. For the military man the all to popular riding a horse was the pose of choice. Finally we came to the narrow alley where Eva Peron rests. There were several other people filling the passage way in front of the Durate family mausoleum. She’s buried under her families name and her husband Juan is actually not even buried in Recoleta. With Eli and Bronwen we spent near 2 hours walking around the fascinating cemetery.
As luck would have it just across the park in front of the cemetery was Bullers Brewery. A pub that made its own beer and had a “fanatic” (happy hour) hour that began at 6. Who isn’t a fanatic about beer? Just in case any of us were depressed from the cemetery the fanatic hour was sure to cheer us up. We settled in on the pleasant patio and ordered a tasty pale ale, wheat beer and stouts. I was quite fanatical about the refreshing pale ale. After drinks we walked over to Eli and Bronwen’s apartment where we had some drinks before going out to dinner. It felt like we lived in B.A. And were just hanging out with friends. We finished the night cabbing it back to our place in Palermo. Another fault of the subte here, it ends at 10:30pm. It was a good full day of sightseeing, in a city I’m becoming very comfortable in. Also a city that is such a huge contrast from the rest of Argentina.
Michael Coroneos