Highlight: Visit to Recoleta Cemetary where Evita Peron is buried. Plus a Fantastic Tango Show at Carlos Gardel.
We arrived in Buenos Aires on time on a beautiful Sunday morning. Tim slept most of the night - I tossed and turned, but we were both excited. Processing through customs and immigration was a snap - we got our bags and were met by our guide - Lucelia Scarpelli. She and our driver loaded us up in a van and we departed for the 30 minute ride into Buenos Aires. Not too much traffic since it was a Sunday morning.
The hotel, the Park Hyatt, is beautiful. It is integrated into an old mansion - our room is in the new tower and overlooks the city and river. Very nice accommodations. We showered and got refreshed and then met Lucelia for a walking tour of the area.
The large avenue, Avenida 9 July, used to be the largest in the world and we named to commemorate Argentina's independence from Spain in 1816. Our tour today was in the Recoleta Area where many of the rich live. Beautiful architecture and lots of shops ande people.
We went to the Recoleta Cemetary, founded by the Recolet monks - this is the most expensive real estate in Argentina! We walked around and ended up at Eva Duarte Peron's tomb - a non-descript tomb in this elaborate cemetary. Lucelia explained that Peron's enemies had stolen Evita's coffin and kept it hidden for almost 22 years. They finally found it in Milan (Italy!), and she was brought back 'home' for burial in Recoleta. She is endeared to most of the Argentinian people but everyone has an opinion. She rich don't like her - the middle and poorer classes did. She did a lot for Argentina in a short time - getting women the right to vote and getting women the ability to have medical car - this was in the early 1950's. Evita died in 1952 at the age of 32.
We also went to the tomb of Ruffina Cambaceres - she died at 19 and was buried in Recoleta but 'awoke' and roamed around the city. But it was night time and she couldn't find anyone and had another heart attack and died again! It is a legend that her ghost roams the cemetary.
We had a wonderful lunch at Cafe Wela - a traditional Argentine platter of meats, cheese, and wonderful freshly made bread. Tim devoured it! During lunch Lucelia explained a lot about Argentina including info on their new woman President. Perhaps the US will have a woman President in 13 months too?? (I'm hoping so!)
We went back to the Park Hyatt and napped to recover from the slight jet lag although the time difference is only 2 hours. We then went to a Tango dinner/show at Carlos Gardel. We learned that 'tango' is not just a dance - it is tango music and Carlos Gardel was instrumental in making it popular in the early 1900's. He died in a plane crash in the early 1950's and is world-renowned for his music. The show was absolutely FABULOUS! In fact, we hope to go to another tango show on Wednesday night. The orchestra for the show had 3 accordion players - but here they call it a bandonion as they hold it on their lap and play it rather than being held on their shoulders. And it doesn't have a keyboard - just buttons on both sides. The talent of the dancers was indescribable - it was sensual, physical, artistic, athletic - just amazing.
I had to laugh because during the show I kept thinking about teaching my mother the tango when Iwas in junior high school. We learned various ballroom dances and she couldn't wait for me to come home and teach her. She loved doing the tango. So there we would be doing the tango in our living room, and then enjoyed a whisky sour afterwards!!!! Amazing memory of that and it's funny to me!
We had fun at our table too - a chap from London who now lives in Tokyo and an Argentinina couple - Jose Luis and Lilliana who spoke no English - but we were still able to communicate.
There must be something about taxi rides in foreign cities and us. Our taxi driver insisted on taking us to the Four Seasons instead of the Park Hyatt. But our hotel was only 4 blocks away so we got home safely and had a restful night.
A fabulous first day in Argentina.
Larry and Tim
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