Monday February 10th, 2025 Buenos Aires, Argentina
Updated: Feb 18
We’ve got two days in Buenos Aires and in order to get a feel for the city, this morning we have a ships excursion called Sights of Buenos Aires; 4 hours on the bus with stops at some of the most significant locations. I’m glad we are mostly on the bus today as it’s another scorcher with highs nearing 100F.
Leaving the port and heading for our first stop at the Recoleta Cemetery we passed through some very grand neighborhoods, including the embassy district with large mansions in the French style surrounded by lavish gardens and high fences. There are a lot of parks and open spaces in Buenos Aires, giving the city an uncrowded feel – and they have an enormous number of monuments which seem to be erected for practically anything slightly significant.
There were three busses from the ship doing the same tour and they all seemed to arrive at the cemetery at the same time, I don’t know why they couldn’t have arranged for the busses to do the stops in different order – it would have really helped with the overcrowding.
Recoleta cemetery is enormous with all of the dead housed in tombs, many with underground rooms. This is THE place to be eternally rested in Buenos Aires with many of the Argentine rich and famous housed here including presidents, Nobel laureates, military leaders (they have a lot of those) and of course Eva Peron. María Eva Duarte de Perón, better known as just Eva Perón or by the nickname Evita was an Argentine politician, activist, actress, and philanthropist who served as First Lady of Argentina from June 1946 until her death in July 1952, as the wife of Argentine President Juan Perón. Following her death her body was embalmed and held while a large memorial was constructed, but before it was finished Juan Peron was removed from office and Evita’s body disappeared. Later she was secretly buried using a false name in Italy, then she was dug up and returned to Juan who now lived in exile in Madrid – he kept her on a slab in his dining room. Following Juan’s return to power in the 1970’s Evita’s body was finally returned to Buenos Aires and placed in her family’s crypt. The release of the west end stage musical in the late 1970’s and the subsequent movie exposed Evita to a whole new generation and she developed an almost mystical fame.
The long queue to see the tomb of Evita was thankfully in the shade of other immense crypts along one of the main “avenues” in the cemetery. The line moved quickly as tour guides urged everyone to only take a single photograph and then move on. Following the signpost we made a left turn down a very narrow alley and were soon passing a couple of black doors with name the Duarte above them and adorned with many fresh flowers. I thought it looked pretty and so fired off a couple of pictures and continued to shuffle along thinking we’d get to the grand tomb of Evita soon. As we passed the black doors I noticed, out of the corner of my eye, a small plaque with the name Eva Peron – there was no grand tomb, just a simple plaque on her family crypt.
Our guide was kind enough to add a quick stop on our tour at the El Ateneo library / bookshop / theater. This place was amazing; it had been a theater and fallen into disrepair only to be renovated and converted into a library on the upper levels with a book shop on the lower levels and even a coffee shop in the old stage area.
We passed the magnificent opera house before arriving at the Plaza de Mayo, the main square in Buenos Aries and the site of the founding of the city. In the center of the square is the May Monument commemorating the revolution of 25th of May 1810. Many large government buildings surround the square, including the famous Casa Rosada, seat of the President of Argentina as well as the city hall and Bank of Argentina. The Metropolitan Cathedral is also located in one corner of the square, this is the where the current Pope used to preach. Given the high temperature we moved about the square as quickly as we could trying to soak in the atmosphere but only managing to soak ourselves in sweat.
La Boca, the last stop on our tour, is a neighborhood located near the Port of Buenos Aires which meant it became a melting pot of different cultures during the 20th century, when millions of immigrants from Europe and Asia arrived. In particular, many of its settlers originated from the Italian region of Liguria. The neighborhood became a cornerstone for porteño (port) culture, being an important site during the early development of the tango.
Today, it is mostly known for being home to Boca Juniors, one of the two largest football teams in Argentina.
We passed the Boca Juniors stadium painted in the famous blue and yellow colors and turned through a series of ever narrower streets, lots of horn honking and shouting from the bus driver in order to get our coach safely to its parking spot in the heart of the neighborhood. Leaving the bus I immediately became aware that this was a major tourist area; lots of trinket shops and many street vendors – several “tango dancers” willing to pose with you, for a price. It’s bit like the Fisherman’s Wharf area of Buenos Aries – very, very touristy. Nevertheless it was worth a look and so we made our way down the short street known as Caminito. Here we could see the famous multicolored houses, I thought there’d be more, but they were bright for sure. Lots of references to famous Argentine footballers Messi and Maradona with pictures and statues – even on old guy who looked slightly like Maradona and was offering to pose with tourists, for a price of course. Sticking to the shade as much as possible we made our way through the area, hands firmly on purses and wallets with a white knuckle grip. It was a bit of a relief to get back to the bus.
Tonight we attended a dinner and tango dance show in Bueno Aires, it was ships excursion booked about a year ago. Two busses took the Cunard contingent from the port directly to the location, Tango Porteño – a large specially repurposed art deco theater, very bright and brash. We were escorted to the dining tables, arranged perpendicular to the stage in long rows. The dinner service was incredibly efficient and well done. We even got the choice of items for each of the three courses and unlimited drinks. The food was surprisingly good for such a mass-produced event. The show was very well done with a warmup magician, the choreography, dancing, singing and the band were great. The show lasted about 90 minutes which for me was about 30 minutes too long.
We got back to the ship at about midnight and flopped into bed, knackered.
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