A cemetery seems an odd tourist destination (especially for those mainly interested in wildlife!), but as it was right next door to our accommodation and highly recommended, we decided to pay it a visit. Well, a few visits. The Recoleta Cemetery is a city of mausoleums, populated by stray cats and pigeons. It is surprisingly large  – we probably saw around a third of it over the course of our four visits. On our initial trip we followed an informative tour-app on Dad’s phone. It was nice to get some insight into who the people behind the stones were. Without it, the names and nuances of the memorials would have been lost to us. It’s quite difficult to know where to look (Unless you’re just after Evita, in which case, just follow the crowds), so from a photography point of view I focused on two things – stained glass windows, and stray cats. I’ll do a short blog on each, starting today with the stray cats!

There are quite a number of Recoleta Cemetery cats, some sleek, some mangy, some battle-scarred. These aren’t your friendly housecat types – they’re thin despite being regularly fed, and not at all affectionate. They are quite intelligent though, and know how to play the visitors (me) to get what they want. I came across one fixated on a water tap, and it miaowed pointedly at me until I opened the tap to let it drink. After that – a flick of the tail, and it sauntered off to wash itself, ignoring me entirely.

I had fun photographing them, the ability to get close to them and also show some of their urban habitat was a refreshing change from my usual m.o. – little birds with a long lens!

So here’s a little series – the Cats of the Cementerio de la Recoleta.