Category: Current events

Funny how a newspaper article can draw attention to a law passed a year & a half ago. La Nación reported on 17 Nov 2015 that Recoleta Cemetery would begin to charge an admission fee soon… well, maybe.

The city legislature passed Law 4977 in May 2014, establishing a series of measures to guarantee burial rights to all residents of Buenos Aires as well as promote architectural heritage & culture to visitors. It’s about time some regulations were put into place… I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve had to bite my tongue because I overheard guides give false information during a tour!

Chapter 4 of Law 4977 breaks the situation down in seven sections:

• Article 136 establishes a body for regulating tourism within all Buenos Aires cemeteries.
• Article 137 requires that all tour guides must be registered & fulfill all city guide requirements.
• Article 138 states that all tour guides—whether they are registered or not—must take special training to lead tours inside public cemeteries.
• Article 139 creates a General Cemetery Tourism Fund that will receive income from tourist fees as well as the sale of books, posters, etc.
• Article 140 exempts the collection of fees from students of all ages who visit cemeteries for educational purposes, also retirees & Argentine nationals who visit without a guide.
• Article 141 grants control of funds to a specific body.
• Article 142 informs that conservation, maintenance & production of materials to be sold will be paid for via the General Cemetery Tourism Fund (apparently falling out of jurisdiction of the Asociación de Amigos)

No specifics are mentioned as to the amount to be charged or a deadline to have some system in place.

For several years I have followed a blog written by the Asociación de Guías de Turismo de Buenos Aires (AGuiTBA). On November 10th—a week before the article in La Nación—they posted that a big meeting had been held with the General Director of Cemeteries, tourism agencies & other interested parties. An agreement was reached to postpone charging any national or foreign tourists 100 pesos, previously set to take effect on November 15th. The main reason for postponement was that many operators had already been paid for tours which included a visit to the Recoleta Cemetery.

So by our understanding a fee is coming. Likely 100 pesos. But the date has yet to be set. As more information becomes available, we’ll post it here.

Time to celebrate… and take a look back. Honestly I don’t know how I managed to arrive at 500 posts about Recoleta Cemetery!

But it’s been a labor of love. I still remember my first visit to the cemetery in March 2000… wandering everywhere just to find Eva Perón’s tomb. In fact, the beauty of the place distracted me so much that I forgot about Evita until a few visits later! After moving to Buenos Aires, I developed a successful tour of the cemetery & had a crazy idea to map the entire place. Yep, I counted every single tomb, crypt, mausoleum, & cenotaph. Whew.

This blog came about in 2007 to help market that map but soon took on a life of its own. Despite a couple of long breaks & an extended stay in Australia, AfterLife continued to grow & gained readership… there’s no other English-language source like it. The map later transformed into a PDF guide & then an iPhone app with the birth of Endless Mile. Below are a few stats about this interesting journey:

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First post: 03 Oct 2007

Total # of posts: 500

Total word count: over 110,000 or about the size of a novel

Readership: averages between 4,500 & 5,000 unique visitors per month, about 300 per day. Amazing for a blog about a cemetery

Most comments: Liliana Crociati de Szaszak (currently 107)

Total number of photos posted: over 1,600… & only a few used elsewhere online without my permission!

Number of bilingual posts: currently 155, or 31%

People guided since 2003: just under 1,000! Remarkable since my groups average between 2-6 people. This number also includes maps & guides sold online.

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Here’s the big news: today & today only I’ll give away a free copy of the PDF guide to anyone who sends me their email address (robert AT recoletacemetery.com). Not only will this help spread the word about Recoleta Cemetery, but it gives everyone a chance to test drive an Endless Mile guide.

Thanks for everyone’s continued support!

Update: As of Aug 2015, the iPhone app is no longer for sale. And unfortunately the plug-in to toggle between Spanish & English text does not work with recent updates of WordPress… the mega-project of a bilingual website will have to wait a bit longer.

Recoleta Cemetery can now boast some of the latest technology: a touchscreen monitor with an electronic map & information about more than 200 of its most important residents. Listings are categorized mainly by occupation: President, lawyer, engineer/architect, politician, military, etc. A search function also allows users to find tombs by typing a family name. Once an entry is selected, a photo gallery & biography are displayed. Cool.

Tapping the button ¿Cómo llegar? displays a pop-up window containing a complete map of the cemetery. As if that wasn’t snazzy enough, a green arrow flashes to show the tomb location. Colored sections on the map correspond to official divisions, & all red numbers have information available… no wonder this took a year to put together!

A general information section has details about guided visits plus other services, a historic background & even a bibliography. All text is available in both English & Spanish… definitely a plus for visitors. Translations could be better but all things considered, this is a great improvement over the previous lack of information in English. As an example, take a moment to read the text for the Herlitzka family vault:

Unless already familiar with the cemetery—very unlikely for the majority of people who visit—the touchscreen is more useful on the way out rather than when first entering. No print copy is provided from the search, so first-time visitors would have trouble remembering the location of any tomb not on a main walkway. Of course, they could purchase a map then spend some time marking tombs of interest. But a better way to take advantage of this resource would be to search for tombs you’ve already seen. Scroll through your digital photos, then search for info.

I know from experience how difficult it is to put together a useful guide to Recoleta Cemetery. It’s so dense with tons of history & art packed inside… any attempt at organization is overwhelming. But this is a good complement to the most visited attraction in Buenos Aires.

Please note that as of Aug 2015, this app is no longer for sale! The PDF version is still available (see below).

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Regular readers might notice a new button in the sidebar… yet another way to experience Recoleta Cemetery is available! Our new venture, Endless Mile, is now live & we selected Recoleta Cemetery as the subject of our first travel app for the iPhone/iPod touch.

A significant advance in mobile device technology has allowed this particular dream to come true. The PDF guidebook, first made available in Jan 2010, has been very well received but the app version makes a visit to the cemetery much more interactive.

High quality, color photographs—a trademark of this blog—have been incorporated as well as an explanation of additional symbols & archival images. This app presents a new way to visit the cemetery & explains why it remains the number one tourist destination in Buenos Aires.

Easy-to-use & fun to navigate, the cemetery’s top 25 tombs are highlighted in the walk. Both fans of urban legends & history buffs will find something of interest, & the app wouldn’t be complete without a description of the cemetery’s most famous resident, Eva Perón. Known simply as Evita to her devotées, her bizarre post-mortem journey is described in detail.

We’re excited to launch our company with the only app dedicated to Recoleta Cemetery. It engages those who are interested in learning more about the cemetery & makes sharing a visit with friends & family easy. The best thing about this app, however, is that it’s like consulting a tour guide whenever you want.

Thanks for your support!