Reflections – Duarte “Eva Perón’ family grave

… really, there’s no need. This is not going to be another one of those silly posts. I am not going to tell you how we visited Recoleta Cemetery, the dead centre of town. I am not going to tell you how we waited at the entrance while a skeleton staff stood by idly. I am not going to tell you how we made a grave mistake in not getting a guide to show us around. I am not going to tell you about all the scrawny dishevelled looking cats – I wanted to yell out ‘give that cat a comb’. And I am definitely not going to tell you how even the smallest plots cost upwards of US$700,000, and people are dying to get in … that really would be corny.

However, I will tell you how we walked around on a beautiful sunny morning, getting lost in the labyrinth of laneways that led between the mainly impeccably maintained mausoleums; how we managed to find María Eva Duarte de Perón’s grave, (aka Eva Perón, aka Evita); and how I had lots of fun taking photographs of shadows and light and reflections, and the occasional exposed coffin.

When I go, I don’t think I’d like to end up in a morbid mausoleum. I think I’d like to be unravelled and made into a pom-pom. A little tuft of wool. Life is easy when you’re a pom-pom.

You want to see the pictures? Sure you do.

Quite possibly the most beautiful bookshop in the world, Al Ateneo, a couple of blocks from our apartment, is situated inside the former Grand Splendid theatre, and it is indeed.

Downside …. barely an English book in sight!

I promise!

We have been sneaking off in the afternoons to watch the knockout rounds, in the lead up to the finals, of the World Tango Festival.

Below is some video from yesterday’s competition.

I have been known to break the odd promise – stay tuned!

According to the latest United Nations population data, there are 96 males for every 100 females in Argentina (and this margin is expected to increase). When walking down the main streets of Buenos Aires, passing the million-and-one ladies only shoe stores and women’s clothing stores, it seems higher already.

Art installation being dismantled at the tribute exhibit to renowned Argentinean actress Isabel Sarli.

Only 59 kilos to go!

The average Argentinean consumes more than 60 kg per annum of beef. The few remaining bits of a cow they don’t consume, they wear – Gillian and Paul seem to be doing more than their share of both.