Voyage of the Blonde Treader: A little fun in the graveyard.

Another week finished! My time here in Argentina seems to be going by faster and faster each week. It’s hard to believe I’m already half way done with my stay.

I went to the Sublime concert with Jeff on Wednesday which was a nice break during the week. Because besides that, this past week was just busy with play rehearsals and classes. Speaking of classes, I haven’t gone to spin class in over a month. Oops. The most exercise I’ve gotten was walking all around Quilmes with Facu, trying to find a post office that actually sends packages and not just letters. Because who would have guessed that you can’t send packages at the post office? Silly Argentina.

Things here are “flexible,” as someone recently told me. And in all honesty, that is the best way to describe it. One of my favorite games to play is “put credit on your cell phone” because it’s quite common for the “system to be down” here so I usually end up having to go to 2 or 3 different places to get it done. Another fun game is “collecting enough change for the bus.” The buses here only except coins, or monedas, and the shops are extremely stingy with coins when they give you change. Even as a paying customer, when I ask for my change back in coins they get a little fussy and shake their heads “no.” So you have to be strategic about how to get enough coins: like buying a Subte pass one way and giving them 2 pesos because then they HAVE to give you coins back. Because if you buy a roundtrip pass and give them 5 pesos then they will give you back 2 pesos in cash. So better to stand in line twice to make sure you have money to get home.

Jackie and I tried to solve our coin problems on Saturday by buying a Monedero card for the bus but the place that sells them had a sign out saying they weren’t selling cards that day, only recharging them. So then, the two of us tried to wait for the expensive bus because it takes cash (and by expensive I mean $1.25 USD). But I guess they just decided they weren’t going to run that day which we discovered after waiting 45 minutes. Well, at least it’s consistently inconsistent.

But despite Quilmes’ best efforts we prevailed! We made it into capital around 3:30 pm. But only because an angel of a newspaper salesman exchanged money with us. Bless that man!

Tomb in the Recoleta Cemetery

In town, we sat down for a bit and had una cerveza and then went to visit the Recoleta Cemetery. I know that sounds weird, but I promise, it’s completely normal to walk around the cemetery and take pictures. It is actually quite an incredible place. The tombs were huge and so ornate that some even looked like mini cathedrals. I do feel kind of like a weirdo though because I was taking pictures of dead people’s tombs, but they were just so cool. But at the same time, it seems a little invasive. Especially since some were super creepy because the doors were cracked open or the glass was shattered and there were all these rando cats running around. But we all know that cats are evil, so it was perfectly appropriate for them to be there. And since Jackie does pinhole photography she had to take some of her homemade cameras to set up. We had fun finding them at the end; a little scavenger hunt in the graveyard when it’s closing, no big deal. And of course we made sure to stop and say hi to Evita on the way out.

Melted sidewalk in Recoleta

Then we headed back to home sweet Quilmes. When we got back, we met up with the boys and went to a local club here for some dancing. Here are some more pictures from our day! I hope you enjoy them.