December 30, 2025 Buenos Aires, Argentina 🇦🇷

December 30, 2025 Buenos Aires 🇦🇷
Today after breakfast with a little bit of a later, start, we headed out for about a 20 minute walk to the Recoleta cemetery is a historic, stunning cemetery in Buenos Aires, Argentina, famous for its ornate mausoleums, statues, and as the final resting place of Argentina's elite, including Eva Perón (Evita), presidents, and literary figures, making it a major tourist attraction and open-air museum filled with architectural styles and local legends. 

Jerry went for a walk on his own while Alannah, Allan and I went inside and hired a local guide, Raul. Raul was a wonderful retired historian who has been guiding for 17 years. I think more as a hobby as anything but a wealth of knowledge of the area and history.

It is an amazingly interesting place and highly recommended to visit.

After our time here we took a short walk to find a place to eat which was at La Biela. La Biela, in the heart of Recoleta, is considered to be the oldest cafe in the city. Dating back to before Recoleta existed as a neighbourhood, it originally served refreshments to the passengers of horse-drawn carriages that passed by on their way from San Telmo to country homes north of the city.

Inside, the cafe is decorated with traditional wooden panelling and many references to motor sports - a biela is a crank, and the cafe took on this name in the 1950s when it became the meeting place for a club of motoring enthusiasts (look out for the statue of former racing driver Oscar “the Eaglet” Gálvez outside.) The cafe was also popular with writers and intellectuals.

Back to the hotel for a rest, dip in the pool before heading out again to the Buenos Aires Eco Park / Zoo. The historic Buenos Aires Zoo has re-opened as an interactive 21st century eco-park, improving animals' standards of living, and offering visitors a more educational and fulfilling experience for all the family.
In June 2016, the Buenos Aires City Government took the decision to close the 140-year-old Buenos Aires Zoo and release about 2,500 animals (the majority of the zoo's population) into the wild. The site has bow been transformed into a more modern, interactive Eco-park that aims to raise awareness of environmental issues and the importance of protecting animals' natural habitats both in Argentina and internationally.
The park has shorter opening hours than the old zoo and entrance is limited to 2,000 people per day. Feeding animals is not permitted. Work on the creation of the of the park is ongoing, but two areas are already open to the public for visits. Close to the entrance in Plaza Italia is an area with ducks, maras, peacocks and other species that wander freely in an area that recreates a natural habitat of ponds and pasture. The second space located on Avenida del Libertador is named "El Estanque" or the pond, and has more than 2,000 examples of trees and shrubs and 200 native species. Here new paths have been created and artwork from the former zoo has been restored, including fountains and sculptures.

After the zoo we found a local pizza 🍕 place with friendly hosts to try local empanadas and pizza before a Cabify back to the accommodations, and a little pool time before relaxing for the evening.

Tomorrow we check out and head to La Plata for a couple of days and New Year’s celebration 🎉