kiosco manolo

this morning oshaberi came to the hostel to lead us on a little tour of the city. we walked down calle florida, which is full of shops. as we were walking, twiddle thumbs and i got giddy with hearing and seeing so much spanish. we felt relaxed and comfortable, unlike our miscommunicated efforts around brazil. we passed by galerías pacifico, but didn't go inside. i had read about it online when i was planning the trip. i'm not sure at what point we stopped walking but we were next to a kiosco manolo, which i took a picture of to show my friend who i knew would appreciate such a photo. at that point we took a taxi to the famous cementerio de la recoleta. we wandered around the cemetery for quite awhile. if you like above ground burials such a mausoleums, then this is the place for you. it's ornate in that christian way of tombs one might be familiar with in europe or new orleans. much wealth went into the construction of this place and the resting places of its inhabitants. also, cemetery itself is very large. you could walk a long way and get lost. there weren't too many visitors while we were there but we kept seeing stray cats. i took a lot of pictures at the cemetery so please bare with me.

entrance to recoleta cemetery

city of the dead

mausoleum detail

a simpler tomb

an unusual tomb

example of angels

tim burton's muse?

mandatory crucifix

inside a mausoleum

one of the many plaques on evita's tomb

my lunch: argentina vs. brasil

after the cemetery, we tried to find a spot for lunch. we passed by all the expensive restaurants in favor of something more humble. we stopped to eat at fillipo's cafe. they had vegetarian sandwiches on the menu so we veganized it for our order (no cheese). when the food arrived, there was a little flag in the sandwich, much like a fancy toothpick. when i was a kid ordering kid's meals at japanese restaurants, they would also put little flags but i can't recall anyone else doing that. of all countries, in my and twiddle thumbs's sandwiches were the flags of argentina and brasil and i arranged them both for a photo. after lunch, we walked to nearby el ateneo, a theater turned into a bookstore. this is another place i had read about when planning the trip but forgot to make notes on the address so i'm glad i had a chance to see it afterall.

we continued to walk around the city and we passed by a sculpture with some interesting graffiti for vegans, although i can't really say it was favorable to us. it stated "vegan ecosuidio" (vegan eco-suicide) and while i might disagree that veganism is ecological suicide, i thought it would make for an interesting photo so i covered up part of it so it was more like i was presenting the word "vegan". then we came upon the famous opera house el teatro colon, which has been under renovation for years so we unfortunately could not see the beautiful inside, only the ugly signs of restoration outside. there's more to talk about but i feel like i should save it for later, such as riding the subway and visiting the obelisco. i will mention that we strolled through galería bond street, which is all rock and tattoo shops. i didn't get anything but i did see a guy getting a tattoo.

presenting "vegan"!

after our excursion, oshaberi accompanied us back to the hostel and we parted ways but promised to meet up again to go out one evening. we relaxed and prepared for the evening that lay before us. it's now time to celebration 100 years of okinawan immigration to argentina. we have the reception for foreign visitors to attend. it's going to be another evening of what the hell do i do for food so we went to have some sort of dinner so we weren't starving. too bad we picked a crappy place. i had watery spaghetti i can't stand watery spaghetti.

avenida 9 de julio and the obelisk

we took a taxi to the kenjinkai as we wanted to get there on time. they had souvenirs for sale--now that's more like it! that's what was missing at the taikai in brazil. i picked up a few things as i think it's nice to have a momento of attending these events. it was very crowded but right away we were spotted by an acquaintance and he led us to the table for those whose ancestry is from kadena town. we had met him at the taikai in okinawa 2 years earlier, at the event put on by kadena town actually. we did some minor mingling. i saw some kids from LA and talked to them for a bit.

argentina immigration taikai

the crowd started to disperse by which town you are from. the next event is divided by town. i'm not sure what the others did but kadena town went out to dinner. there are only 5 families from kadena town living in buenos aires and one of the kids drove us to the dinner. there were 2 officials from okinawa there. other than that, me and my friends were the only foreign visitors. we received gifts. not necessary at all. but it is very much appreciated, thank you. it was quite a meaty place for dinner so dani enjoyed feeding the carnivorous beast side of man. we just ate salad. the others seemed to be worried about us. vegetarianism in latin america is definitely an oddity. all in all though, a very good day.