Buenos Aires

Waiting to board the plane to Houston in YYC

We arrived safe and sound in Buenos Aires this morning after 2 long flights. The big one from Houston to Buenos Aires was 10 hours...on United, which I despise as they have the oldest smallest planes ever, but we were very pleasantly surprised to board a new modern plane with decent leg room, in-seat TV's (that didn't require your credit card to work) and USB plug-in's. I even managed to cram my little body onto the floor under our seats and get a few hours of sleep while Sue slept across our 2 seats.

The sleep was definitely assisted though by the huge glass of wine we drank in Houston.

Texas portions of wine!

It wasn't the best sleep I've ever had but did the trick so we weren't complete hot messes today!

We got to our hotel around 11:00 am and thankfully, our room was ready. I hit a wall and desperately wanted to nap but Sue convinced me to bathe, caffeinate, eat and power through. I got my second wind after coffee that seems to be going strong as long as I don't stop moving! We are currently drinking wine, interneting and eating dinner on a roof top patio. Did I mention it's beautiful and in the high 20's??? We decided we are allowed to sleep tonight anytime after 9pm.

Our hotel's roof top patio.

Buenos Aires is often called the “Paris of South America,” for its architecture and rich European heritage. It's a busy city, but nice and has a very very European feeling. You would never look around and think you were in a Latin country. I'm picking up my Spanish again pretty quickly and I seem to be able understand their accent well...it's quite different than Guatemala, and I was a little worried I'd be back to square one when it came to communicating. 

 

Buenos Aires covers 202 square kilometers and has a population of about three million....it's a fairly green city with tree lined streets and lots of parks... but tons of people and cars everywhere. There seems to be a cool little cafe/restaurant with a outdoor patio on every corner.

Mmmmmm...Gelato! Banana, Limon, Crème brulee and strawberry flavours!

By the time we showered and had lunch, we had half a day left to explore so we walked down to the Recoleta Cemetery.

This place was so cool...it was huge and consisted of rows and rows of crypts, some of them super old and most of the very ornate created by local and international sculptors. ..it covers 4 city blocks and you can get lost wandering through it!

This is the final resting place of many of the wealthiest and most important Argentine historical figures. The cemetery was created in 1822 and is among the oldest in the city. More than 6,400 mausoleums are here and even include Greek temples and pyramids. 

 

The most popular site is the tomb of Eva "Evita" Perón, which is always heaped with flowers and letters from adoring fans. To prevent her body from being stolen, as it had been many times by the various military governments installed after her husband's fall from grace in 1955, she was finally buried in a concrete vault 8.1meters underground in 1976. 

Eva "Evita" Perón's family crypt.

 

Tomorrow we have tickets to see a Football game!(Well...soccer) We were warned to be very careful not to wear the away team's colors either or you could get yourself into trouble with crazy fans. The stadium hold 50000 people! How crazy is that?! We are super excited.

Well, our 9pm bed time approached....I have pretty much not slept more than a few hours in several days and am exhausted. Good night!