Buenos Aires Bound

 

 

Home Hosts

View From Hotel Room

Jan. 17, 2009-Sinister Connection

We had to be out of our rooms at 10 AM and killed two hours sitting around the hotel lobby until it was time to leave for the airport. It was too cool to walk the streets and I didn't want to wrestle my heavy jacket out of the suitcase. Somehow we found enough to talk about. The group is well traveled and we all have interesting stories to tell. We may have a new tale to tell depending on the pipes in our house. Daniel and Vikki checked and we have a frozen one in our bathroom. It's happened before. We just open the tap a bit and hope for the best when it thaws. We did have some good news from home. Our 2 1/2 year old granddaughter, Rylee is reported to be 99% potty trained. I'm wondering what the 1% is.

Fernando took us on an alternative route to the airport. We passed what he called "humble" houses. It was what we'd call a slum. Picture the worst you've seen in Mexico. It's not quite as desolate as India since the poorest of the poor there live in dung houses. While we were riding he talked about the German association with South America. Germans were there before WWII. With the worldwide economic crisis of the 1930's Argentina and Germany formed a business alliance. Argentina had crops and Germany had technology. The Argentine army chose the Nazis and trained in Germany. Although they proclaimed neutrality during the war Peron was close to Hitler & Mussolini. When the Graf Spee sank in the Rio de la Platta in 1939 many Nazi sailors opted to stay in Buenos Aires.

At the end of the war Germans and Jews flocked to Argentina and Chile where they already had compatriots. Ironically both Nazis and Holocaust survivors started a new life together again. The Mossad tracked Eichmann to the delta of the Rio de la Platta near Buenos Aires and in 1995 more Nazis were found in Bariloche and taken to Italy for crimes they'd committed there. Unlike Eichmann who was executed in Israel, they are still in jail in Italy. Because Argentina befriended Germany and Italy the U.S. imposed a boycott after the war. Today there is a Holocaust Memorial in front a one of the largest Catholic churches in Buenos Aires. Due to attacks on synagogues and the Israeli Embassy in the 1990's the large and "important" (Fernando's word) Jewish community has special protection from the government. But there was no help tracing the people who were behind the attacks and they were never brought to justice.

Buenos Aires

We said good-bye to the Andes as our plane took off. They showed a video of different countries LAN flies and I realized how dull the areas were where we visited. Apart from the greens and blues of the scenery, the people were beige. Compared to the vibrancy of the indigenous people of Peru and Bolivia, Chileans and Argentines are colorless. They look and dress like us.

We landed in Buenos Aires to the sound of Handel's Messiah and with a thud at about 100 MPH faster than we're used to. No one thought it was unusual. We drove along the Rio de la Platta, the widest river in the world at 200 miles across. We knew we weren't in Bariloche anymore. The city looks like New York from ground or air and there's enough smog to make someone from Los Angeles homesick. Since the airport is in the city it wasn't far to our hotel. It is the NH Lancaster, an old British relic that was refurbished recently enough to still be nice.

Tonight was our home hosted dinner. We split into two groups and went to apartment buildings across the street from each other. Our host was Daniela whose husband had to work unexpectedly and whose daughters were on vacation in Brazil. Her sister Alejandra came over at what was probably the result of a panic call. The hosted dinners usually have at least one person in the family who speaks good English. The two women did admirably but it was like pulling teeth. Blessedly she'd prepared chicken. It was a treat after all the fish we've eaten. Daniela works from home hosting exchange students and dinners such as ours. It can be a nice little business. Her husband has a shuttle service and had to make an airport run. The building had seen better times but the apartment was roomy with three bedrooms and two baths. The kitchen was as large as an American one and I think served her well in her hosting enterprise.

We rise early tomorrow to tour the city. The temperature today reached 98 but it rained tonight and they're hoping it cools off to the high 70's or 80's. I think we'll abandon the group before they return to the hotel and explore on our own. Fernando is good at giving us directions back to the hotel and the subways here are a good alternative.

Toby