WALKING DEAD

Virtually every tourist guide to Buenos Aires in print mentions the city's cemeteries not simply because they house some of the country's most famous dead personages (Evita Duarte, Astor Piazolla, Carlos Gardel, to name a few you might recognize), but because of the spectacular architecture and statuary that adorn the sepulchers.
Since Rachael has to entertain a multitude of out of town guests, all eager to see everything mentioned in their guidebooks (think the Boardwalk and the redwoods, all you Santa Cruzans) she has created a special game to LIVEN up the requisite cemetery visits called Cemetery Bingo. Each participant fills out a 5x5 grid on a piece of paper choosing items from a predesignated list of things to be found in the cemetery. There are categories: people, dates, statues and plaques, and other, and the players must choose items from each list. The participants walk through the cemetery together and the first person to find the objects listed on his bingo card and cross off a column, row or 5 box diagonal achieves BINGO and is the winner and gets to feel important and superior.

We took a bus to the most famous of the cemeteries, Cematario de Recoleta. It resembles a small city (minus a couple of amenities like the ubiquitous Starbucks), with the mausoleums laid out in rows of narrow streets. Many of the tombs are larger than my daughter's apartment, which I guess makes sense since they are housing entire extended families.
We wandered down the lanes searching for objects on our Bingo cards, things like: a cow statue, the Mason evil eye, an open tomb, a live cat (there are many), "knockers bigger then your hand" (there are a few, depending on exactly how you translate that), person wearing glasses, etc.

Bingo!

Some of the tombs are in disrepair, but all of them are ornate and covered with more cherubs than you could shake a harp at. There isn't alot of greenery but the streets are so narrow as to cast some nice shadows, which was a welcome relief from the intense sun beating us Norteños down.
Owen won Bingo, though we never did find Evita's tomb despite the directions in my guidebook (and the helpful angel pointing the way).

Thataway!

We gave those directions to some other foreigners who were also searching for it (although not playing Bingo) and we never saw them again, so I suspect that the directions are some kind of tourist trap (literally) and probably those poor turistas are tied up in a tomb somewhere minus their wallets and passports, and the guidebook publisher is licking his fingers and counting out his hefty cut of the profits.

 A very big angel lords it over Rachael

We continued our cemetery tour the following day, this time taking the subway to Cemetario de la Chacarita. If the Cemetario de Recoleta is a small city, Chacarita is a metropolis. It is a sprawling 230 acres and the largest cemetary in the country. Here the streets are more like boulevards. Again the tombs are immense marble edifices carved in a multitude of Gothic architectural designs. There are also a surprising number of Egyptian style tombs so I guess Argentina didn't miss out on that King Tut fad in the 1980s, although I have to say these did look much older.

There is a HUGE ornate cathedral, with a stained glass rotunda, in the center of the grounds, but alas it was closed the day we visited. Inside we could see birds flying near the ceiling, their calls creating eerie echoes through the closed grillwork.

One of the most famous mausoleums in this cemetery is that of Carlos Gardel, the father of tango. It is marked by a larger than life statue (unless he was one gigantic dude) that supposedly is always holding a lit cigarette put there by an adoring fan. Since everyone in Argentina is required to smoke, and when in Rome, or, well in this case when in B.A., I wanted a puff too, I insisted that we locate his tomb so I could pay homage and bum a smoke. After wandering for two hours, and asking various guards for directions, alas again... when we finally located Gardel's statue, his cigarette had burned down to a butt and was no good to me.

In front of Gardel, modeling 'neckulator' that Stuart gave me for my flight.

However, if you are ever in the neighborhood and craving a ciggybutt, I noted the address for you: corner of Calle 6 & 33. Not that that will be any help because this appeared to be the only street sign in the entire cemetery.
Buena suerte,
J
P.S. For any of you who want the official Cemetery Bingo instructions (spanish or english versions available send your request to nuitzangaro @gmail.com.)

Don't look now but I see a Zombie.

Zombie or Tango?

Siesta Time.

La Chacarita Cemetery


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