Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Chacarita y influenza

Well, I have been struck down from on high with a nasty cold (NOT THE SWINE FLU), so I'm going to update on all the things that have been happening lately, starting with the post on my trip to the Chacarita cemetery I promised you last week. And here we go. :)

There are two well-known cemeteries in Buenos Aires, the more famous by a long shot being Recoleta's. Recoleta is a neighborhood in which you live so that everyone knows that you have money, and a place where you are buried if you want everyone to know that you had money. Everyone's tomb competes with its neighbors in lavishness and grandeur, and it's one of the biggest tourist attractions in the city. Chacarita is on the other side of the city, and makes up for being slightly less over the top by being much, much larger. And as you can see, these families hardly skimped on the cost, either.
It was a beautiful, mid to upper sixties day, and it was really nice to wander around in the relative quiet and revel at the sheer wastefulness of building granite houses for each of your loved ones. Ahem. We eventually made our way around to the grave of Carlos Gardel, the main attraction of Chakarita. Carlos Gardel is the patron saint of tango music, as you can see from the photos of his final resting place. My guide and buddy Jaesoung says that he always has a cigarette in his hand and a flower in his lapel, and that there are ALWAYS this many flowers on his grave.


As we were taking pictures at his grave, a group of Colombians came up to us and asked if we'd been in the cemetery the day before. We replied that we hadn't, slightly confused, only to find out that we were in the cemetery one day too late for one hell of a spectacle. June 24th is the anniversary of Gardel's death, and people flood to the cemetery to dance tango to live music, drink wine and smoke cigarettes. I was CRUSHED to have missed such an incredibly Argentine experience by just one day!

But even with my disappointment, it was a lovely place, and a perfect day. I told Jaesoung it could have been even a little warmer, but he replied that you really don't want to go to the cemeteries when it's warm out. Ahem.

It somehow seems very Argentine that two of the biggest tourist attractions in the city are cemeteries, and that everyone spends so lavishly on the dead. There were half a dozen flower stands outside of the cemetery, and as you can see, there's a full time cleaning crew just for the removal of flowers. I'm all about my loved ones doing whatever makes them feel best when I die, but for the record? I think it's all terribly wasteful. Bring me no flowers. Plant some instead.

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