Belated Birthday Adventure!

Well, it is never too late to celebrate a birthday. Mine was delayed due to the visit of the Mision Area President and critical medical situations. No time for birthday parties! Although it was not forgotten by friends and family. Thank you for all your messages. The missionaries all sang Happy Birthday to me in both Spanish and in Ingeles. And the Office Elders gave me a bottle of treasured pure grape juice.


The Mision business was over and all the Senior Missionaries; Us, the Javis's, and the Lindahl's all decided to celebrate. They let the decision be mine. I hate that. I chose to do an outdoor adventure--visit Villavencencia and the cemetery in Las Heras. So off we went, dressed in our P-Day best.
The park we went to is in the foothills of the Andes, due west of Mendoza. As we entered the park, the vegetation changed to trees and grass. We stopped at the visitor center. This comemorated the passage way over the Andes by San Martin and his army--hundreds of years ago.
The high light of the visit was going to the old hotel, no longer in use. I could just imagine it filled with elegant people. The gardens and the patios were still beautiful.

Tucked next to the hotel was a beautiful, quaint, old chapel--almost 90 years old. Inside is one of the most beautiful murals of the last supper I have ever seen. The individual apostles were each a work of art.

Before we left this beautiful place, I took time to pretend to cook on the Argentine type oven where they do their "asados", and of course I could not pass up the opportunity to pet this friendly lama.

Next was the trip to the Las Heras Cemetery. Whew, what a scary experience. This was like no cemetery I have ever seen. I have always been fascinated by cemeteries. This was amazing, covering over 8 city blocks and still room to grow. Their were areas very old and crumbling--like something out of a horror movie, and then other areas where wealthy families owned family tombs. You could look right in and see the caskets, and family members could go into them and be by their deceased. The poor people were just buried in the ground with little white crosses. We were told that you rent your space for your coffin. If you stop paying your rental fee, they just take your casket out and dump the bones out in the garbage. They do not embalm down here, so funerals have to be held, by law, the day after the person dies.

Places for ashes and coffins.

One of the main walk ways, lined with individual family tombs.


The wall around the cemetery. The small graves for the poor people.

This is what was on the inside of the wall. Old, crumbling, decrepit casket slots. Creepy!
But this is part of the Argentine culture. This is part of their life.

We finished the day off by eating at our favorite restaurant down in Central Mendoza. I was given a small silver angel complete with magic wand by Sis Jarvis, and Sis Lindahl gave me a pair of leather and sheepskin slippers. I loved both gifts. It was a great birthday.