Lazy Day Argentina Style

Typical Slum

Basic Transportation

 

Jan. 19, 2009-The Burbs

I looked out of our hotel window and for the first time realized that the strip of brown on the horizon was the river. We took it on faith that on the other side of the Rio de la Plata was Colonia, Uruguay. We couldn't see it across the expanse of the river but it's a popular vacation destination. I hoped we weren’t driving through the suburbs of Buenos Aires to see them but because it was the shortest route to our river delta cruise.

On the way back I found out that we took that route only to see the burbs. Most of the time we were on the main shopping drag. There were numerous McDonalds but only one Burger King. Kentucky Fried Chicken was here for a while soon to be joined by Wendy's. Burger King was not far behind but when McD came they dominated. Now there are barely any Burger Kings and no Wendy's or KFCs.

To one side we saw apartment buildings and to the other small private homes on tiny lots of only thirty front feet. The mansions of San Isidro were revealed when we turned onto a side street. They were indeed impressive and ranged from traditional brick to ultra modern. Real estate prices here are always quoted in U.S. dollars. Don't know why. Narrow strips of park follow the river bank and provide recreation areas for those living in the neighborhood since private lawns are non-existent. Suburban Buenos Aires is larger than most cities at nine million people while the city "only" has three million. This would have been a time when I wouldn't have missed much if I'd slept, but it was too early in the day.

Water, War, & Wealth

We arrived at a pleasant dock in Tigre and boarded our own glassed in boat. We took off on a two-hour jaunt around the islands of the Parana Delta where basic transportation is boats. Roads are non-existent and grocery boats ply the river in search of customers. It looked a bit like the Portage Lakes area near Akron. Modest homes each had docks and some were built up on stilts for when the waters rose. We were served coffee and cookies and passed the time visiting with each other and scrambling to take photos from one side of the boat or the other.

On the much shorter trip back Gloria and Fernando gave us a brief history of the Malvinas (Falklands). When they were in school it was taught that those islands belonged to Argentina. Long ago the French settled there followed by Spain, Argentina and then England. In 1982 the Argentine dictator needed a major victory to prop up the government. The decision was to reclaim the Malvinas from the British. In effect they sent young, untrained soldiers from the warmest part of Argentina to fight in the coldest part. The young recruits were ill equipped for the war or weather and were under-supplied with provisions such as food. When they killed the sheep they found there out of hunger and desperation they were punished by their officers who were unable to feed them in the first place. So 700 Argentine soldiers died in three months fighting a world power over sheep, harbors, and oil. In addition 400 committed suicide after the war. They were deemed unemployable and the government turned its back on them. Vets are still trying to get decent benefits. In the end the Argentine military and dictator were more unpopular, Margaret Thatcher's reputation was made, and 1100 young Argentine men were dead. The war is still controversial here as is whether or not the Malvinas are Argentine territory.

We stopped in Recoleta to visit a leather shop. As they lectured and passed the skins around I got weirded out. I certainly wear leather but touching all those pelts that look like the animals that wore them was freaky. The store would measure and fit to order and deliver the product to our hotel tonight. I think they have remnants of the Indians they didn't yet kill in the basement working on those coats.

David and I went back to the hotel and ventured over to the food court again. This time I had vegetables with vegetables. I determined that the eggplant that sandwiched something grayish-beige contained no meat and was offered more veggies with it. It was barely heated in a microwave and came out pretty tasteless. I'd hoped the gray-beige item was cheese but it was tofu. At least it was filling.

Before our next meal we went to a talk by Joe Goldman a man from the Bronx who's lived here for twenty-five years. He works for ABC News. He fell in love with Buenos Aires and never left. He basically told us history we already knew with some more detail. One of the ways he emphasized how wealthy Argentines were in the early 1900's was by illustrating that they spent half the year in Paris and would buy castles, have them disassembled, and reassemble them here. He also said that it's hard to get news from South America aired in the U.S. because it's good news now. The U.S. is only interested in earthquakes and riots. I asked him about the Yiddush theater that was popular here years ago and told him I had an uncle who was an actor in Buenos Aires. He said there was a book out about that era and he'd email me the title.

We got all gussied up for our farewell banquet at an Italian restaurant. We had a typical Argentine meal of steak. It was good but I'm not a huge beef eater. The chimichuri was the best we've had and helped the meat go down. We'll probably see most of the folks at breakfast tomorrow so we didn't say our final good-byes.

Four of our group go back to the States tomorrow evening. Trudy will stay on in Buenos Aires on her own for awhile. The rest leave the hotel for the airport at 11:30AM and fly to Iguazu Falls where we get to rest at our tropical hotel before we hit the ground running the next day. Well, not running exactly. The temperature is in the 90's and the hike through the rain forest and around the Argentine side of the falls is 1 1/2 miles. I'm sure we'll go slowly due to the heat and the fact that at least two of our number have requested wheel chairs.

Toby