The etiquette of waiting in thirteen different lines

The day started out perfectly.  Kate and I had the usual breakfast of medialunas and cafe con leche at La Imprenta.  We lingered afterwards, catching up on all the myriad of things I have missed in the last three weeks.  And when we were done, we realized we had completely failed at planning out our week-- the primary purpose of our leisurely breakfast!!

We spent some of the morning waiting in the Buquebus terminal to purchase tickets for our planned trip to Uruguay later this week.  Quad and I traveled to Colonia with Buquebus, so I had slight idea of what to expect.  I told Kate to bring her book.  For your amusement, here's the process:

1.) Arrive in the terminal.  Ignore signs telling you to present to the information desk.  Instead, head straight for the tourism office.

2.) Check in with the nice secretary who asks for your passport for no good reason.  She will put your name on a list to meet with a travel agent.

3.) Sit and wait in the waiting room for about an hour to meet with an agent.  During this time, a chime periodically rings to signal that the next customer should present to the next available agent.  I was entirely unclear how to know when and where to be waited on...  until it was my turn.

4.) Enjoy the numerous slide shows of possible vacation packages available from the Buquebus company-- Hungary, Aruba, New York City.  Guess what, folks.  I just want to go to Uruguay.  Thank you.

5.) Realize that when your turn is called, your name flashes in HUGE letters on the t.v. screens surrounding the waiting area.  I seriously had a minute when I wasn't sure who "Sra Conquest Anne" was... ummm.  Duh.

6.) Meet with the travel agent for about five minutes, explain you simply want ferry tickets to get to Uruguay.  She types in all of the information and tells you go to the cashier.

7.) Wait in line for the cashier.  Pay with a credit card (a rarity in Argentina) and leave with the hard fought fruits of labor... tickets to Uruguay on the ferry.

Other than administrative tasks, we had a basic plan for the day: eat, wander, eat, wander, eat, wander:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[The best pizza in BA-- we did not leave a crumb on the plate]

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[Kate photographs the statue of General San Martin]

[An alley of galleries and shops in the Recoleta neighborhood]

  Bicycle helmet count: 4

And then there were two....

This morning I found a taxi on Avenida Luis Campos around 6:30 am.  My street was still full of the stragglers from last night's festivities.  Call me old, but I can't imagine staying up all night for recreational purposes.

My cab driver was obsessed with Obama.  He wanted to talk to me about how it feels to have such an amazing man as president.  He wanted to know if I voted for him.  He wanted to tell me that he was so proud of the United States.  I smiled smugly in the backseat.

Quad and I traveled to the airport on the trusty Manuel Tienda Leon shuttle.  We had a great week together-- the perfect combination of relaxation, tourism and fun.  I said goodbye to my brother at international departures and began my wait for my next guest here in Buenos Aires. 

My next guest, Kate, arrived on-time in Terminal B.  I patiently waited for her in Terminal A-- where the same flight had arrived the week before and where her flight was listed on the Arrivals list.  Welcome to Buenos Aires, Kate.  We finally managed to find each other, thanks to my $8.99 Ebay cell phone purchase and good problem solving on Kate's part.  Phewf.  Disaster avoided.

Buenos Aires is hot these days....34 C today (which is roughly 93 F).  I won't complain because I know many of you are suffering sub zero temperatures.  Kate and I walked around Palermo, sticking to the shady side of the street.  We ducked in and out of shops, browsing through racks of tiny, gauzy, and odd clothes. 

I watched a disappointing footbal game this evening while Kate sat on my apartment's balcony and enjoyed the evening.  Tomorrow we'll do some planning and hit the ground running.....

[Nearby street corner]

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Lucky Strikes vending machine which reads: "Smoking is injurious to your health."  A pack of cigarettes here costs about $2.50.  You can also buy packs with only 6 cigarettes in them for a dollar.]

[Funny speckled trees]

Bicycle helmet count: 3

The suspended Scientific Count and other things mathematical.

I've decided to suspend my oh so scientific pursuit of counting black folk in Argentina.  Honestly, it's stressful.  And I've gotten to the point where I'm either disappointed to see another dark skinned person or confused by them.  I think I mistakenly counted a very dark skinned east Indian man the other day.... how confusing!!

Quad and I walked around Avenida Florida today which is the main commercial center of Buenos Aires.  He had some last minute shopping to do and I was happy to tag along and window shop.

Argentina's economy hit a deep low in the early 2000s.  By 2002, the entire system (including its currency) was restructured.  During this time, Americans and Europeans flocked to Argentina to take advantage of the currency devaluation.  The government here quickly caught on to this and established a variety of ways to make living here as an expatriate more beneficial to Argentina.  To live here without a work visa, you have to provide proof of monthly income in your home country, you have to maintain your own health insurance, and you are subject to extra fees and taxes.  Almost all domestic airline tickets have two prices-- one for citizens and one for non-citizens.  Some hotels have separate rates for citizens and non-citizens.  And yes, this is legal.

Argentina is still a relatively inexpensive place to live if you can live on American dollars or euros.  In case you're curious about prices, here are some examples:

Ice cream cone: 8 pesos (US$2)
High end bottle of Argentine wine: 40 pesos (US$10)
2 large pears: 2 pesos (US 0.50)
Dinner for two at a moderate parrilla (steakhouse): 100 pesos (US$25)
Most expensive dinner (for two) I've had yet at a fish restaurant: 330 pesos (US$82)
Nike tee-shirt: 115 pesos (US$28)
A ride on the Subte: 1.10 pesos (US 0.27)
Cab ride from Quad's hotel to my apartment (approximately 4 kms): 20-29 pesos (US$ 5-7.25)

And now for some random photos:

[Me at the Sam Telmo flea market]

[This Argentine guy won the Dakar race in the ATV division]

[In Tigre: A replica of former president Sarmiento's house in explicably encased in glass "to protect it from moisture."  Huh??]

Bike helmet count: 2

Tennis is easy-- for some people

Quad and I had our first (and probably only) tennis lesson together yesterday.  Daniel didn't seem too enthusiastic when I told him I was going to bring my brother along... until he saw him play!!

And then it was the Quad and Daniel show.  Because of my brother's presence, Daniel was on his best behavior and the tough coach routine dropped by the wayside.  The good news is that I did not fall, hit anyone with a racquet or a ball, or injure myself.  Australian Open, here I come.

[Unauthorized photograph of America's secret weapon]

I can't raise my arm over my head today, but it was fun.. and exhausting.  Daniel was very disappointed to hear that Quad will be going home on Sunday and I will be staying longer.  He clearly wishes the reverse were true and said he would have liked to have arranged a match between Quad and one of his students.

[The Argentine-American mutual admiration society]

["Fine.... if you insist on having a picture taken with me....."]

The great scientific count: 35+

And we've decided to start counting the number of bicyclists who are wearing helmets: 1 (and this is retrospective!)

The one important thing they don't tell you in Uruguay

More internet problems today.  Sorry for the late post.

It rained cats and dogs yesterday.  The wind and rain rattled my windows all night long.  When I woke up, the downpours were visible through the window blinds.  Ugh.  My brother and I had planned to take a boat across the Rio Plata to Uruguay.  The weather forecasts called for rain, thunder, and then more rain.

We couldn't decide if we should just cancel our plans (and forfeit our tickets) or tough it out.  Quad made the final decision-- the right one-- and we decided we should just see what the rain soaked streets of La Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay had to offer.

Buquebus is the name of the company which runs the ferries which cross from Puerto Madero in Buenos Aires to Colonia and Montevideo, Uruguay.  What an operation: HUGE ferries, hundreds of passengers, immigrations and customs.  We left on the 12 noon high speed ferry and found ourselves in rainy Colonia in an hour.  Shockingly, we arrived without incident.

Colonia was settled in the late 1500s by Jesuits who used the town as a base for smuggling goods into Buenos Aires.  It is a UNESCO heritage site and a lovely, well-perserved little colonial town.  It reminded me of some of the older Mexican cities I have visited.  It also looked a little like Santa Fe, New Mexico-- thick earthen walled houses with bright paint colors.

The old entrace to the city

Uruguay achieved independence in the 1850s.  Until its indepdence, it was alternately occupied by Argentina, Brazil (Portugal), and England.  Uruguay is one of the most properous South American nations.  It is also the smallest Spanish-speaking country in South America.  Uruguayans have a reputation for being fun-loving, beach-loving, and very laid-back.  They also hate to be confused with or compared to their bigger, louder, and less laid back neighbhors.



The old port which is a now small vessel marina

The old part of Colonia is set up for walking (or tripping) along the cobblestoned streets, shopping, and ducking in and out of 8 small (read, REALLY small) museums.  Entrance to these 8 museums cost about $2.50 and Quad and I were feeling smug about how cheap everything was until we saw the museums.... The Museo de las Indigenas was filled with hundreds of identical rocks used as tools by the Churras people... hundreds of them.  All the same.

Paul Bunion in front of the Museo de Azulejos

The empty beaches outside Colonia

After visiting all of the museums (4 were open), we wandered around Colonia, biding our time until the ferry departure at 7 pm.  We responsibly presented to the ferry terminal an hour before we were supposed to leave and..... GUESS WHAT?  The biggest secret in the entire tiny country of Uruguay is that they observe day-light savings time while Argentina does not.  So much for being impressed with Buquebus' seamless operation.... I can't tell you how many opportunities there were to mention this small detail to us dumb gringos.  Okay.  Rant over.  The long and short of it is that we were just in time for the next departure to Buenos Aires... on the slow ferry.  So, we spent 3 hours riding slowly back to our beloved Argentina.  And to top it all off, we were treated to some on-board entertainment:

Japanese drummers.... kind of.

The great scientific count: 34

Eye of the Tigre

Sorry folks, I really did try to post this last night but this website was giving me fits.....

Today my brother and I decided to take a day trip to Tigre.  Tigre is about 35 km north of Buenos Aires and is interesting because it is a unique habitat and geographic formation.  Tigre is the delta at the confluence of several inland rivers.  This delta is also referred to as an alluvial fan-- I remember hearing this term during my elementary school map making years.  Good thing I retained absolutely none of the pertinent information about it.  The network of rivers is the third largest in the world after the Nile and the Amazon.

Getting there was a story in and of itself-- trains, planes, and automobiles.  Okay, maybe just the Subte, the commuter rail, a hokey electric train, and then a boat.  I am still surprised by how little customer service seems to mean here-- there are no signs for anything and no one seems to go out of their way to tell you that are waiting in the right place or walking in the right direction.  I really shouldn't complain-- it all means better language acquisition for me.

[My brother on one of the many trains we took]

The town of Tigre is reminsicent, on a very small scale, of sad seaside resorts like Brighton, England and Bray, Ireland.  There is an amusement park and a destitute looking casino.

We took a boat tour of the river network and islands.  There are about 9,000 year round inhabitants of Tigre and many seasonal visitors.  We saw beach clubs, mini resorts, and areas of grouped rental cabins.  There are no roads or vehicles on the islands, so all travel is done by boat.  There are a lot of motor boats but also quite a few sculls.  Tigre is the home of rowing in Argentina.  There are still many rowing clubs along the shores of the rivers.

[Sculls waiting to be used]

[Summer camp, Tigre style]

The boat tour was nothing short of hilarious.  Several tour groups boarded our vessel.  A guy named Jose gave a bilingual tour as we floated along.  There were French people, Chinese men, and a group of Colombians.  And they were all HORRIBLY behaved-- talking through the whole guided tour, falling over each other to take silly pictures and barely complying when the crew asked them to sit down.  Quad and I, needless to say, enjoyed their bad behavior almost as much as the tour.



Jose, the tour guide, front and center



[Some of the bad actors]

And for you foodies out there, here's a picture of the dinner Quad ate on Monday night.  We later noticed that all of the other customers who ordered this meal split it among two or three people:

[Before]

[After]

[My modest tamale nortena]

This meal, which included Quad's obscene steak explosion, empanadas, my tamale, and a half liter of wine was AR$108-- USD $27.

The great scientific count: We'll put it an even 30....

Twelfth night impression

[Art in the Subte]

I arrived on January 5th, so that makes today my thirteenth in Argentina.... not a lifetime but enough time for me to start to get a sense of this place.  It also helps that my brother is here-- we can see things through each others' eyes.

[More Subte art]

We spent the last two days almost exclusively in the center of the city.  Today we've primarily been hanging out in my neighborhood.  The contrast is clear-- downtown Buenos Aires has the hustle and bustle of any major city.  And perhaps, given some minor safety concerns, the hustle and bustle is a little more exhausting for a novice.

            [An impossibly tall high rise apartment building]

Part of the reason I chose to start in Argentina and travel mostly in this country is because it has a reputation for being more gender egalitarian than most in South America.  I did not particularly want to get a lot of attention for traveling alone everywhere I went.  In this country, it is common for women to work outside the home.  There are stay-at-home dads pushing strollers through my neighborhood and men doing the family food shopping at my local big box store.  The president of Argentina, Christina Kirchner, is a woman-- although many will argue that she is largely a figurehead as her husband and his political allies are/were unnaturally influential in her regime.

While Argentina bills itself as a country loyal to Catholicism, I have not seen nearly the level of fervor as in places like Mexico and Ireland.  There aren't very many churches and they are not particularly well attended.  No one seems to end a conversation with "Si Dios quiere (God willing)"  There is an orthodox jewish community in Buenos Aires and I have seen quite a few orthodox families out and about.  Many European jews escaped persecution by coming to Argentina.  (There were also Nazis who escaped... er.... slithered to Argentina after WW II, but that's a whole other story.)  Right around the corner from my apartment is a sizeable Islamic religious center built by the King of Saudi Arabia as a gift to the muslims of Argentina.  It is not uncommon to see muslims rushing towards its doors at prayer time.

Quad and I saw this grafiti walking home last night.  It made me so sad to see it-- the first real sign of malice and bigotry since arriving.  Same sex civil unions have been permitted in Buenos Aires province since 2002, and in July of 2010, same sex marriage was legalized in the entire country.  This is the first country in South America to allow same sex marriage.  I have seen same sex couples walking together and freely expressing their affections.  The most fascinating aspect of gay culture in Argentina is that there is a gay tango movement.  So, as you may know, the tango is the national dance of Argentina.  It is also suggested to represent the culture of Argentina itself-- passionate but formal, a combination of European and African culture.  The whole idea of gay tango seems to both solidify and also reconfigure Argentine culture at its heart.... sort of a microcosm for the change that is happening here.

So, all of these similarities and differences has me thinking:  I travel to see and experience all of the novel things the world has to offer, but sometimes what I love most about a new place is that ways that it conforms to what I value in my own culture....

The great scientific count: 27 mas or menos