Many new experiences!!

This week was relatively slow so we were able to travel the city a little more. We went to the famous Recoleta Cemetery, where many rich and famous familys have mausoleums. The cemetery is very old and very historical, containing the graves of many important historical figures in Argentine history, including Eva Peron. The mausoleums are all very intrecate and beautiful with very detailed artwork, or statues covering the outsides of each. The interesting part about the cemetery was definitely the fact that you could see into most of the mausoleums and look at the caskets inside. It caught me by surprise the first time I looked into one!

usually there were several caskets in the main chamber of the mauseleum, and then there was a staircase leading down underground to house the rest of the family.

When I came to Buenos Aires I knew NOTHING about Evita. Once I got here I realized that even though she is dead, she is still a very important part of the Argentine culture. After seeing her grave at La Recoleta Cemetery I heard someone say that her body was embalmed and preserved. How interesting! So I decided to investigate. She got cancer and was the very first Argentine to go through Chemotherapy. She died in the early 50's in her 30's and it was a huge sadness for the Argentine people. Juan, her husband, and presedent of Argentina at the time, decided to have her body fully embalmed. The process took over 2 years and they embalmed every part of her-including her brain which was hardly ever done. The embalmer used glycerine to fill her veins and preserve her organs to give her more of an appearance that looked more like "artestically rendered sleep". Her body, after being on display for some time, was moved to Italy because her husband's presidency was overthrown. She now rests in Recoleta Cemetery-still fully preserved! Very interesting!

The cemetery gave me mixed emotions. I tried not to get too weirded out by the fact that I could see the caskets (and at one point, could smell them...) and therefore got the feeling that I was being surrounded by dead bodies. But It was also a very beautiful place, the archetecture was incredible! A very neat, and different expereience!

After the Cemetery we visited the metal Fleur near the law school in Buenos Aires. It is solar powered and is open during the day, and every night at 8:30pm it closes until the next morning. Very cool-and so big!!
Also, I told Graham about all of the dogs here in B.A. and the dogwalkers that are everywhere-here is a pic!!