What a difference a day makes...

Yesterday: rainy, cold, and wet. Charming BA... not so charming (but it was funny).
Today: sunny, happy, pretty! Even when visiting a cemetary spanning several city blocks!

We thought the rain would last until at least noon and were bracing ourselves for more wetness but got a pleasant surprise when it turned out to be sunny and dry. And our jeans and shoes dried off as well. We set off for the tony neighborhood of Recoleta, which includes the famous Argentinian cemetary where Evita is buried. It was quite a hike but much nicer to do in fine weather. It also included a dash across the widest street in the world, Avenia 9 de Julio, which has 16 lanes of traffic! At a normal walking pace (or even a quick walking pace), you can´t actually cross it all in one stoplight. But, as Chris and I found out yesterday out of need, if you run across in the rain, you can make it! As a saving grace though, there is a very nice view of the Washington Monument-like obelisk from the middle of all those traffic lanes! Got a good picture but the camera is not here as we had to steal Internet time from these business-y guys who hoarded the Internet all day to do work.

(aside: if you are going to spend all that time doing work on YOUR LAPTOPS that you brought with you, why not just charge the Internet expense to your frickin´room and by extension, your expense account. Is this not precisely what expense accounts are for? Then again, I´m not in business so maybe someone can enlighten me.)

Back to happier topics - the cemetary! It was a pretty amazing sort of place and not as gloomy as you might think avenues of tombs might be. We found Evita´s tomb, the classic touristy spot, but also meandered around the rest of them to gawk at the elaborate family resting spots that included stained glass windows, expensive wrought-iron scrolls, and ¨the graveyard cats¨that roamed free (another aside: all dogs and cats seem to roam free here, sans leash or owner). Then we went walking through pretty Recoleta and amused ourselves by trying to pick out all the women we suspected of being ´plasticized´as BA apparently has an exorbitantly high rate of plastic surgery. Then we come back to the hotel and find E!´s Dr. 90210 on, and can only shake our heads. We also saw the Flores Generica, this really cool and huge metallic sculpture that looks like a tulip. It supposedly opens during the day and closes at night but it wasn´t open today, perhaps because it was cloudy at times? Again, will update with pictures later.

Now I have to make sure Chris is well-fed and so we´re off in search of that famous Argentine beef that you can supposedly carve with a spoon!