{"id":13589,"date":"2026-02-03T18:11:49","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T01:11:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/petersontravels.com\/?p=13589"},"modified":"2026-05-02T10:26:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T17:26:19","slug":"buenos-aires-argentina-city-sights-general-san-martin-recoleta-cemetery-don-julio-restaurant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/petersontravels.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/03\/buenos-aires-argentina-city-sights-general-san-martin-recoleta-cemetery-don-julio-restaurant\/","title":{"rendered":"Buenos Aires, Argentina; City Sights, General San Martin, Recoleta Cemetery, Don Julio Restaurant"},"content":{"rendered":"

The next stop of our cruise was Buenos Aires, Argentina, the capital and largest city in the country.\u00a0 I want to apologize in advance for the length of this post.\u00a0 Maybe I should have broken it into 2 posts?\u00a0 Oh well, here goes!<\/p>\n

We had once again booked a private excursion with Tours By Locals; this time with Guillermo<\/a><\/strong>, and once again our excursion expectations were exceeded! We jumped in a van with our driver Pedro and we were off!\u00a0 First stop was this impressive looking building that turns out to be the cities University for Law Students.<\/p>\n

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Here is our guide Guillermo (pronounced Gu cher mo) telling us about the University.<\/p>\n

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Directly adjacent to this building is a very cool sculpture called Floralis Generica.\u00a0 The flower shaped structure is made from stainless steel, and the petals open at 0800 and close at sunset.<\/p>\n

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Created in 2002, it was a gift to the city from Argentine architect Eduardo Catalano.\u00a0 Thanks Edward!\u00a0 Cool shit!<\/p>\n

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Walking back to our van I saw these parrots on the ground, seemingly oblivious to us.\u00a0 Guillermo said these parrots are everywhere in Buenos Aires, but we only heard them from this point forward.\u00a0 Love parrots!<\/p>\n

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This statue is General Jose de San Martin, known as “The Liberator of Argentina, Chile and Peru”.\u00a0 He was an Argentine general and prime leader of southern South America’s successful struggle for independence from Spain.\u00a0 This statue is of him in his later years with his two young granddaughters.<\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

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He arrived in Buenos Aires in 1812, and offered his services to defend the United Provinces of of South America (what is now Argentina).\u00a0 He fought against the Spanish for Argentina from 1812 to 1816 when the country declared their independence.<\/p>\n

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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.\u00a0 He then marched his army north to liberate Peru in 1821, then Ecuador in 1823.\u00a0 Busy guy!\u00a0 He died in France in 1850, and in 1880 his remains were returned to Argentina to be interred in the Cathedral of Buenos Aires.\u00a0 I’ve gotta say, pretty damn impressive dude!!<\/p>\n

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Guillermo then showed us what is a very important site to Argentinians, their massive horse racing Hippodrome.<\/p>\n

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We could only see a part of this, but I got a nice shot of this jockey and thoroughbred made of scrap steel.<\/p>\n

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Here is an aerial of the entire site.\u00a0 The main polo grounds are on the left side.\u00a0 Apparently this was MUCH more popular years ago before soccer took over as the national sport.<\/p>\n

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Our next stop was to visit the famous Recoleta Cemetery, but first we visited the adjacent Basilica of our Lady of the Pilar.\u00a0 They like their long church names here!\u00a0 On the path to the basilica is this statue of a man holding up a tree branch.<\/p>\n

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We had to get a group shot!<\/p>\n

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Here is the basilica, built in 1732.\u00a0 Looks a lot like a California mission!\u00a0 I wonder what the connection could possibly be??<\/p>\n

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Here you go…ABC.\u00a0 “Another Beautiful Church”!\u00a0 This one is for you Casey (inside joke for everybody not named Casey)!<\/p>\n

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We then entered Recoleta Cemetery.\u00a0 This massive cemetery opened in 1822, becoming the first public cemetery in Buenos Aires.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 He died for Argentina heroically while leading a charge in a battle against Brazil in 1827.<\/p>\n

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Recoleta is filled with mausoleums and vaults of various sizes, indicating the wealth of those buried here.\u00a0 It reminded us of a massive cemetery we visited in Milan.\u00a0 This monument is for Admiral Guillermo Brown, an Irish-born naval officer who became the father of the Argentine Navy.\u00a0 The green column honors his Irish heritage.\u00a0 Note the sailing ship at the top of the memorial.\u00a0 Very cool!<\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

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I liked this little cherub that appears to be flipping everybody off.\u00a0 Well, at least from a distance it did.\u00a0 Tell it to the man dude!<\/p>\n

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The man buried here, General Tomas Guido, was a key Argentine independence hero, military leader and close ally of General San Martin.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

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We saw several tombs with “time flies” symbology.\u00a0 Is it really 2026??<\/p>\n

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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.\u00a0 She unfortunately died of cancer at the age of 33.\u00a0 This is likely the most visited tomb in the cemetery.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 In 1971 her remains were exhumed and returned to her former husband who was living in exile in Madrid.\u00a0 Her body finally made it to her birth family’s “Duarte Family” mausoleum here in Recoleta in 1976.<\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

This is Liliana Crociati de Szaszak, who tragically died at the age of 26 during her honeymoon.\u00a0 She was killed when an avalanche struck their hotel in Innsbruck, Austria (the husband survived).\u00a0 The statue of her beloved dog, Sabu, was added after his own death.\u00a0 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??\u00a0 I mean how lucky is it to have an avalanche hit your hotel?\u00a0 Her widow visited the mausoleum just once as he believed coming more would have attracted attention that his wife would not have wanted.<\/p>\n

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After the cemetery we grabbed a bite to eat and then visited this unique book store, El Ateneo Grand Splendid<\/strong>, widely regarded as one of the most beautiful book stores in the world!\u00a0 I’d have to agree!\u00a0 Look at this place!<\/p>\n

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This building, built in 1919 as the lavish Teatro Gran Splendid<\/strong>, a grand theater, was converted into a bookstore in the early 2000’s.\u00a0 The old stage area is now a cafe.<\/p>\n

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Very cool re-use of the building!!\u00a0 The place was filled with younger adults, which was promising to see!<\/p>\n

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Kenton ran into soccer star Lionel Messi as we were walking down the street.\u00a0 I had no idea how short Lionel is.\u00a0 Also, does he really wear that 2022 World Cup medal everywhere he goes??\u00a0 Apparently so!<\/p>\n

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This is the Casa Rosada, Argentina’s version of The White House, located on Plaza de Mayo, Buenos Aires main square.<\/p>\n

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This statue of General Manuel Belgrano sits in front of Casa Rosada.\u00a0 The many stones placed here have hand painted names, dates and messages to honor loved ones lost during Covid-19.\u00a0 This was seen as a protest against the government and their handling of the Wuhan Flu.\u00a0 This became known as the “March of the Stones”.\u00a0 It appears pretty much everybody blew handling this shitshow!<\/p>\n

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The Argentine flag flies high overhead in the plaza!\u00a0 Looked great against that gorgeous sky!<\/p>\n

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Ok, we are nearing the end…hang in there!<\/p>\n

Our last stop of the day was the Cathedral of Buenos Aires.\u00a0 Completed in 1779, this lavish church is famous as the place where Pope Francis served as archbishop before becoming THE Pope.<\/p>\n

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As mentioned earlier in this post, this is also the final resting place of General San Martin.\u00a0 Two elite guards from the Argentine Army have guarded his tomb during church opening hours every day from 0900 to 1700 since his body was first placed in this mausoleum in 1880.<\/p>\n

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We were lucky enough to be there when they had the changing of the guard.\u00a0 Very cool!<\/p>\n