Buenos Aires No 1

Hi Family, Friends, Davenanters, Dancers and Bloggers,

Saturday

Today, we were scheduled for a half a day tour of the city so after a very nice breakfast at the Hotel Intersur Recoleta we met our guide, Gloria, and another Scotish couple, who are doing the holiday with us, at 9.30 for the off!

Our first stop was the main square called  Paza de Mayo. At one end it has the Pink Palace, which is the main residence of the President of Argentina and at the other end it has a white building which is the main local government building of Buenos Aires. It also has the oldest Catholic Cathederal in Buenos Aires and is now famous because it is the Church that the new Argentinian Pope worked in before he became Pope.

This is the Cathederal - even though it doesn't look like a Cathederal from the outside. At this point I must remember to point out the Jacaranda trees. The whole of Buenos Aires is full of these fantastic trees and they only flower for about three weeks and we have been lucky enough to catch the city of Jacaranda trees in bloom. They look and smell fantastic.

This is the notice in the main entrance.

In the Cathederal is the mausoleum  of General San Martin who was the General of the army when Argentina won its Independance from the Spanish. The mausoleum  is draped in the Argentinian flag and is guarded by two soldiers at all times.

The floor throughout the church is mosaic and was brought from England in the early 19th century. It is like a Roman mosaic floor but the scale of it is huge.

This is the main square with the Pink Palace at one end. The balcony of the Pink Palace is where Evita made her famous speech.

The next area we were taken to was La Boca. This is an area by the Port where the original immigrants first lived and it is said to be where Tango originated. It is very much a tourist area now.

We then went to the latest area of the city to be developed and it reminded us of the developments in the London Docklands.

Our tour finished at the Recoleta Cemetary and even though there were a lot of tourists milling about it was a very peaceful experience.

Also

There were rows and rows of mausoleums but, of course, the most famous one belongs to Eva Peron's family.

This is the Duarte family mausoleum and Evita's body is inside it along with other family members.

We really enjoyed our tour but felt exaughsted and drained from the 80 degree heat so we escaped back to the hotel for a nice rest!

In the afternoon we got our second wind and ventured out on our own. We went to a local craft market and bought some jewellery. We both wanted earrings and a necklace made with the Argentinian rose pink stones so I bought a heart shaped set and Sue bought a triangular shaped set and we were extremely pleased with them. After that we went to the Fine Art Gallery and had a look around. There were a couple of genuine pieces of art but the majority of it consisted of copies - weird!

While we were out walking we came across an ice cream shop and decided that we must sample the local produce. No prizes for guessing what I had - walnut flavoured ice cream with walnut pieces in - and it was absolutely devine but at £3 for a small scoop it should have been - very expensive!

After our evening meal we finished the day off with, yes you've guessed, a very good measure of Amaretto. One of the good things about this country is that they make up their own measures, depending on how much they like you, so Sue and I are doing a very good job at chatting up the bar men and the measures seem to be getting bigger and bigger - can't be bad!

Still haven't Tangoed yet but we are determined to do it tomorrow.