HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Getting my Brazil visa in with no problems
BUMMER OF THE DAY: Can’t think of one – today was a good day
WORD OF THE DAY: Consulates
Today is consulate day. We have 3 that we want to visit and hope that they are open. Brazil, Paraguay and the Australian Consulates. Besides the Brazil Consulate we haven’t checked their operating hours, which was a little silly as Consulates walk to the beat of their own drums and they have some weird hours for visa processing.
I had an appointment for the Brazil Consulate at 10.15am, but when I booked it in online, I didn’t get a ticket number, so to be on the safe side I made another appointment for the next available time slot 30 minutes later and got a ticket number for that one as my backup. I triple checked all the documentation that I would need as I know how anal they are and I was ready to get my blasted Brazil visa. Kate had looked at her Google maps and it was only a 25 minute walk from the hotel, so after breakfast we started out at 9.15am to give us plenty of time to get there and just soak in the city of Buenos Aires. Once we arrived at the consulate located on the 5th floor, our bags were checked and we had to walk through a security scanner to get to the reception area where I was instructed to wait at window number 5 for the tourist visas. It seems at this point useless having a ticket number and an appointment. There were 4 people in front of me, but due to them not having all the require paperwork they were sent away to get it done, so I moved pretty quickly up the line, and I was nervous! It’s crazy I’m nervous about getting a damn visa, but it is pretty important and 5 weeks of my trip hinges on getting let into Brazil. So my turn came and as she barked what she needed, I pulled it all out and the last thing she needed was an address and phone number in BA. I was lucky I had the map that was given to us at the hostel that had all that information on it and I was able to give that to her for her to input into the computer! I was given a piece of paper that had an address of a bank that I had to directly deposit the 162 pesos (38 AUD) into and my passport would be ready for collection from 12 noon TOMORROW!!!! Are you kidding me? My whole trip I have been worried about getting this sucker. I tried in Sydney before leaving, and they take 20 working days and costs 120AUD, I tried in Ireland, Paris and Nairobi but they only issue visas for their own nationals and London I ran out of time as they take 5 working days. Buenos Aires takes 24 HOURS!!! I can’t believe my luck!!! The bank was easier enough to find and only a short walk from the consulate, so I had lodged and paid for my Brazil visa in the span of 25 minutes! AWESOME.
Next was the Paraguay Consulate. This has also been a problem with Quito, Santiago and La Paz not wanting to play ball. Their consulate was only a 30 minute walk from the Brazil Consulate, so we powered over to them and when we got into the consulate on the ground floor there were 2 counters, one had a only 3 people waiting and the other I rekon there must have been over 150 people all standing in a line. I said to Kate we would be crazy to wait for hours to lodge her passport and then have to come back tomorrow to do the same thing again for mine after I had collected it from Brazil. She agreed but on the way out, I stopped at the smaller line that now only had one person, so we waited and asked the gentleman behind the bars if that, indicating the massive line, was the line for tourists visa’s and he said no he does them in perfect English with a hint of an American accent. I have to say he was the friendliest consulate person I have ever dealt with EVER. He gave us the forms, told us everything we needed and that if we had them in by 3pm (when the close) we would have them back at 10am the next morning! AWESOME!! We also got extra forms for Deb, Sharon and Mick for when they get here on Monday to streamline their process for them. I nearly skipped out of the Paraguay Consulate, I just cannot believe how dang helpful he was. Really it was mind blowing! So we will go back tomorrow when I have my passport back and then get that puppy all done and dusted. Tick. What next?
The next stop was the Australian Consulate. This was the last place beside Rio where I could get my Divorce application signed by some-one who was authorized. In hindsight I probably should have made an appointment. The Australian Consul was too far away to walk, so we caught a taxi 15 minutes away and as we pulled up at the side of the consulate it had a massive padlock on the gates, not thinking that today was the 25th January here (26th back home-meaning Australia Day ) and maybe they were closed for the public holiday. So we held the cab and I found another entry and they were very much open, phew, so we let the taxi go and entered into the reception area. I explained I needed a document witnessed and he told us to wait and he made some calls. 10 minutes later, we had to leave our bags in a locker, go through a security scanner and head outside and walk up to this majestic art deco building where the actual consulate was located. Here there was another reception and I showed her the documents and as it is an affidavit she had to get some-one else to witness them and we were buzzed through to a large waiting room that just screamed Australia. There were books lining all 4 walls all on Oz, a coffee table with Oz magazines and pictures of Oz on the walls. It was a classy room though, so we took a seat and waited another 10 minutes till a woman came out, introduced herself and apologized for keeping us waiting! How nice…. As it is an affidavit I had to make an affirmation, we couldn’t do an oath as there wasn’t a Bible, which I had to repeat after her, we signed the document, repeated what I had actually signed, and the official stamp was put in the document and I finally had that blasted thing now signed and ready to post to Drew for him to submit to the courts. Another step closer to making it all official.
So we had an awesome morning at the three consulates getting everything done that we wanted to achieve and all before lunch time! Thanks to Kate for coming along for the ride. As we were in this part of town, we were to pass the La Recoleta Cemetery on the way back, so we decided to catch the taxi there and get some sightseeing done in the afternoon.
The La Recoleta Cemetery is an amazing place. I am not sure if it is macabre to say that graveyards are interesting to walk around, but you haven’t seen a cemetery until you have seen the La Recoleta. It is located as the name suggests in the Recoleta neighborhood. It contains the graves of notable people, including Eva Perón, Raúl Alfonsín, and several presidents of Argentina. The monks of the Order of the Recoletos arrived in this area, then the outskirts of Buenos Aires, in the early eighteenth century. The cemetery is built around their convent and a church, Our Lady of Pilar, built in 1732. The order was disbanded in 1822, and the garden of the convent was converted into the first public cemetery in Buenos Aires. Inaugurated on 17 November of the same year under the name ofCementerio del Norte (Northern Cemetery), those responsible for its creation were the then-Governor Martin Rodríguez, who would be eventually buried in the cemetery, and government minister Bernardino Rivadavia. The 1822 layout was done by architect and civil engineer Próspero Catelin, who also designed the current facade of the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral. The cemetery was last remodeled in 1881, while Torcuato de Alvear was mayor of the city, by the Italian architect Juan Antonio Buschiazzo.
Set in 5.5 hectares (14 acres), the property contains 4691 vaults, all above ground, of which 94 have been declared National Historical Monuments by the Argentine government and are protected by the state. The entrance to the cemetery is through neo-classical gates with tall Doric columns. The cemetery contains many elaborate marble mausoleums, decorated with statues, in a wide variety of architectural styles such as Art Deco, Art Nouveau, Baroque, and Neo-Gothic, and most materials used between 1880 and 1930 in the construction of tombs were imported from Paris and Milan. The entire cemetery is laid out in sections like city blocks, with wide tree-lined main walkways branching into sidewalks filled with mausoleums. While many of the mausoleums are in fine shape and well-maintained, others have fallen into disrepair. Several can be found with broken glass and littered with rubbish.
It is free to enter the cemetery and we purchased a map for 8 pesos, which goes towards the upkeep of the graves. The main draw card for everyone that enters is Eva Peron’s grave, but we decided to see the rest of the cemetery first and it was an architectural wonder. To think how much money was spent on the memorials, burials, and mausoleums would be mind boggling. Certainly only the wealthy, rick and famous were the only ones that could afford to be buried here that is for sure. Some of them were the size of small bedrooms and very elaborate. 75% of the mausoleums were upkept, but there were a few that hadn’t had anything done to them and they really were in bad repair. I wonder if all the family has died out and there is no-one who cares now about it. It could be a cost thing, I am sure it would cost a pretty penny these days to keep them all shiney and new. We walked around for just over an hour and we got some great photos. I think the most surprising thing was looking into the crypts and seeing the coffins there. Some of them had children, which isn’t too shocking but there was a few that had multiple baby coffins, like 3-6 of them. Unfortunately dying is something that happens to everyone, it is just a matter of how much time in this world do we actually get. You just never know what is around the corner. What an amazing place.
We were famished by this point, so it was a taxi back to Florida Street, which is where our hostel is also located and we walked the longest pedestrian shopping street of all of Buenos Aires, 14 blocks, to find somewhere to eat. We found this great restaurant/café that had an English menu with a lot of options, was super busy and reasonably priced. I got a Cesar salad which can sometimes be a little hit and miss, but this one was amazing even though I had to pick out all the olives and it hit the spot after such a busy but productive day. You just feel good when you have done and accomplished things, whether on holidays or back home and we were feeling great.
We did a spot of shopping on the way back to the hostel. I ended up buying a new day bag and not a moment too soon as I discovered a hole in the bottom of the current one I bought for 8 bucks in Cuzco and my other purchase was a new watch. I have decided to buy a good watch and one that can be worn in the shower, as this is what gets me each time I buy cheap ones, so I stuck with what I know and got a Swatch. It is a cool looking one that fits right in with all my bangles. A great purchase. Kate and I separated after this, she wanted to do some more shoe shopping and I wanted to place a call to Zeme. So I found a cabina on Florida Street, but some Spanish lady was telling me something, so after 3 attempts I gave up and tried another one 5 blocks away. It was a different phone company but I still couldn’t get through and this is when I noticed I was a bag short, I had left my watch in the last cabina. So I high tailed it back 15 minutes back and there was a lady in my booth, but when I looked in my 120AUD watch was still sitting on the floor in its bag! Phew………………………. That was a close call.
So I went back to the hostel for a well-deserved rest. I got blogging and internetting and Kate had a bit of a nana nap before coming down to the common room and jumping online. We can’t explain after a late lunch why we were hungry at 7.30pm, and as were a little haggard after today we just did the lazy thing and headed back to the same restaurant we had lunch at and ate dinner there as well. It was funny one of the staff recognized us and said welcome back and she had told us the food was good and she was right.
So my Brazil visa is in, my divorce papers are signed and we are ready for the Paraguay Consulate tomorrow.
We are enjoying Buenos Aires and are looking forward to the next 8 days here.
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