So late nights in Argentina usually mean late mornings. It took us a while to get ourselves up and out of the apartment, and into a cab on the way to Recoleta. Our first order of the day was to head to the cemetery and find Evita’s grave. Except before this, we needed coffee.

We got some coffees (cafe cortados, to be exact) to go from Havanna, (yes that’s 2 n’s ) which does coffees to go, in the strip of cafes and shops across from the cemetary. There’s also a random pair of red phonebooths from England.

The cemetery at Recoleta is seriously one of the most interesting places I’ve been. It really is a small city of mausoleums that seems to go on forever.

The mausoleums range from beautiful to ordinary, to downright disturbing. Evita’s grave is somewhat austere compared to the others, specifically that of newspaper baron Paz.

Grave of newspaper mogul Paz Evita’s Grave

After Recoleta, we headed to San Telmo to do some shopping and get lunch at 3pm at Café San Juan. I’d been told by many people how great it was, so I made sure to make a reservation earlier that morning for our late lunch. Thank goodness we did, because there were people waiting for an open table who didn’t have reservations, and even we had to wait 15 minutes for our table, although we had reserved.

It was 100% worth it. An amazing lunch awaited us: chorizo in red wine and 2 types of crostini/bruschetta for appetizers…

then three entrees between 4 of us: octopus, ribeye, and linguine. They were fantastic. We had no room for dessert, unfortunately, and even had to take a bunch of food home, even though we had 3 entrees between the 4 of us.

After lunch, we shopped the antique markets and street vendors in San Telmo, bustling with activity and full of great deals for haggling enthusiasts.

It was a Saturday, and so the big market was the next day, but it was still worth a visit no matter what.