Exploring BA

Wednesday November 17th. This morning took a bus to Boca. It is very touristy neighbourhood in another neighbourhood that is notoriously dangerous. (Interestingly, the bus is 1.25 pesos and the subte or subway is only 1.1 pesos, but both are less than fifty cents.) Boca is designed by the locals to be very tourist friendly. All the houses are painted different colours, lots of cafes and tourist shops. Stayed for a couple of hours, had a cafe and an empanada and then took a taxi back to the hostel.

Had lunch and then went for another long walk around BA. Walked for about four hours. The highlight was the Recoleta Cemetary. It must be one of the great and most bizarre cemeteries of the world. It's filled with large masoleums that house all the caskets or urns of a whole family. It's like a city of the dead. Evita Peron is housed there. Fascinating to wander among the tombs. Then continued east to the Botanical Gardens, which were a little disappointing as they were all trees. I thought there would be more plants and flowers. Going past a couple of other parks, I saw a couple of enormous rubber trees. You know the ones we buy in pots? The actual full grown trees are gorgeous and the trunks are amazing.

After dinner I went to a local dinner theatre to see a tango show. Met Simon and James from England, yet again. They are staying in the same hostel and went to the show too. It was more of a dramatic presentation in Spanish, of course, and think I missed most of the plot. But the dancing and music, with a live four piece band, was good. So, an enjoyable bit of culture.