Buenos Aires - February 2nd

Despite the rain last night, the roads are remarkably dry this morning, and the sun is blazing.  We are able to have a relatively late start as our first port of call is the guided tour at the local Recolata cemetery which begins at 11:00.  Showing how well located our flat is, from the junction below it, we have now walked all 4 directions to get to local sights or the subway.

The cemetery is an interesting tour for two reasons, firstly the list of people buried there, which includes a lot of former presidents, Evita, Admiral Brown, the Irishman who founded the Argentine Navy, and lots of other rich locals.  The other reason why it is interesting is because all the rich locals have built massive ornate tombs to house their remains.  Being buried here is a great status symbol, and there is a big market in selling tombs.  Big ones can go for as much as small flats in the area.  It is hot in the cemetery, so after looking around for a while we have to leave and get an ice cream.  In BA good ice cream shops are never very far away.  After taking a picture of a giant mechanical flower, the heat, and the fact that I forgot the sun cream, force us back to the air conditioned comfort of the flat.

When it cools off in the evening we walk to the neighbouring barrio of Palermo.  If we are the Upper West Side of New York, it is Greenwich Village.  It isn’t pretty to get into, but once there it is all nice bars, restaurants and designer clothes shops.  Dorota gets to look in a few shops before we have a mini repeat of the deluge from the previous night.  It’s not quite as heavy so we run the three blocks to a restaurant which has been recommended to us by Clare and Paul, La Cabrera.  It is full when we get there, but we are able to wait in the bar next door.  And it is worth the wait, the steak (single – we have learnt to share) is massive and beautifully cooked.  The accompaniments are almost as impressive, we get a salad, and 12 little pots of various vegetables, and a massive bowl of fried potatoes.  I have to say we didn’t really do justice to the vegetables we were so full of meat.

After dinner was finished (at about 22:30) we made like Argentineans and headed out for the night.  This time we were going to a milonga.  This is a tango dance hall.  Needless to say this is Dorota’s idea.  Luckily the rain has stopped and it is only a few blocks away from the restaurant so we walk there.  Strangely it is in the Armenian cultural centre, despite tango not being very Armenian.  We have a free lesson for an hour and do another half hours dancing before we go home at the late (for us) time of 01:00.