Week Three: Visit to Capital Federal!

YAY! I found some nature to climb!  I miss nature!

Learning Learning and more learning!  On Monday I meet up with another friend from the YAGM program who is living sort of nearby.  We went into the main part of Buenos Aires which is known as Capital Federal.  The outer suburbs (where I live) are known as Gran Buenos Aires or Greater Buenos Aires.  It took me about one hour to get into the city center by train.  That was my first experience riding public transportation alone here in BA and it was pretty easy and very cheep to get there (AR$1.20 both ways).  I have been finding it difficult to get orientated to BA because it is such a huge city!  This little trip really helped!  We smoothly navigated ourselves around the Retiro/Palermo area and now I have a better cogitative map established for the city (wow I kind of sound like a scientist here...cool).  

The weather was beautiful and it was nice to go on a little adventure and get away from my apartment!  The Retiro/Palermo area is one of the wealthiest areas in the city and it contrasts with the area I am living in...the streets were almost spotless and everything was very well kept.  As we walked to the Plaza de Francia we went by Carter and other high end stores.

A Church we stopped by in the Plaza de Francia

 

 

 After stopping in the Plaza de Francia we headed to the Cementerio de Recoleta (a few steps away), which is a very famous tourist stop.  The cemetery opened in 1822 and was and continues to be a very difficult place to get into (people are dying to get in....literally?) with lengthy waiting lists.  It has become home to famous, well know family names and it very expensive.  It contains many elaborate tombs/mausoleums that are all very unique and very interesting to look at.  It sort of seemed like a place Buffy the Vampire Slayer and her gang should be hanging out in...did not see them though.  

The creepy but awesome Cementerio de Recoleta

Evita's final (for now) resting place

We stopped by Evita Peron's grave (that is basically the only reason we came to the cemetery...she is after all their most famous resident).  It is a nice humble, plain black granite tomb.  It is rumored that her remains will eventually more to San Vicente cemetery to be burred next to her husband (I wonder how that will work...he had 3 wives...Evita was the second...).  The graveyard was a city itself and we sort of got lost trying to leave...but we made it out in the end. 

El Museo National de Bellas Artes (National Museum of Art)

Of course I wanted to check out the local art museums...this was a great place to start. It is one of the largest art museums in South America.  I will defiantly have to go back...there was too much to see.  We did get to see a really interesting exhibit of an Argentine Artist called Antonio Berni (1905-1981).  his early work reminds me a lot of the Diego Rivera's murals.

Antonio Berni Españoles desempleados

Me in front of the Facultad de Derecho (right next door to the Art Museum)

Overall we had a great day...this is the beginning of a beautiful year of exploration in this great city!