Today Big Sauce John plans another day for our crew.  He leads us first to one of Buenos Aires best attractions — Recoleta Cemetario. “We’re going a cemetery?” Leanne asks a bit doubtful.  “It’s one of the most popular attractions in Buenos Aires,” John responds. Set on 14 acres, the cemetery contains 4,691 vaults all of which are above ground and in various stages of upkeep.  Low and behold, the cemetery is packed full of tourists that want to see the final resting place of Argentine rulers, presidents, authors and other oligarchs and notables. The notable we seek is Eva Peron, the famous wife of past President Juan Peron whose progressive policies and strategies impact even today’s Argentina.  

The cemetery is a maze to navigate and we wonder through walkways back and forth ending up completely lost. We simply cannot find Eva’s resting place as we seek a large mausoleum of arguably one of the most influential and beloved leaders of Argentina.  We even try to ease drop on the tour guides — a rude but desperate measure! We finally find some other tourists who actually know where it is and they lead us to a relatively common mausoleum in a standard corridor. “This place would make a great Amazing Race challenge,” Kyle comments on our way out. 

We then head to the adjoining church, Basilica Nuestra Senora del Pilar, which is in the midst of a Saturday service. The church was once part of a monastery that has since been turned into the Recoleta Cultural Center. Amongst the crumbling monastery walls are bright multi-colored shops, buildings and restaurants like the Hard Rock Cafe. 

Next up, we visit the impressive Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (National Museum of Fine Arts) to view works from many of the world’s most prestigious artists.  The strong European connections are surely felt here.  Henry Rodin once lived in Buenos Aires and knew the museum’s curator quite well. To that end, Rodin himself donated The Kiss to the Museum. It was a study for his famous Gates of Hellwork. They have a great collection of paintings from all the well-known impressionists. We spend more than two hours in the museum finding artworks that greatly inspire some of us and bore silly the others.  

“Ah, someday those less excited about this art will definitely kick themselves for not soaking in more,” thinks Leanne.  At the very least, the teens all know substantially more about art and its powerful storytelling influence on the world than they did before the trip.  Leanne is reminded of the purpose. Exposure. Exposure. Exposure. Growing intellectually through sheer raw day-to-day exposure to the world.        

We stroll over to Plaza Naciones Unidas and find the “Floralis Generico” which is a work from the famous Argentine architect Eduardo Catalano done in 2002. The huge silver-coated sunflower is 23 meters high and weighs 18 tons. It was the first sculpture in movement in the country thanks to a complex and precise high technology system that makes each petal (weighing 3,500 kg) open with the first sunlight until its shape is complete and then the flower closes and sunset. So it actually works much like a real sunflower. We are already experiencing how well regarded green space, outdoor public art displays and statues are to the Argentines.  

Lunch time. Kyle’s friend from work, Sebastian, is from Buenos Aires and has provided us with a solid list of food recommendations. BBQ, pizza and ice cream are the key foods to eat he tells us. We end up at Parolaccia, an Italian restaurant.  Yes, there is a strong Italian influence here as Argentina has the second largest Italian population outside of Italy in the world at 25 million people (Brazil is first with 28 million people). By the end of the meal two hours later, we have learned that a meal in a restaurant here means taking your time and there is no rush to finish. We’ll have to build that into the big sauce scheduled days. 

When it’s time to pay, Kyle takes out his wallet and says, “oh crap, one of my credit cards is gone.” He’s pretty darn sure he wasn’t pick pocketed as he has his wallet was in his front pocket inside an inner zippered pocket.  It must have fallen out at the Art Museum when I paid there he says glumly. He pays with another card but losing a card on the second day of the second half is painful.  We meet the kids outside and Kyle tells them he has to head back to the museum to look for the lost card when Justin says, “are you sure it didn’t fall out at the restaurant?” Kyle hadn’t thought of that so Justin and Kyle head back to the restaurant. Justin climbs under the table and reappears with credit card in hand.  Kyle lets out an audible sigh of relief and gives him a big hug. 

Next we head to El Ateneo which is a bookstore located in a converted theatre.  We’ve never seen this before and makes for a unique display to sell books.  As we browse around, we see a section with actual LP vinyl records for sale.  Something we haven’t seen in who knows how many decades.  We purchase a couple English books and head out.

Next stop is Volta for ice cream.  The ice creams are huge and Kyle proclaims, “the dulce del leche is one of, if not, the best ice cream I’ve ever tasted!” The flavor is akin to Cookies and Cream with caramel added in and is out of this world creamy.  Apparently not all flavors were as good as some of the choices such as Tiramisu did not receive the same endorsement.

We head home to rest up for tonight’s dinner at an Argentine BBQ steakhouse that John found.  The restaurants are generally closed from 4 – 8pm so our reservation is for 8:15pm giving us time to nap and relax.

We walk to the restaurant and place our order.  When the steaks come, they are huge, delicious and relatively cheap.  No wonder Argentina has the second largest consumption of beef per capital in the world behind only Urugay.  While American cows are grain fed, Argentine cows are grass fed resulting in more omega-3 fatty acids which results in steak that is lower in fat and cholesterol than the average steak in other parts of the world.  We leave feeling well satiated and loving our first Argentine steak house experience.  Healthy or not, the clan thoroughly enjoys their steaks.