On Saturday, Patty and I were off to visit the Recoleta cemetery and were quickly sidetracked with a pressing need. Up until this point, I had been able to fight off my addiction with great fortitude. I had time to adjust having been in South America for over a month. I was doing great until Patty came. She had recently left the land of "Starbucks on Every Corner" and her fight against the demon that is Starbucks just started. Well, on this day, the demon kicked our booties. Once she started talking about it, I couldn't fight it off. I was jonesin' for a Grande/NF/NoWip Mocha. Lewis mentioned that he had seen a Starbucks on Santa Fe Ave. which was a street on the way to the cemetery. However, after much asking and internet surfing, the Starbucks was pretty far down at the other end of Santa Fe. Well, ya know what, when you get 2 Patricias together and they want something, they damn well get it! We rode the subway to get there - now that's what I'm talking about! My eyes rolled back in my head as I savored my drink. (A little scary but sooooo worth the journey!)
NOW, we can continue our site seeing adventure. We walked from the glorious Starbucks location to the cemetery. The cemetery was the first public cemetery of the city of Buenos Aires and was opened in 1822. The site is 54,800 sq. meters and houses 4,800 vaults, it's huge. Over time, it has become a major site of funeral architecture worldwide. Argentine politicians, military men, statesmen, priests, poets, leaders and many others of prominence have been laid to rest here at the Recoleta cemetery. One of the most visited vaults is that of Maria Eva Duarte de Peron or Evita, the wife of former President Juan Peron. Something I found rather interesting is that many of the vaults were bigger than some folk's houses. I guess, when you have mucho dinero you can spend it even after you have passed on. The day we visited the cemetery, it was so hot outside. I found myself seeking out the shade of each vault, tree and building I could find.
After the cemetery visit, we walked to the National Library and saw the monument dedicated to Evita. There were supposedly some symbols that stood for one thing or another, but I didn't catch the meaning. I think the heat was getting to me.
That night, it was time for some tango...well, music anyway. Patty and I had made reservations to see a show at a tango venue. When we arrived, we were seated toward the back and Patty posed the question..."where is the stage for the dancers?". Good question. It turned out that the show that night was solely tango music. The artist was Ruben Juarez, a very popular tango singer, composer, bandoneon (looks like a box accordion - typically used in tango music) musician and author. His records have gone gold and platinum in Latina America. The concert was excellent and there were mostly locals in the audience. They love him. After the concert, we made an attempt to go out dancing, but were informed that 1:30 a.m. was too early for dancing, the dancing didn't start until 3 a.m. Whoa Nelly! The two Patricia's had a long day - dancing just wasn't going to happen. We headed back to the hostel where Lewis proceeded to give us our own private tango show - hilarious - the boy's got moves!
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