Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Day 33 – 28 January 2013. Buenos Aires – Ricoletta, Teatro Colon, El Querandi.

A later start today. Met a lovely couple from Vancouver at breakfast. Left at 9.30 to walk and train and walk to Ricoleta and the cemetery. It was a hot walk and further than my feet wanted to go.

Have also booked Tango show and dinner for tonight - hope its good.

Cemetery was amazing, there is a lot invested in the mausoleums, it is a small city in itself. Evita's (Eva Peron's) tomb was pretty humble in comparison to others.

Visited Teatro Colon ( theatre) and did a tour. One of the five most important theatres in the world. The main hall seats almost 2500 in 7 levels.  The tour and the Theatre were unbelievable,  it is in the top five Opera Houses, and top three for acoustics – there is so much money in it, artworks, gold everywhere, just very opulent, built at the turn of the century by the wealthy of Buenos Aires.

Ignatio, our guide sings opera, so even though he constantly invited any member of the group to sing, no one did, so he sang when we were seated in the stalls, an amazing voice that just reverberated around the 7 levels of the main hall.

There was also a huge chandelier weighing 1.5tonne, and there is actually space in it to house some musical instruments and artists who have roles that come ‘from the gods’ or a bird singing in an opera for example.

El Querandi Tango show and dinner was fabulous. Met guys on the bus from the Theatre tour and an Aussie fella from Pennant Hills. Sat with a lovely couple – Kathy and Tom from Ontario who were good company.

Great show, good meal, fantastic seat and the bus ride home all included. So finally home after midnight and buggered, I have ensured that I have packed as much in as I can.

Heard 3 stories today about people being squirted with a mustard mixture and avoiding being robbed cos they are aware of the scam. Evidently well dressed young people, acting like tourists, with maps etc, squirt you, then offer tissues etc to clean up…and somewhere in there they steal stuff or pick pocket…all three people had managed to avoid being robbed, but the mustard/dye mixture is not easy to remove evidently. Anyway, I took care the whole time and avoided any incidents.

Transfer to airport at 11.30 tomorrow, and so far web indicating all flights on schedule.

OK, SO THE FIRST PHOTOS ARE ALL OF RICOLETA CEMETARY...








Yes, this is the family (in laws) of Eva Peron, and she is in this one.








The cemetery was walled on all sides...then...

...just over the road you are hit by the modern - Recoleta Mall.
 
THE NEXT LOT ARE OF THE MAGNIFICENT TEATRO COLON. 
 
 
Three different marbles in the staircase. 





The chandelier in Main Hall. Between the lights and the outer gold ring, that is where musicians and performers sit to play the parts that need to sound like they come from above. The whole chandelier lowers to the stalls for maintenance - it takes abou 45 minutes each way.

Ignatio singing some opera for us.

Outside the building - to the right is the main entrance, reserved for the wealthy, the white doors to the left are for the rest of the theatre goers.

A photo of the theatre crowd in it's early days - think the opulence of First Class on the Titanic.
 
NEXT WE MOVE ONTO SHOTS FROM THE EVENING TANGO SHOW - EL QUERANDI.(they are deliberately blurry, cos I didn't want to use the flash)










 

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