El Primer Dia

We have arrived!! And we have eaten lots of meat. The flight was surprisingly effortless and we actually arrived early. No lost luggage either. We took a cab to our hostel (which is nice) and went out for an amazing dinner of steak, sausage and pasta (con vino of course) all for about $30 total.
Today we slept late and then ventured out on some errands on Av. Florida (which is like Times Square but much more extensive). It gave a new meaning to sensory overload. Getting a cell phone there was the most ridiculous experience. It involved going to many counters many times, back rooms, and then more counters. Everything was in Spanish and I was very confused, but Josh handled it beautifully. Unfortunately the phone still doesn't really work...

We walked to a neighborhood call Recoleta where we were tricked into a nice lunch by our apparently out of date guide book. It was only cheap by American standards, but as promised the outdoor garden sat in the shade of an enormous tree. We were also right next to the famous Recoleta cemetery where Evita is buried in an unmarked grave so we went for a little walk after lunch.
It turned out to be really creepy. The place was like a little city with all these mausoleums, only you could see into most of them. Many just had one coffin on the ground level and then stairs leading down to a dark underground area. But some, like in the picture, were just big two story rooms with beautiful wooden coffins stacked on top of one another or filled with marble shelves. Most of the shelves were occupied by these fancy coffins, but some were still empty waiting for new occupants. Some coffins were draped in lace sheets, some just covered in dust. Some tombs were in disrepair, but others were immaculate with live potted plants. We did not find Evita's tomb or the tomb built out of guilt by the mother of a young girl who was accidently was buried alive by her. Turns out the girl was actually just in a coma and was pretty surprised when she woke up underground. The grave diggers heard her screaming, but by the time they got her out of her coffin it was too late. There were scratches on the coffin....we'll have to go back on Halloween or something and catch the free English tour.

The stray black cats made the whole thing even better. On the way home we picked up some fresh pasta, some chorizo, and a couple of other things to cook with at the hostel tonight. It was less than US$1 for the fresh pasta!! This place is a cook's heaven. Tomorrow we will be looking at several apartments, so hopefully our next post will be written from one of those!! Hope everyone is doing well!!