10am | Recoleta Cemetery

Still in Recoleta, it's time to visit its most curious attraction: the labyrinthine Recoleta Cemetery, one of the most famous necropoli in the world. People are often surprised to find the cemetery located in the heart of this residential neighbourhood, and even more surprised by the size and oppulence of the tombs inside.

The remains of some of Argentina's founding fathers are buried here, including the former presidents Domingo Faustino Sarmiento and Bartolomé Mitre, along with many intellectuals, aristocrats, and, most famous of all, María Eva Duarte de Perón, better known as Evita. Evita, wife of the president Juan Domingo Perón lies embalmed inside a marble mausoleum. Behind the marble facade of her mausoleum, her embalmed body is burried eight metres below the ground to prevent it's theft (the body had been stolen following the 1955 military coup that deposed Perón and hidden in a cemetery in Italy. It was repatriated after Perón returned to Argentina form exile in 1971. 

The cemetery is home to many other stories, such as that of Salvador María del Carril, Argentina's first vice president. The bust on his tomb faces in the opposite direction to that of his wife, who left orders when she died that they should face away from each other because of the terrible enmity in their relationship.

Moving on: