Buenos Aires Bonus
Day 13- 14 January 2023
After flying north to Buenos Aires from Ushuaia, some of us had a full day in the capital before our flights back to Scotland. A few of us headed for La Recoleta Cemetery where Eva Perón is buried. We also visited the graves of two women who were buried alive. One was a coma patient who was literally buried alive, the other was swept away in an avalanche on her honeymoon. Upon hearing the news her dog apparently died too. Others checked out the Floralis Generica, a huge steel flower sculpture in Plaza de las Naciones Unidas that can open and close its petals depending on time of day.
After lunch I rounded up some of the keen beans for a visit to the Bernadino Rivadavia Natural Sciences Museum. The museum has the requisite collection of palaeontological exhibits. These include the Argentinian dinosaur discoveries Patagosaurus and Herrerasaurus and some pretty cool South American pleistocene mammals. There is also a rubbish aquarium.
Most relevant to us was the exhibit of specimens collected by the staff of Argentina’s various Antarctic stations. Here we got a chance to see many of the animals we’d encountered alive in the wild. Most impressive were the large pelagic seabirds, including the wandering albatross and giant petrel. Against the backdrop of the ocean it was sometimes difficult to appreciate the size of these animals. We also got a close look at some of the dolphins we’d seen on the ship.
In the evening we transferred to the airport for our flights home. There we ran into our Expedition Leader Fred from the Amundsen. He was also homebound and looking for somewhere to charge his phone….. we all have to return to mundane “normality”….
Written by Mike
