Category: Operation

Here’s a preview of things to come:

I know I’ve been promising this forever, but my life from February until now was spinning out of control. Only now do I have the time & energy to finish this project… hopefully making it part of something even larger. Stay tuned for that. Once a few design issues are resolved & the text revised, the only PDF guide to Recoleta Cemetery should be ready by mid-December consisting of approximately 20 to 25 pages.

Naturally it will have sections about history, symbolism, a walking route with descriptions of 70 tombs, the complete story of how Eva Perón finally came to rest there & a few urban myths… basically an abbreviated version of this blog to carry with you while inside:

Thanks for your patience!

Read the complete story in the following posts titled “map development”: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 & Part 6. Good news! The PDF guidebook is now available.

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Back in Buenos Aires after living 7 months in Sydney, the biggest change on my first return visit to the cemetery was obvious before I even walked inside. New sidewalks are being installed around the perimeter, & it’s about time. When I left BA in July 2008, mayor Mauricio Macri had begun peppering the streets with big, yellow signs for public works… probably because he had little visible evidence of his administration after 7 months in office.

Although I never posted about it, one thing that upset me most about the city government was the neglect of access to the cemetery. Damaged, purplish cement—often stained & reeking from garbage deposited by the strip of restaurants across the street—was the first impression millions of tourists had of Recoleta Cemetery. Good riddance:

According to signage, the project will take 8 months & has a budget of almost 9 million pesos. Currently that’s about U$S 2.5 million—a huge investment. The company responsible for sidewalk installation (Cunumi) is the same one currently used for the restoration of plazas & parks. What a huge contract that must have been. At least they use the same tiles chosen by previous administrations & help give Buenos Aires a more uniform look:

I was also glad to see that the gingko trees planted during ex-mayor Telerman’s attempt to green BA were still alive & being protected. Gingkos are rarely seen in BA & will add a nice touch to the cemetery in a few years.

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Neglected by ADACRE & in the process of moving temporarily to Australia, I removed my map for sale from the internet. If they didn’t need the assistance, so be it. Their less than lukewarm response did little to encourage further correspondence. But I still wanted to get the word out about the highlights of Recoleta Cemetery. So in the midst of packing, I began making a master map which I could use for any future project that came to mind.

It involved returning to the cemetery… a lot. During the first half of 2008 I went through 10,000+ photos, matched corresponding tombs to their locations & documented everything possible. I also wanted to maintain this blog while in Australia & had to plan for that. My apartment looked like a map explosion for several weeks:

Most visits involved correcting info & fine-tuning the previous map. Counting pavement tiles, confirming angles & filming videos to mark exact locations may not be fun, but the end result was worth it:

Stay tuned for the next release: a 20-page PDF handbook with information about the cemetery’s history, the most interesting family vaults (approximately 70 in an easy-to-follow route), symbolism, & the complete story of Eva Perón’s post-mortem travels.

With an expected release of March 2009, the handbook will be the most complete guide to Recoleta Cemetery available to date. I can’t wait to put the finishing touches on it. Purchasing the PDF will be like taking this blog along with you or having a guided visit with zero time constraints. Not focusing as much on Argentine history, but the best experience short of hiring me personally 🙂

Read the complete story in the following posts titled “map development”: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 & Part 7. Good news! The PDF guidebook is now available.

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