The journey to... El Mundo de Caballo

Man I am pretty annoyed, I was going to write a long post with all sorts of sexy pictures but this computer doesn´t seem to have a card reader and I left my USB cable in the bedroom under the assumption that it would have a card reader. And there is a hell of line for the computer so I don´t want to go back up to the room.

Anyway, today was hell of eventful. Ro and I decided to go trekking to Recoleta, which is a fairly fancypants sort of neighbourhood about a twenty minute walk from the city center. Actually it took us longer than that but I suppose we were a bit distracted. It was thirsty work but we got there in the end and by golly it was a site for sore eyes. Everything you read and everyone you speak to tells you to check out the Recoleta cemetary so we went there first. I guess that I like cemetaries and all, but neither am I inclined to wander them restlessly like a sad ghost/Bill Murray. As far as cemetaries go I would have to say that it is a good one. Mark would have gone HOG WILD if he were there, and so inclined to do such a thing. We really saw some kickin´ rad tombs. My favourite were the ones with statues of angels. If you peeked into some of the family graves you could see columns of coffins, which was a bit creepy actually.

We saw Evita´s grave! And the other members of the Duarte family, let us not forget them. It wasn´t especially notable except that it was surrounded by hundreds of irritating people taking pictures. Me, Ro, a couple of others. I took one hundred thousand boring pictures of graves so get yourselves ready.

Once we got bored at looking at the futile housings of the deceased we wandered away hunting for agua and el baño but instead we found ourselves next door at a church! Far out it was pretty. All white and high ceilings, of course, except for intermittent panels that were decorated with intricate renditions of Jesus and Mary and all the usual crowd in gold and turquoise and deep red. It was really quiet with only a few people there, some of whom were taking pictures and wandering around and others who were bowed and praying and crossing themselves. Also we checked out the cloisters, which had been turned into an art gallery of old religious parephenalia from the church, and from other countries in South America too. Zany embroidered vestigial robes (I have no idea what vestigial means), framed gold leaf quillings by bored nuns, ugly (but they certainly put in a lot of effort so let´s remember that)statues of the big guy, that kind of thing. The Virgin Mary certainly appeared to be in a lot of pain most of the time.

Then we really did need agua y el baño and also LUNCH so we went to a little place we saw on the way to the cemetary. It was pretty cute and sold little savoury baked goods, empanadas and such but also fresh homemade pasta. The woman looked completely grumpy but once we attempted to order in Spanish she changed her tune and was all with the smiles and the ciao and the gracias. The same thing happened later when we went to a chocolatier/patisserie type place! They were all, ahhhh, you have a chocolate too!, and I was all ahhhhhh noooooooo and then I was all ohhhhhh ok, un por favor and they cackled with delight and bade us a fond farewell.

And yet the best was yet to come. In fact I might leave Ro to tell you about it since it is really her baby.

Other stuff while I think of it:

-The hostel we are staying at is basically like college except that people at college had an excuse for lying around all day and never going outside (they were students). It has its charms but it also has its tasteless slappers and vacuous surfers. Still we´ve met some fairly cool Israelis and some fairly dense people from everywhere else. There is a ¨celebrity party¨ tonight and I may or may not be in attendance. It will be interesting to move on.

-The weather has been grand, not dissimilar to that of Perth at the moment (no bushfires). Mostly sunny with a few clouds yesterday. Completely sunny today. Warm both days.

-Actually this is all I can think of.

Love love love
Lion