We decided to stay another day in La Plata to visit the Museo de La Plata, a museum of natural history that was closed the day before (all museums are closed on Monday in the city). The weather looked stormy, and it was the perfect morning to study fossils and specimens.
The Neoclassical façade says it all—the museum is old-fashioned but in a good kind of way. It doesn’t have fancy interactive exhibits and silly gimmicks but it houses 3 million fossils and relics, has plain old taxidermy on display, huge dusty skeletons and other interesting zoological, paleontological and geological artifacts. Mark loves the dinosaur exhibit (yet another kid addicted to the Tyrannosaurus rex!) but wasn’t a huge fan of Egyptian funeral rites, so we left when it stopped raining after exploring pretty much the entire building.
After that, we walked around the city, exploring the parts we had missed the day before. We dared to take an entire diagonal and we didn’t get lost. We totally master La Plata. Hurrah!
In the evening, we ended up in Plaza Moreno, the heart of the city, once again. Of course, when Mark spotted the cathedral—really, it’s hard to miss it—he got all excited. “He likes churches,” I explained to an old couple who was looking at us. “It’s good, it’s good,” the man said with a big smile. “The padre is Argentinian after all!” “No, no, his father is Chinese,” I corrected—I’m used to people assuming one of us is from Argentina, Mark can look latino. The man started laughing and pointed to the sky. “Not his father, the padre, the pope!”
Oh. Right. Wrong padre!
We stepped into the cathedral during the 7:30 p.m. mass, and we stayed for about fifteen minutes because I wanted Mark to hear the music and people singing. After all, Catholicism plays a big part in many people’s life in Latin America—in Malaysia, I visited a Mosque, in Singapore, Thailand and China we visited temples, so why not enjoy a mass in Argentina?
Predictably, Mark loved it. “More music!” he said very quietly (we use a “quiet voice” in churches, Mark finally mastered this, phew!). “Sorry buddy, the guy kind of talks a lot in between singing…”
When we stepped out of the cathedral, there was a beautiful rainbow over Plaza Moreno, and the sky was on fire.
“See Feng: this is how God rewards me when I go to the Mass,” I joked. “A rainbow and a magical sunset for every atheist who steps into a church, this is his special of the day!”
Haha, sometimes life has these coincidences that make you wonder whether there indeed is a supernatural being out there, no? In any case, it seems that Mark is enjoying these sensory experiences!
Completely! I don’t believe… but sometime I want to 🙂 (without the political BS)
God will have you, in the end, my dear…. 😀
You know I’m kidding. I always love the openness you show towards faith matters, even being an atheist. You are definetly not an hater! May my God and anything-you-like forever bless you, my friend 🙂
Eh, you know what, maybe he will. I like to go with the flow and there is nothing wrong with religion, just the way some people abuse their power in the same of God(s). But religious teachings are very useful in life and quite compatible with atheism beliefs… somehow. Gosh, this is complicated!
Ahhh…pretty sure mother nature played a hand in the sunset, maybe it was a reward for embracing all religions and all cultures!! Mark’s face at the human skeletons – v funny. How did the dino bones compare to the bones at the Ottawa museum??
These were felt less “fake” than in Ottawa, were dinos are mostly to amuse kids.
I love how you are finding so many great things for Mark to enjoy, and I really love that he loves churches. That’s so cute.