Having rested out feet yesterday we walked many kilometres today. There was no point in catching the train to where we were going today as it would not save us any distance. We haven’t yet been game to use the bus system as we could end up anywhere.
So we headed off on foot to the Cementerio de la Recoleta. We left early so we could walk slowly as they are predicting another day of hot weather, >38C. I think it was about 30C by the time we walked out the front door at 9.45am and must have been close to 38C when we started our tour of the cemetery at 11am. We stayed with the tour (which was free) for about 15 minutes before we headed off on our own. The cemetery was established in 1822 and holds the graves of numerous president, military figures and heroes, politicians, influential public figure and Evita (Eva Peron). It is a really interesting place as all the majority of the graves are mausoleums with a very decorative and impressive ‘top’ part above ground which has a place to pray and then a skinny stairwell to the ‘bottom’ part underground which is around a 40sqm and can hold up to 25 coffins. Generally all people are buried in a metal coffin which is sealed really well; this is then place in the wooden coffin. The mausoleums are quite an architectural feat with the vast majority of them being designed and often imported from France.
Recoleta Cemetery
We saw the grave containing William Brown. He developed Argentina’s navy during the revolution. He was a bright boy who started out with only a few small ships, but as he captured ships, the navy grew to be quite large and effective. The navy was a significant in assisting with the kicking out of Spain from Argentina. The coffin he is buried in is made from one of the canons of his navy boats.
William Brown's tomb in Recoleta Cemetery
We then sought out Eva Peron’s grace. There is an interesting history here. When she died Evita was embalmed and there were plans to build a massive monument to her, however a military coup took place before that could happen. When Juan Peron (her husband and former president) fled Argentina the body went missing or 16 years. The body eventually turned up in a miss named grave in Italy. She was eventually given back to Juan who was in exile in Spain, where he and his new wife Isobel kept her on display in the dining room (really, I kid you not). It was only after Juan had returned to Argentina and then died was the corpse returned and placed in Recolletta. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Per%C3%B3n
Eva 'Evita' Peron's tomb
We also saw the grave of Pedro Aramburu, who was instrumental in the coup which overthrew Peron in 1955. He was president shortly after. In 1970 he was kidnapped and executed by a terrorist group, who later on dug up and hid his corpse. They refused to return it until Evita’s body was back in the country.
We wandered around further and came across what appeared to be the tombs of national military heroes and presidents. One of the sites is a memorial to the soldiers who lost their lives in the Paraguay War. The Paraguay War was around 1865-1870 when Paraguay had a population of about 1.34 million people and one of the most highly trained armies under the despot General Lopez. Lopez decided to try to take land from Brazil, who said ‘no’ and fought back, Lopez then picked a fight with Argentina and Uruguay as well. So, Lopez was attacking Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, so they joined together and defeated Lopez. In Lopez’s quest for power and land, he essentially enforced conscription of every male regardless of ages. The women were forced into the fields to provide food for the armies, any resistance and they were killed. There was one period where the only men in the armies were either male children or old men, the rest had been killed. When peace was declared the total population of Paraguay was less than 250,000 people and of these only 28,000 were men.
Memorial to Paraguay War
We kept walking around the cemetery but were getting tired and hot as well as sore feet, it must have been about 38C!
So we decided it was time for some lunch (only 12.15pm!) in the big shopping centre right beside the cemetery. We figured it had to have air conditioning and we were cooked. It did!! After a quiet and cool sit we set off again, this time heading towards home via the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Museum of Fine Arts) and Museo Nacional de Arte Decorativo. The Museum of Fine Arts was excellent, but they should put in some air conditioning. There were some very, very early pieces from Renoir, Monet, Gaugin, Toulouse and Goya. However there were also quite a few Rodin statues, which were great.
From here we walked to the Museo Nacional de Arte Decorativo, which is the museum that we tried to go to on Wednesday 4 January but was closed until today. The museum is in the beautiful mansion called Palacio Errazuriz which seems modelled on everything Louis XVI and houses the collection/belongings of Chilean Matias Errazuriz. Gosh, that man had money!! The main hall was designed and built to hold three huge tapestries that he owned. In walking through the mansion you do get the feeling of Versaille, but on a very much smaller scale.
Palacio Errazuriz - Museo Nacional de Arte Decorativo
Then we headed home, however got distracted by a Heladeria (ice cream shop). Argentina helado (ice cream) is supposed to be some of the best around. So we stopped for a sit and some really good ice cream.
Finally we got home. But, …. there is no power. We think that they are either rationing the power between the needs for the daytime or needs for the evening time or the city just can’t handle the hot weather and the subsequent turning on of all air conditioning. It was hot last night so we slept with the air conditioning on. However we’ve been home now for about 2.5 hours and the power still isn’t on. Thankfully it has cooled down a bit and we have the windows (two of them) wide open and there is a bit of a breeze. The cloud has come in and dropped the temperature about 8 degrees, and it really looks and feels like it wants to rain.
I think we’ll eat out tonight.
The power came back on at 2am, thankfully it had cooled down a lot.
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