Today we toured Buenos Aires, an urban area of 14 million people. We saw and learned so many interesting things today. I'll try to abbreviate and just touch on the highlights. Hopefully, you'll find them as interesting as I.
Beginning with north Buenos Aires, one of the last areas to be developed, we drove through Palermo, home to wealthy land owners in the early 1900's. The stunning homes are lined with Jacaranda trees creating a colorful archway through the neighborhood streets. Some of the homes have been sold and converted to embassies, including the fabulous American Embassy.
Next, we toured one of the largest city parks in the world. Larger than Central Park in NYC, Park de Palermo is home to numerous gardens, a Polo Field and a huge race track, not to mention various public areas where people gather for exercise, family gatherings and other activities.
After our tour of the park, we stopped at the what is touted to be the "2nd most beautiful book store in the world."
If this is the 2nd most beautiful bookstore, I cannot imagine what the first most beautiful bookstore looks like.
In it's past life, The El Ateneo Bookstore was a theater. The boxes shown here are used as reading areas. These photos don't truly capture the beauty of this book store. You'll just have to visit it the next time you're in BA.
After the bookstore, we moved on to the La Recoleta Cemetery, where the infamous Eva Paron and other notable people are buried.
This cemetery is listed as one of the 10 most beautiful cemeteries in the world. They're right! The cemetery contains many elaborate marble mausoleums laid out in sections like city blocks.
These mausoleums were often patterned after the same architecture as the owner's home. When all of the family members die off and can longer care for the mausoleum, they often fall into disrepair.
These mausoleums are considered real estate and are taxed as such. So when a family cannot afford the taxes, they sell the mausoleum usually bringing a hefty price of around $300,000.00. The bodies of their heirs must be removed and relocated making room for the new owners. This is probably more information than you needed to know, but I found this place fascinating.
We visited the Plaza de Mayo, the main square in BA where the locals are allowed to freely hold demonstrations.
The plaza is bordered by "Casa Rosada," the Presidential Palace, comparable to our capitol building in Washington D.C. This is where Presidents as well as Eva Paron addressed the people.
The square is also flanked by the church where Pope Francis presided as Cardinal.
By the way, "ita" is often added to a name as a term of endearment, i.e. Evita. When Eva Paron died in 1952, she was embalmed and on public display for several years until her husband, Juan Peron was overthrown by a military coup and fled the country in 1955.
At that time, Eva's body disappeared for 16 years, hidden away in Italy. It was later returned to Argentina and is now at the La Recoleta Cemetery in the Duarte family mausoleum.
From 1974-1983 - Argentina was in turmoil being ruled by military government. At that time, 15,000 -20,000 suspected left wing activists, terrorists, militants, students and journalists (mostly young people) were arrested and placed in camps. At the time, nobody knew where these people were. They were referred to as "The Missing Children." It was later discovered that most of these young people were secretly killed during this "Dirty War." Protests were not allowed in Plaza de Mayo during this regime, but the mothers of these "missing children" would gather every Thursday at 3:00 p.m. in the Plaza de Mayo wearing white scarves carrying photos of their missing children as a form of protest. That tradition still continues today. The Plaza now honors these mothers with the mark of a white scarf painted on the pavement.
Many of the students and young people taken prisoner were women who gave birth to some 500 children while under arrest. The babies were taken away and adopted out to families. Interesting footnote, DNA is now being used to help the adopted children find their real families.
Before lunch, we found ourselves in south BA in an area called San Telmo. After the wealthy people moved to north BA to avoid the yellow fever epidemic, most of the beautiful homes in the area became tenements often housing 20 or more families, sharing one common kitchen and one bathroom.
It's now become the "bohemian" district with great cafes and shops. We visited one of the former tenements called El Zanjon, now a beautifully restored home and museum.
After a nice Italian lunch, we headed to the Don Pedro de Mendoza Avenue in the Boca area, where homes were built of tin and wood.
This colorful low income residential area has been transformed into an artsy community with shops and restaurants. Most cafes entertain customers with Tango dancers.
Wow! We saw and learned a lot today. Now we're off to dinner and plan to turn in early as tomorrow, we leave for Patagonia. Interesting note. I sort of thought Patagonia was a country. Well it's not. The same way Yellowstone covers a couple of our states in the U.S., Patagonia is a huge park that is divided between Argentina and Chile. We will be out of cell and wifi service for 4 - 5 days, so I will not be able to post another blog entry until Sunday. Until then ...
Beginning with north Buenos Aires, one of the last areas to be developed, we drove through Palermo, home to wealthy land owners in the early 1900's. The stunning homes are lined with Jacaranda trees creating a colorful archway through the neighborhood streets. Some of the homes have been sold and converted to embassies, including the fabulous American Embassy.
 |
| American Embassy, formerly a private residence in Palermo |
Next, we toured one of the largest city parks in the world. Larger than Central Park in NYC, Park de Palermo is home to numerous gardens, a Polo Field and a huge race track, not to mention various public areas where people gather for exercise, family gatherings and other activities.
After our tour of the park, we stopped at the what is touted to be the "2nd most beautiful book store in the world."
If this is the 2nd most beautiful bookstore, I cannot imagine what the first most beautiful bookstore looks like.
 |
| Theater box seat areas are used as reading areas. |
After the bookstore, we moved on to the La Recoleta Cemetery, where the infamous Eva Paron and other notable people are buried.
This cemetery is listed as one of the 10 most beautiful cemeteries in the world. They're right! The cemetery contains many elaborate marble mausoleums laid out in sections like city blocks.
These mausoleums were often patterned after the same architecture as the owner's home. When all of the family members die off and can longer care for the mausoleum, they often fall into disrepair.
These mausoleums are considered real estate and are taxed as such. So when a family cannot afford the taxes, they sell the mausoleum usually bringing a hefty price of around $300,000.00. The bodies of their heirs must be removed and relocated making room for the new owners. This is probably more information than you needed to know, but I found this place fascinating.
We visited the Plaza de Mayo, the main square in BA where the locals are allowed to freely hold demonstrations.
 |
| Presidential Palace, Casa Rosada |
 |
| Balcony from where Eva Paron addressed the masses. |
 |
| The church home of Pope Francis where he presided as Cardinal. |
By the way, "ita" is often added to a name as a term of endearment, i.e. Evita. When Eva Paron died in 1952, she was embalmed and on public display for several years until her husband, Juan Peron was overthrown by a military coup and fled the country in 1955.
 |
At that time, Eva's body disappeared for 16 years, hidden away in Italy. It was later returned to Argentina and is now at the La Recoleta Cemetery in the Duarte family mausoleum.
From 1974-1983 - Argentina was in turmoil being ruled by military government. At that time, 15,000 -20,000 suspected left wing activists, terrorists, militants, students and journalists (mostly young people) were arrested and placed in camps. At the time, nobody knew where these people were. They were referred to as "The Missing Children." It was later discovered that most of these young people were secretly killed during this "Dirty War." Protests were not allowed in Plaza de Mayo during this regime, but the mothers of these "missing children" would gather every Thursday at 3:00 p.m. in the Plaza de Mayo wearing white scarves carrying photos of their missing children as a form of protest. That tradition still continues today. The Plaza now honors these mothers with the mark of a white scarf painted on the pavement.
 |
| White scarves commemorate the mother's movement |
Before lunch, we found ourselves in south BA in an area called San Telmo. After the wealthy people moved to north BA to avoid the yellow fever epidemic, most of the beautiful homes in the area became tenements often housing 20 or more families, sharing one common kitchen and one bathroom.
 |
| Local artisan weaves scarves and ponchos. |
 |
| El Zanjon, renovated tenement in San Telmo. |
 |
| Inside of El Zanjon. A river runs beneath this home. |
This colorful low income residential area has been transformed into an artsy community with shops and restaurants. Most cafes entertain customers with Tango dancers.
Wow! We saw and learned a lot today. Now we're off to dinner and plan to turn in early as tomorrow, we leave for Patagonia. Interesting note. I sort of thought Patagonia was a country. Well it's not. The same way Yellowstone covers a couple of our states in the U.S., Patagonia is a huge park that is divided between Argentina and Chile. We will be out of cell and wifi service for 4 - 5 days, so I will not be able to post another blog entry until Sunday. Until then ...
 |
| Jac poses in front of a HUGE Ficus tree just outside the cemetery. |
 |
| Mother and child feed the pigeons in Plaza de Mayo. |
No comments:
Post a Comment