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Frolicking With the Dead in Buenos Aires, Argentina
What better way to spend a sunny day than to meander through rows of towering mausoleums? Sounds creepy, but it's actually quite intriguing to cup your hands around your eyes and peer through the glass doors of these impressive structures that house nothing but coffins and dust. Recoleta Cemetery resides in one of the snazziest neighborhoods in Buenos Aires. Built around 1822 and remodeled in 1881, you enter the cemetery through impressive neoclassical gates. Immediately your eyes are met with dramatically ornate statues atop thousands of elaborate concrete and marble structures, all attached like row houses. Eva Perón, probably the most famous Argentine figure buried here, has a crypt decorated in the art deco style. Writer Jorge Luis Borges felt certain this city of the dead would be his final resting place and dedicated a poem to it. As fate would have it, his remains ended up in Geneva, Switzerland, but his friends, writers Victoria Ocampo and Adolfo Bioy Casares can be found here, as can his rival, poet Oliverio Girondo. You will also notice the cemetery is also home to many stray cats, who give the space the perfect element of eeriness.
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