Backpacking South America

So after a leisurely morning in the hostel, we caught the Subte (subway), which is much easier than the buses.  We exited the Subte to the bustle of Recoleta, mostly stores serving the upper middle to upper class neighborhood filled with wide boulevards and tree lined streets.  The first stop on our walking tour was Cemetario de la Recoleta.  This exclusive cemetery is the final resting place for some of Buenos Aires most famous, powerful and wealthy people. 

The cemetery looks and feels a lot like a densely populated city – broad boulevards, narrow streets and towering buildings.  The only difference is that those towering buildings are filled with dead people. 

Perhaps the most famous and beloved resident of the cemetery is Evita Peron,  who isn’t buried with her husband Juan Peron, but in the mausoleum of the Duarte family.  On the day we visited, it was the anniversary of the day she declined the nomination for Vice President of Argentina so she could continue focusing on her efforts on social programs for the people.

Our next destination was the Escueltura en la Rose (Rose Sculpture), which is a very large, mechanical flower that opens in the morning and closes in the evening.  As we approached the park with the flower, we couldn’t figure out what was in the lawn surrounding the flower.  From the distance, it looked like trees or posts, but we couldn’t tell.  We soon realized the entire park was filled with life size cutouts of a dancer from the silver screen (a big shout out to the first person that can correctly name her). 

It turns out, advertisers have a bit more liberty to run their campaigns wherever and with whatever they want.  This particular campaign was promoting a alcholic beverage – I don’t remember the name though…  It was interesting to see how the ads interacted with the art and how the visitors in the park responded to the campaign.  It isn’t often that you see over 1,000 life size cutouts in one place.  It reminded me of the Calvin & Hobbes strip:

After visiting the sculpture, we crossed the street for our first museum visit in Buenos Aires, the Buenos Aires Belles Artes (Fine Arts) Museum.  The second floor featured primarily Argentine artists and served as a great introduction to the style and history of art in this country.  On the roof, they had a sculpture garden we just couldn’t resist.

After walking 4 miles over  6 hours with only a small snack, our feet were tired and we were starving.  Given that porteños don’t typically eat until late, we were nervous that we would be the only one’s eating at the restaurant.  It turns out, if a restaurant is affordable and good, it becomes popular and people eat there at all hours.  We were quickly seated at a small table in the corner.  We started with a penguin of wine (that’s about 2/3 bottle) for approximately $3. 

Our first course was an empanada, the first of many in Bs As.  Baked inside a wood-fired oven, the empanada was perfectly baked on the outside and the meat on the inside was extremely tender.  It was basically the best beef stew mini calzone I have ever had.  For dinner, Carra had a steak and pumpkin casserole that was the perfect antidote to the chilly weather.  I had a large bowl of lentils with ham.  The meal was exactly what we needed.