The Pink House in Buenos Aires
Today was our first full day as a group in Buenos Aires. Numerous people were late due to the big snowstorm in the northeast. I was SO glad Ashley talked me into going to Miami a few days early. All flights on Saturday and 40% of the flights on Sunday were canceled from Hartford, so I am pretty sure I would have been delayed as well. Anyway, today we were to have an arranged tour of the most popular tourist sites in Buenos Aires, another optional group run, then a mandatory dinner meeting.
Mausoleums in the Recoleta Cemetery
Our first stop was at the oldest public cemetery in Bueno Aires, La Recoleta Cemetery. It was declared a public cemetery in 1820. The first thing that stood out was that this was no ordinary cemetery like we see in the USA. The entire cemetery contained mausoleums, and some were quite intricate! When asked, the tour guide said there were about 4500 of them, and there was no space for any more. She also said that the number of people interred there was unknown, but some rather famous people were here. I had never been up close to a mausoleum before, so I took the opportunity to peek inside when I had an opportunity (note: I did NOT enter any of them). Many of them had caskets in the ground-level chamber. However, I noticed numerous mausoleums had a crypt as well. The tour guide said that the crypts can contain additional caskets or urns for cremated people and can go an additional 5 meters / 15 feet below the ground! When asked about the price of a mausoleum, she said that it varies depending on the style, but it can cost more than a house.
Floralis Genérica sculputre in Buenos Aires
Next, we stopped at a large metal flower that is supposed to open its petals in the morning and close them in the evening. However, it was broken and the petals are always closed.
Statue in Buenos Aires with a rock for each victim of COVID
The next stop was at the pink house in Recoleta. This is where the President of Argentina does his daily work. To get to work, he flies in by helicopter and lands on the roof! Pretty cool. In the same square is a monument. There were hundreds if not thousands of rocks placed at the base of the monument. When I asked why all of the rocks were there, somebody told me that each rock represents somebody who died from COVID. That was a fairly startling display of what is STILL going on in the world right now. Yikes!
In 2014 when I was working in ESPN Deportes, I had this soccer task that I was working on. As I was working on this task, I noticed a team logo that was not “typical”. By that, I mean it was not a fierce lion or tiger, nor was it colorful. It was just a plain circular black and white logo with black text. Curious, I looked up this logo and found out that it was for a soccer team in Argentina named “River Plate“. I thought that this was a strange name for a team, but whatever – I am sure there is a reason for it. A couple of weeks later, I was walking behind a person while going to the ESPN cafe. He was carrying/wearing a backpack with a sports team logo. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that it was the RIVER PLATE soccer team logo! What were the chances that I worked on a soccer project, looked up that exact logo, then SAW the logo on a backpack for a soccer team in Argentina nonetheless! It was comical, but I put that out of my mind for 8 years. As we were driving through Buenos Aires, we drove near a soccer stadium. The streets were filled with sporting goods shops – all of which had soccer memorabilia. The tour guide told us the history of the two soccer teams in the area, and lo and behold, one was River Plate, and they played in this stadium we were driving by, which was Estadio Monumental Antonio Vespucio Liberti! Wow – River Plate now has come full-circle. Will I have any more River Plate encounters in my life? Who knows, but I am very curious.
Souvenir shop in Buenos Aires
Our next stop was in a touristy area where I could try to buy some knick-knacks for people at home. I went into the first store and found a nice Argentine leather wallet. I needed a new wallet and this one was appealing. It had 4 credit card slots per side (help 8 total) and TWO inserts for your driver’s license and whatever else you might want to put there – like your health insurance cards. In my current wallet, I have to double up some cards in the appropriate slots because there is not enough room. This wallet was PERFECT. I asked the lady how much it was, and she said 4,600 pesos. I learned the lesson yesterday at lunch, so I asked for the exchange rate (I knew the “official” rate was about 105:1). She quoted me a price of $23 USD! I took it! What a nice wallet. I was getting hungry, so I bought an empanada and a bottle of water for lunch. The grand total (on credit card) was $3.94! Not bad for a lunch. I went back to shopping and found a nice penguin carved out of Rhodochrosite, the Argentine national stone. The price was $11,600 pesos, but she told me $57 for USD (a little more than 200:1)! I took that and crossed Grace of my “to buy something for” list. It is pretty cool, and I think she will love it.
We made out way back to the hotel after that, and I geared up for a 4-mile group run. The park was open, but you could take several paths in the park to do 2.5, 3.1, 4, or 6.1 miles. I decided to do the 4-mile route, but halfway through, I decided to walk. It was WAAAAAY too hot (in the 80s) and I do not do well in the heat when it comes to exercise. I walked with 2 other people who decided it was too hot to run as well.
After the run, I showered and vegged until dinner. At 6:30 I went down to check out my bib and cabin assignments. I was in cabin 310 with a guy named Thomas. During dinner, I located Thomas and introduced myself, but did not talk long. As for the flight, the charter did not hold enough people so there were SEVEN people who were booked on a regular domestic flight via Aerolineas Argentinas. I was one of those lucky 7 – and was pretty disappointed. I did not want to have to go through the airport myself. What if nobody knew Spanish? Lastly, I scheduled my COVID PCR test for 8:45 am tomorrow. This test was required by the Argentine government. If anybody tested positive, they must quarantine in Buenos Aires for 7-10 days
Dinner consisted of tomato + mozzarella cheese salad, then salmon. It was quite yummy. Jeff Adams spoke about what we will be encountering over the next several days with the sailing, race, covid, etc. There were no surprises for me thus far.
After dinner, Sam and I called Cabana Las Lilas to make a reservation for 15 people. They could accommodate us, but they did not open until 7 pm. That was fine, and we booked the reservation.
At 9:30p, I ventured out with my newfound friend Bai (from Chicago, but she grew up in Shanghai, China) to look at the stars. She is a big fan of astronomy, as am I. We are hoping for at least one or two clear nights on the Drake Passage so we can look at the southern sky! There was quite a bit of light pollution, so we were not able to see a whole lot (although Orion was very prominent overhead). During the walk, I found out that she is a Financial Advisor in Chicago for Citibank. She and her husband/children love to travel and she has been on numerous interesting marathon trips. She is also an amazing photographer. After that walk, I retired to my room for the evening.