The photos below are what we saw.
At the
entrance to Recoleta, we saw something that is only associated
with a large, rich city: professional dog walkers.
I looked
at a building close to the entrance of Recoleta and saw, not to
my surprise, plenty of ad-hoc wiring. I am guessing that
these are cable TV wires rather than power, but there was really
no way to tell. But, whichever they are, the practice is
pervasive as we have seen it in every city and village we have
visited.
There
was a significant church near the entrance to the cemetery.
Once
through the entrance gates we came to the city of the
dead. The crypts were arranged in a rectilinear grid (of
sorts) with a map near the entrance so you could find your way
around.
The rich
and famous of Argentina are buried here. Above, Kathleen
checks out the door into one of the crypts.
The
crypts came in all sizes from small to overwhelming. Some
were new (or recently refurbished) and some had original stone
and iron-work.
Most of
the passages were narrow and a bit spooky. This one is the
main walkway.
The
opening in a crypt door allowed me to put the business-end of my
lens through it and shoot toward the floor. The grate in
the floor provides ventilation for the crypt which descends 5m
below ground level. Each crypt typically holds multiple
corpses, usually from the same family. Despite my camera
focusing on the grate rather than the items below, you can see
the narrow, steep stairs that descend into the pit.
Many of
the crypts had doors, the one on the right had a sliding stone
access that was removed to allow insertion of the casket.
There
were a number of nice marble statues visible.
Diego de
Alvear was a Spaniard, but his son and grandson would later
become Argentine presidents.
Not all
crypts were in tip-top shape.
Some of
the signage was "original equipment" and showed signs of
weathering.
This
crypt was unlocked and to my surprise I could see a fellow down
below doing cleaning. He came out of the hole and went to
the closest water spigot to fill his cleaning bucket. I
spent quite awhile talking with him (he spoke slow enough to
allow me to understand the bulk of what he was saying). In
Recoleta, families have to pay for maintenance of the
crypts. The holes are 5m deep and this particular family
crypt currently held 6 bodies.
This is
a "corner lot" with a new, well maintained granite exterior.
The
"crypt keeper" told me that there were many folks of Italian
descent buried in Recoleta. This person was a general and
former Minister of War.
The
crypt included a bronze statue of the Lt. General, presumably
made from a "death mask" and therefore in his likeness.
This
crypt was the only one we saw that was out of raw stones.
Note the Italian last name.
After
seeing so many crypts, Recoleta became a dead issue for us, so
we walked on to lunch at a nearby restaurant.
We took
a taxi back to our hotel in Palermo and went to the top floor
for a look around. In general, the neighboring apartments
looked pretty nice.
Always
on the lookout for the odd and unexpected, I spotted these
nested vent pipes on the adjacent building. It shared a
wall with the hotel. Seemingly, a portion of the corner of
the building had collapsed or been removed and replaced with a
half-ass repair. Note the exposed brick on the left.
Looking
past our neighboring building we could see a portion of
metropolitan Buenos Aires. BA has around 3.5 million folks
but the metropolitan area is more than 10 million depending on
where you draw the line for the count.
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Photos and Text Copyright Bill Caid 2018, all rights
reserved.
For your enjoyment only, not for commercial use.