Since I enjoyed my “Free Tour” so much yesterday, I decided to do another one today with the same company. But this time it was to the swanky area of town called Recoleta. If you’re from Charlotte think Myers Park and if you’re from Pittsburgh think Squirrel Hill. It’s where a lot of the wealth in the city is and you can tell by the buildings and parks. The term Recoleta is actually the name of the Franciscan monks that first settled here.
I forgot to mention it in my blog yesterday but they call Buenos Aires the Paris of South America. One of you mentioned to me after reading yesterday’s blog that it looked very European (good catch Jeremy!). During it’s heyday, many of the wealthy wanted their homes to look more European so they brought down architects from Paris and Italy and built many of their mansions. I’ve included a few pics below. We walked by many of them on our tour and some have been bought by the government and turned into foreign embassies.
The tour guide today was different than yesterday but also a history major and very knowledgeable. I didn’t realize how much controversy there still was over the Falkland Islands just off the southern tip of Argentina. The Argentinians still believe it is their soil and they should have the rights to that land. So on April 2, 1982, the Argentinian forces invaded the British territory of the Falklands (they call it Maldivas). Good old Margaret Thatcher would have none of that and went to war with Argentina to oust the invaders. The British easily won the war (it lasted 72 days) and 649 Argentinian soldiers died. We walked by the memorial and I took a picture with two of the guards. The tour guide said that even to this day, if someone from Argentina calls it the Falklands instead of Malvinas, they are ridiculed. Crazy stuff!
We also saw two beautiful churches along our route (and you know how I love churches!). The one was built by a very wealthy woman who moved here from Paris who wanted a church to look like hers back in Paris, which was the famous Sacre-Coer. The other was built by the Franciscans in 1732 and called the Basilica De Nuestra Senora Del Pilar.
Our final stop was the infamous Recoleta cemetery. Many famous people are buried here including Eva Peron (Evita that I spoke of yesterday). This cemetery is one of the biggest tourist attractions in Buenos Aries. The grave sites/mausoleums are all very ornate and beautiful. Only the very rich could afford to be buried here so it almost seemed like they were each trying to outdo the others with how elaborate their gravesites could be. Even vanity doesn’t go away when you die! Lol.
Well it was another great day in Buenos Aires and I do feel like I’m getting my Europe fix (but with much nicer weather at this time of year!). Hope everyone had a great Thursday!
The Wandering Italian 