Buenos Aires and Recoleta Cemetery closed!

Well we've now felt how the corona virus has affected us because the pub crawl I wanted to book has been cancelled until further notice😩 Later we find more closures.

The old warehouses on the west side of the canal that have all been refurbished 

This is a crossing made for people that walk and text, everyone has to walk thru the metal maze before crossing the train tracks LOL!!!

We walk towards Plaza de Mayo around 10 to take the subway to Recoleta Cemetery. But first we go into the Metropolitan Church that we missed yesterday. It is beautiful inside. 

Metropolitan Church with the dome at the back and 12 columns in the front

Front door handle - beautiful carved doors

The main nave

With frescoes on the ceiling

One of the side chapels - the statue of Christ was carved in 1671 by a Portuguese sculptor. Oldest statue in the cathedral

The relief work above the stained glass window

Closeup of the frescoes

Another side chapel

Looking up at the dome

National bank of Argentina which looks towards Casa Rosada

Pirámide de Mayo, dated May 25, 1810 sits in the middle of the plaza where the 2 parks were joined

Once we get down to the subway we buy our plastic reusable card and then add money to it to keep us going for a couple of days of using the subways and buses 😀  Then get on the green-line subway and after a few stops we get off and transfer over to the yellow-line. Then another couple of stops and we get off and are now just 2 blocks away from the cemetery. 

But before we go there we stop for a coffee/orange juice and medialunas (small croissants) a typical Argentinian snack.  Then we walk to the cementary only to find that once we got there the 
entrance was locked with a note on the window stating due to the Coronavirus the cemetery would stay closed until further notice. Now that I can't figure out! Families plus tourist go in there to walk around no different then malls, restaurants etc etc.  I was really looking forward to see this cemetery since this is where Eva Peròn is buried - not that I know a lot about her other then she was loved and hated by the Argentina people, plus most of the graves are very unique.  The cemetery began back in 1822 and now covers 14 acres.  One of the top 10 cemeteries in the world with lots of interesting stories of people that are buried there.  Statues at the graves of some of the people who have died - not important people, just what families here do I guess.  But I guess we won't see it on this trip. Seems the only people that were allowed in were those who had already paid to see it as part of their tour of the city. This must be the first day the cemetery has been closed.  I was able to get a picture of a small portion of the cemetery by going to the mall next door and getting out on a balcony on the 4th floor!

This building was built for the Engineering Faculty of the university by a local architect to be the only neogothic building that is not a church-started in 1912 and finally completed in 1950 due to many delays

Entrance to the cemetery with closed notices on the door

I was able to get a shot of a small part of the cemetery under one of the gates- it would have been so interesting to walk thru

From the 4th floor of the mall- WOW!! and this is just a small corner of the cemetery 

Entrance to the mall has a nice waterfall going down the middle of the up and down escalators

Basilica San Francisco under renovations - opened in 1754

Here you can rent bikes or scooters to get from A to B - but I tried to register for the bikes but only Argentinians can register :( 

Our quick lunch - empanadas with ham, cheese and red peppers 

You don't want to lean on this thorny tree!

Once we started walking back to the subway I got a message from Fernando (RV guy) that he had someone that might be able to fix the fridge. So I texted Alberto and he said to bring the van over.  So we quickly got back on the subway, stopped for a couple of empanadas for lunch and were back at Vanna in an hour. Then we got things put away and headed over to see him- it's only 13kms away but because of all the traffic it took us over an hour to get there!! Once there Alberto looked at the fridge. Did some testing but for him to fix it we would have to leave it with him for 3 weeks. Well we can't do that. He did adjust the flame a little and this might help get the liquid past the freezer and into the fridge part. He tried his best but would need time. Guess he is pretty busy with propane fridges that people have to use further south in the Patagonia where there is no power.  After being there for over an hour we asked what the bill was and he said no charge! Since he couldn't really fix it he couldn't charge us. Even though we used up his time he said that was no problem. Then he wanted to take a picture of us and himself with Vanna and then he took a few pictures of the outside and inside of Vanna. He also wanted our name so I gave him one of our cards. He asked that I email him along our trip - maybe I'll just email him with the blogsite address and he can follow along. Alberto speaks some English but uses google translate a lot he says :) He gave me a copy of an article that was printed in the newspaper back in 1970 about his father fixing a propane fridge for an American who was driving from Alaska to Ushuaia! To bad it's in Spanish but I get the gist of it. He's pretty proud of that article, his dad is now 92 and has had dementia for a long time.  So we shook hands (geez gotta stop doing that!) and said goodbye. 

Alberto - holding a level as a reminder that Vanna must be level for the fridge to work properly - which Dwayne always does anyways 😁

Since our afternoon was taken up trying to get the fridge working, we'll be busy for the next couple of days sightseeing. 

Well.....this morning, we woke up to a dark cloudy rainy day with a little thunder thrown in!  I checked online to find out what else to see here and there was a notice on each site that all museums are closed, all tours, concerts, shows are cancelled, sports events will continue but without an audience, and the Hipódromo is closed - which I found out is the horse racetrack.  So not sure what we can do, probably shouldn't even be going on the subways - this sucks!! 

So we've decided to leave BA (once the rain stops) and get back on the road again and come back on our return trip to Chile after Brazil. We may have to stay away from large cities for awhile.