No. 1 Tourist Attraction

Strangely, according to votes on Tripadvisor.com, the La Recoleta Cemetery is the number one tourist attraction in Buenos Aires.  Since it is only two fairly short blocks from our apartment, we opted to check it out on our second day.  (Yesterday we mainly rested other than a trip to the grocery store).

The weather was beautiful - mid 70's in the middle of the day.  We arrived outside at one end of the cemetery and walked 2/3 of the way around to find the entrance.  The cemetery is completely walled in with the one grand entrance. There are 14 acres filled with over 4000 mausoleums.  I read where one of them cost over $1 million US to construct.  We noticed some with occupants who died as recently as 2011 but it looks pretty full.  The cemetery is laid out in sections like city blocks - some narrow "streets" and a couple of wider ones with trees and greenery.  It is quite an amazing sight.  Admission is free (to visit - not to stay) and guides were hanging around at the entrance if you wished to have one.  We decided to just stroll through on our own - taking pictures and stopping to see who's who.  There are many Argentine presidents, politicians, scholars, actors, etc. but the most popular mausoleum is the one where Eva Peron is entombed.  It is off on one of the little side streets but we found it easily because that is where there was a crowd.  She was only 32 at the time of her death.  She is there with her Duarte family.

Well, you really have to see this place to believe it.  Quite beautiful architecture and sculptures.  As an aside, there is a population of around 80 cats living in colonies in this cemetery.  A charitable organization feeds them and cares for them - all but 10% of them have been spayed or neutered - the 10% haven't been caught yet.  We saw three kitties while we were there - I would call them semi-friendly.  So, as usual, I took a ton of pictures and you certainly don't want to look at all of them but here is a link - you can pick and choose to get a feel for this amazing place.  It was a strange introduction to BA but we enjoyed it very much.

After the cemetery we strolled around the neighborhood - walked through a very modern mall with not many shoppers and came home and found some movie channels on the cable TV at "home".  I cooked a piece of beef that we had bought at the supermarket butcher yesterday.  I had no idea what cut it was - the butcher  had been slicing steaks for the customer ahead of me and I simply asked him to slice one for me.  It was very different from American and even different from Mexican beef.  But, it was flavorful and quite tender - I would call the taste "beefy" and we liked it a lot.