Buenos Aires

I had planned a spare day for today just in case we were severely jet lagged. But we were not as bad as expected. We decided to take a walk into the Recoleta and Retiro areas as that was only 10 blocks away from where we were staying. The Recoleta area is famous for the cemetery. The monks of the Order of the Recoletos arrived in this area in the early eighteenth century. The cemetery is built around their convent and a church, Our Lady of Pilar built in 1732.
The order was disbanded in 1822, and the garden of the convent was converted into the first public cemetery in Buenos Aires. Set in 14 acres the cemetery contains 4691 vaults, all above ground, of which 94 have been declared National Historical Monuments. The cemetery contains many elaborate marble mausoleums decorated with statues. The entire cemetery is laid out in sections like city blocks, with wide tree-lined main walkways branching into sidewalks filled with mausoleums. There are several famous people buried there but the mausoleum everyone goes to visit is for Eva Peron (Evita).