The next stop of our cruise was Buenos Aires, Argentina, the capital and largest city in the country. I want to apologize in advance for the length of this post. Maybe I should have broken it into 2 posts? Oh well, here goes!
We had once again booked a private excursion with Tours By Locals; this time with Guillermo, and once again our excursion expectations were exceeded! We jumped in a van with our driver Pedro and we were off! First stop was this impressive looking building that turns out to be the cities University for Law Students.
Here is our guide Guillermo (pronounced Gu cher mo) telling us about the University.
Directly adjacent to this building is a very cool sculpture called Floralis Generica. The flower shaped structure is made from stainless steel, and the petals open at 0800 and close at sunset.
Created in 2002, it was a gift to the city from Argentine architect Eduardo Catalano. Thanks Edward! Cool shit!
Walking back to our van I saw these parrots on the ground, seemingly oblivious to us. Guillermo said these parrots are everywhere in Buenos Aires, but we only heard them from this point forward. Love parrots!
This statue is General Jose de San Martin, known as “The Liberator of Argentina, Chile and Peru”. He was an Argentine general and prime leader of southern South America’s successful struggle for independence from Spain. This statue is of him in his later years with his two young granddaughters.
Directly across the street is the National Institute of San Martin, a replica of his home in France, where he lived from 1834 to 1848.
He arrived in Buenos Aires in 1812, and offered his services to defend the United Provinces of of South America (what is now Argentina). He fought against the Spanish for Argentina from 1812 to 1816 when the country declared their independence.
He then lead an army across the Andes in 1817, something that had never been done before, and defeated the Spanish in 1818, liberating Chile. He then marched his army north to liberate Peru in 1821, then Ecuador in 1823. Busy guy! He died in France in 1850, and in 1880 his remains were returned to Argentina to be interred in the Cathedral of Buenos Aires. I’ve gotta say, pretty damn impressive dude!!
Guillermo then showed us what is a very important site to Argentinians, their massive horse racing Hippodrome.
We could only see a part of this, but I got a nice shot of this jockey and thoroughbred made of scrap steel.
Here is an aerial of the entire site. The main polo grounds are on the left side. Apparently this was MUCH more popular years ago before soccer took over as the national sport.
Our next stop was to visit the famous Recoleta Cemetery, but first we visited the adjacent Basilica of our Lady of the Pilar. They like their long church names here! On the path to the basilica is this statue of a man holding up a tree branch.
We had to get a group shot!
Here is the basilica, built in 1732. Looks a lot like a California mission! I wonder what the connection could possibly be??
Here you go…ABC. “Another Beautiful Church”! This one is for you Casey (inside joke for everybody not named Casey)!
We then entered Recoleta Cemetery. This massive cemetery opened in 1822, becoming the first public cemetery in Buenos Aires. On the left in this photo is the tomb of French military officer Colonel Federico Brandsen, who fought under Napoleon (when the French didn’t surrender at first blush) before moving to South America. He died for Argentina heroically while leading a charge in a battle against Brazil in 1827.
Recoleta is filled with mausoleums and vaults of various sizes, indicating the wealth of those buried here. It reminded us of a massive cemetery we visited in Milan. This monument is for Admiral Guillermo Brown, an Irish-born naval officer who became the father of the Argentine Navy. The green column honors his Irish heritage. Note the sailing ship at the top of the memorial. Very cool!
The initial graves in the cemetery, as seen in the middle of this photo, were extremely subdued, and then all of these wealthy people started building their memorials around them wherever they could purchase space.
I liked this little cherub that appears to be flipping everybody off. Well, at least from a distance it did. Tell it to the man dude!
The man buried here, General Tomas Guido, was a key Argentine independence hero, military leader and close ally of General San Martin. His son constructed this unique cave-like tomb by himself out of stones, fulfilling his fathers request to be buried “under the mountains” symbolizing the Andes crossings he endured with General San Martin.
There are several tombs in Recoleta that have an Egyptian inspired design, something that gained popularity after the discovery of King Tut’s tomb in 1922.
We saw several tombs with “time flies” symbology. Is it really 2026??
The most famous person in the cemetery is Eva Peron (aka Evita), the former first lady (to President Juan Peron) of Argentina from 1946 until her death in 1952. She unfortunately died of cancer at the age of 33. This is likely the most visited tomb in the cemetery. After the 1955 military coup (which hated all things Peron) that toppled her former husband, her embalmed body was hidden in secret locations in Argentina before being transported to Italy in 1957 with the assistance of the Vatican.
She was buried under a false name (Maria Maggi) in the Milan Monumental Cemetery, a very cool cemetery mentioned previously that we visited a few years ago. In 1971 her remains were exhumed and returned to her former husband who was living in exile in Madrid. Her body finally made it to her birth family’s “Duarte Family” mausoleum here in Recoleta in 1976.
On the way out of the cemetery I was struck by this rather scary looking statue of a woman with her dog, where it appears people have been constantly touching the dogs nose.
This is Liliana Crociati de Szaszak, who tragically died at the age of 26 during her honeymoon. She and her new husband were killed when an avalanche struck her hotel in Innsbruck, Austria. The statue of her beloved dog, Sabu, was added after his own death. The cemetery has tried to cordon off the statue to keep people from touching the dogs nose, which is supposed to bring good luck, but did it work for Liliana?? I mean how lucky is it to have an avalanche hit your hotel?
After the cemetery we grabbed a bite to eat and then visited this unique book store, El Ateneo Grand Splendid, widely regarded as one of the most beautiful book stores in the world! I’d have to agree! Look at this place!
This building, built in 1919 as the lavish Teatro Gran Splendid, a grand theater, was converted into a bookstore in the early 2000’s. The old stage area is now a cafe.
Very cool re-use of the building!! The place was filled with younger adults, which was promising to see!
Kenton ran into soccer star Lionel Messi as we were walking down the street. I had no idea how short Lionel is. Also, does he really wear that 2022 World Cup medal everywhere he goes?? Apparently so!
This is the Casa Rosada, Argentina’s version of The White House, located on Plaza de Mayo, Buenos Aires main square.
This statue of General Manuel Belgrano sits in front of Casa Rosada. The many stones placed here have hand painted names, dates and messages to honor loved ones lost during Covid-19. This was seen as a protest against the government and their handling of the Wuhan Flu. This became known as the “March of the Stones”. It appears pretty much everybody blew handling this shitshow!
The Argentine flag flies high overhead in the plaza! Looked great against that gorgeous sky!
Ok, we are nearing the end…hang in there!
Our last stop of the day was the Cathedral of Buenos Aires. Completed in 1779, this lavish church is famous as the place where Pope Francis served as archbishop before becoming THE Pope.
As mentioned earlier in this post, this is also the final resting place of General San Martin. Two elite guards from the Argentine Army have guarded his tomb 24 hours a day since he was interred in 1880 (this info according to research done by Grok AI, Guillermo, is this true?). I shot a video of the changing of the guard that I hope to upload after I get some actual internet access. It was very cool!
That was the end of an impressive tour! Our ship was fortunately staying the night so we were able to all go out to dinner at Don Julio, currently listed as the #10 Restaurant in the World!
Super guide Guillermo actually booked this restaurant for us with his own credit card! Who does that?? Just book this guy already!!
After dinner they gave us a tour of the wine cellar. Amazing lineup of wines!
Here are the ladies waiting for our Ubers to take us back to Casa de Shipa. What a good looking bunch!!
Coming up next, our ship heads south for the Falkland Islands (Malvinas Islands if you are from Argentina….seriously….don’t say “Falkland” here!). Thanks again to Guillermo!
