Tag Archives: Buenos Aires

Recoleta Cemetery

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We had done no research on Recoleta Cemetery–no knowledge of what famous people might be buried there–but friends who had visited there recently said not to miss it. And we had an image of what a cemetery not to be missed would be like. After all, we have such a cemetery here in the Boston area: Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge and Watertown, MA. Beautiful Mt. Auburn Cemetery, an oasis of peace embedded within a busy urban setting, its landmark tombs scattered widely among what must be one of the most beautiful garden landscapes in America.

Yes, we were definitely looking forward to seeing Recoleta Cemetery, an oasis of tranquility (as we imagined) in the bustling urban environment.

We should have been prepared, but we weren’t. It was as if having seen, let’s say, Block Island, we next went to see Manhattan Island with the idea that it might evince similar rural beauty and tranquility.

Imagine our surprise as we entered the gate to the city of the dead in the midst of the living city, far less green than the great city around it, its maze of shrunken streets crowded with mausoleums.

Strange and wonderful features abounded. Mausoleums topped with crosses and domes, and ornamented with wrought iron fences and elaborate doors. Round mausoleums and domed. Mausoleums open to reveal stained glass and statues within.

Statues of angels and humans everywhere reflected pensively on human mortality.

After wandering dizzily in the cemetery for a while, we were as lost as Hansel and Gretel in the great forest, all our bread crumbs eaten by the birds. Even Dan, with his near-infallible sense of direction, had no idea which way was out. And this view (downloaded from the Internet) may explain how this could happen.

One last note, just in case you were wondering: We did eventually get out.  🙂

Milonga, shorter video

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I may have solved the problem of the length of the video previously posted. When you click on the link below, it should play (It plays on Windows. I don’t know about you Apple users).

La Milonga Ideal

This video is quite a bit smaller than the previous video (less than 1 mb, compared to 30mb), but regrettably, of poorer quality. Still, you can get a good 16-second sense of the evening. Enjoy!

Calle Florida

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Florida Street (or Calle Florida in Spanish) is one of Buenos Aires’s famous tourist attractions. Okay, so… we’re tourists, aren’t we? And the malls in Recoleta, where we’re staying, are just ever so chi-chi and correct. And full of chain stores a lot like those we have back home. We’d like to see some shopping that’s a little more colorful and local.

Calle Florida is certainly colorful. And busy, with street vendors selling their wares on both sides of the street as well as up and down its middle, for block after block after block.

What we hadn’t expected–though if we’d read more about the street’s long history as a pedestrian shopping street, we should have known–is that Calle Florida is also lined with beautiful old shopping galleries.

We also found some attractive and interesting street details.

Finally, ending on a gargoylish theme, this one is from the door of the university administration building just a few blocks away from Calle Florida.

Palermo Soho

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There’s a lot to be said for the Palermo Soho neighborhood of Buenos Aires. And believe me, I will say it.  🙂  But first, let me mention that Dan and I were staying in the fashionable, high-brow Recoleta district at the incomparable Palacio Duhau – Park Hyatt Hotel, an establishment whose prices would have been well beyond our budget without a little help from American Express points earned by the sweat of Dan’s brow. Or, well, by the extent of his business travel. Recoleta is lovely in a sort of Beacon Hill way. Lovely and ever so proper. We liked it. We were eager to see someplace else.

Soho beckoned.

We went there to see the boutiques and restaurants. Which were nice enough. But we fell in love with the street art. There was such an air of freedom and exuberance about the place! (Lots of pictures later in this post.)

First, the streets themselves were attractive: brightly colored buildings set along tree-shaded avenues and colorful alleys. Here’s one such alley.

The shops and restaurant interiors also did not disappoint. From street cafes to formal restaurants to shops, they were lovely inside.

But the real treat of visiting Palermo Soho was the street art. Many of the shop and building owners decorated their exteriors with wonderfully painted storefronts that ranged from the interesting to the positively exuberant. I can’t resist street art. Here’s a sampling. (There are a lot of pictures in this section. I like them all so much, it’s hard to choose!)

I’ve been saving the very best one for last: Noah taken hostage aboard the ark!

Next: Calle Florida, Buenos Aires’s pedestrian shopping street.

Above Argentina – Part 2: Buenos Aires

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We approached Buenos Aires from the west and so did not get views of the downtown or of the main port area. However, we did see something of the texture of the city with its red tile roofs and a pretty marina area on the wide Rio de la Plata, which separates Argentina from Uruguay.

Next, a change of planes and we’re off to Mendoza! But don’t worry: we’ll be back in Buenos Aires for a real visit in a few days.

Las Madres de Plaza de Mayo

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We visited the Plaza de Mayo on the Thursday between Christmas and New Years. The mothers weren’t marching, but they did staff a well-stocked information booth, and their presence was felt profoundly. It was hard to look at the sad-eyed white-kerchiefed elderly ladies at the booth without a sense of their profound humanity.

All around, the plaza is stenciled with white shawls like those the madres wear.

Signs declared their principles. Er, well, I think they did. I could read some of the Spanish but not all. Maybe you can read more.

Most moving was the wall of photo collages of children still missing.

Each of these collages was put together with obvious love and tenderness. And while some of the “children” were in their twenties and even thirties, so many of them were sixteen… or fourteen… or younger.

When I think about visiting this plaza, I am on the edge of tears. I don’t know how I could stand it had my daughter gone missing at age thirteen… and knowing that she’d probably been tortured and killed. Those very brave mothers.

Milonga

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Here are some pictures, and I hope perhaps (if I can figure out the technology of this) also a short snippet of a movie from last night’s milonga in Buenos Aires.

And here is the band:

I think that if you click here you will be able to download a movie of some pretty good tango dancing at this milonga, but it’s a big file (30mb), and I can’t (yet) figure out how to make it smaller or how to stream it. Perhaps later.

Meanwhile, I hope you get a sense of the place and the event.