A Tale Of Two Cities
Thus Far...
It's always nice to come home.
Although I had only visited Buenos Aires twice, the third time I returned it felt a little different. It seemed a little more familiar to me as I slowly walked from Retiro Station back to BA Stop. I wanted to gain a deeper understanding of Argentina, and I had decided that living in the country for one or two months was the only way to do so. Nonetheless, I was still a little unsettled, as I greatly desired to be free of both material possessions and daily routines; if I lived somewhere for a period of time, I knew I could still be free from the former, but I was not so sure that I could escape an element of routine. I was soon to find out.
Although I had only visited Buenos Aires twice, the third time I returned it felt a little different. It seemed a little more familiar to me as I slowly walked from Retiro Station back to BA Stop. I wanted to gain a deeper understanding of Argentina, and I had decided that living in the country for one or two months was the only way to do so. Nonetheless, I was still a little unsettled, as I greatly desired to be free of both material possessions and daily routines; if I lived somewhere for a period of time, I knew I could still be free from the former, but I was not so sure that I could escape an element of routine. I was soon to find out.
Living In Buenos Aires
Arriving back in BA Stop was again refreshing. It was great to catch up with Vita again, as well as a few other people in the hostel such as Micas, Fernanda, Adam, and Camila. Since Vita planned to stay for a while in Buenos Aires and work, we decided to look for a shared accommodation together, ideally with local Argentinians. We scoped out a few places and eventually settled on a shared apartment in the neighbourhood of Recoleta, at the intersection of the streets of Santa Fe and Montevideo. The rent was 3000 pesos a month (roughly 600 US dollars a month at the official exchange rate, divided between the two of us). Not too bad.
The main selling feature of the apartment, to my mind, was the balcony. My plan was to use my time over the next few weeks to study Spanish and read history books; I thought it would be a little inspiring to study and read while overlooking the city. The landlady, Daniella, seemed quite nice and she lived in the apartment too, as well as another tenant, Gaston (which he emphatically pronounced as Gas-TON). Gaston was a barber and offered us free haircuts. He only knew a smattering of English words, largely limited to profanity; however this did not stop him from taking the opportunity to practice with us whenever he could. Profanity aside, I preferred to have a room-mate with whom I would be forced to speak Spanish. While travelling in Brazil and Chile, Vita had been attending one of the many Spanish schools in Buenos Aires. One day, she had arrived at the school and found that the owner of the school had simply disappeared, along with all of the money paid for upcoming classes by the students. Just like that! One of the remaining Spanish teachers then offered her private lessons for a few weeks at only 30 pesos (about 6 US dollars at the official exchange rate) an hour. So, I decided to join these private classes for the next three weeks, which consisted of a two-hour Spanish lesson three days a week. After three weeks, I looked around for other options to increase my rate of learning. Vita and I found a good Spanish school in Recoleta called VOS. It was twice as expensive (about 60 pesos per hour at the official rate) but more structured and intensive, consisting of a four-hour lesson five days a week. After two weeks at VOS, my Spanish improved. In my spare time, which was plentiful, I read as much as I could. I wanted to learn about the rise and fall of nations. In his Republic, Plato stated that there are four stages in the evolution of any nation: from dictatorship to oligarchy to democracy to chaos (and then back to dictatorship). Within this context and others, I wanted to understand how certain nations succeed for a period of time, and how others fail for a period of time. I focused on the history of the US, South America, the Soviet Union, China, and Indochina. This was the first time in eleven years that I ever really had a proper stretch of time to focus on a topic other than medicine, and I devoured quite a few books. I think these readings helped me to understand Argentina's current situation a little better, which I will discuss later. I did not only study and read for the month and a half that we were living in Buenos Aires. Recoleta, our neighbourhood, was beautiful, and we tried to take advantage of it whenever we could. There were many lovely parks in the vicinity ideal for running, or for just relaxing and staring at the sky for a while. There were also many good restaurants nearby, although now that we were living in Buenos Aires and not visiting, eating out every night no longer was an option financially. We tried to limit this to once or twice a week. We also continued to go out on weekends, including the occasional concert. In the last few weeks, Vita and I took a few tango lessons. Tango has influences from both European and African culture, and the gliding-like motion is not so easily mastered, certainly not by me in a few weeks anyways. I stayed in Buenos Aires for a month and a half this time around. Life had become more routine, which I did not like, but I also recognized that a degree of routine is unavoidable if you are living somewhere and not just visiting, like the first time I arrived in Buenos Aires. |
Vita with Micas in BA Stop. Micas always offered plenty of mate to her guests, not to mention good conversation.
The first dinner I made in Buenos Aires. Seeing the Spanish word for "chicken" at the market, I assumed it was meat, but it turned out to be gizzard. Vita does not seem to mind, although I am not so sure about Fernanda.
View from the balcony of our new apartment towards the intersection of Santa Fe and Montevideo streets.
View from our balcony towards the park.
Finally, I appear to be taking my Spanish studying seriously.
We would often go for a run along one of the many parks in Buenos Aires.
Just another great dinner in Buenos Aires.
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The Finer Points Of Buenos Aires
In a city as large and diverse as Buenos Aires, once cannot recount all of the positive experiences in a few paragraphs. However, there were a few things that continued to stand out:
(1) The food - On my initial visit, I concentrated on steak. However, there is much more to Argentinean cuisine than just steak. The pizzas were particularly good, layered with lots of cheese and thick crust. If we felt like having a cheaper option, we would buy some empanadas for dinner, which consist of a bread or pastry stuffed with meat, ham and cheese, or vegetables. For lunch, I often went to a restaurant around the corner that served the best bondiola (pork meat prepared over an open fire grill called a parilla) sandwich in town, along with plenty of chimichurri sauce. In addition, we occasionally visited the Buenos Aires Barrio Chino (Chinatown) for good Asian food. (2) The people - In general, most of the people we met were friendly and relaxed. One particular family was very kind to us - one of Vita´s students invited us to his house to have an asado with his wife, daughter Julieta, and son, as well as some other family friends. An asado refers to both the social event of having a barbecue as well as the techniques used in doing so, and consists of various meats cooked over a parilla. The asado lasted all day and was, in a word, spectacular. (3) Concerts - We attended a few concerts ranging from progressive rock to classical music. One night, we went to a rock concert with some other people from the VOS Spanish school. I didn´t expect anything in particular, but the band turned out to be a young progressive rock band called Astor y las flores de marte. They were really good. On another night, Vita and I attended the Teatro Colon. The Teatro Colon is the main opera house in Buenos Aires and is accoustically rated as one of the top five concert venues in the world. It regularly hosts free concerts so that all may take advantage of the theater. We went there for one such concert - I definitely would have paid money to attend that night. |
Steak was not the only good thing to eat in Buenos Aires; the pizzas and pastas were also excellent.
Someone appears happy to have found a Taiwanese restaurant that serves beef noodle soup.
We met some very friendly people, such as Julieta´s family. Her parents prepared a fantastic asado for us, which lasted almost the entire day.
The Teatro Colon, the main opera house in Buenos Aires, is accoustically ranked as one of the five best concert venues in the world.
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The Rougher Edges Of Buenos Aires
The real advantage of spending more time somewhere is that one is able to recognize the not-so-good things that must be endured by people daily. When you are a visitor, you experience largely the positive things that people want you to see, but as a resident, you must experience the negatives:
(1) The living situation - When we first arrived in the apartment, things seemed ok. As we stayed there longer, however, a few not-so-good things became apparent. If anything was broken, it was tolerated rather than definitively repaired. As an example, our sink drain was completely blocked when we moved in, the result being that if you used the tap at all, water would spill out from the kitchen floor drain. Our landlady assured us that it would be repaired the next day. The plumber eventually sauntered by about five weeks later. Another thing was heating. The heating was not great in the apartment, and so the quick fix for this was to leave all four gas stove elements on - all night long. My synopsis of these examples, and others, was that most of the Argentinian people I met seemed to either "put up" with inconveniences in their daily lives, or find a makeshift solution to get around a difficult problem in an uncertain environment. (2) The economic situation - There were a couple of aspects to this that were interesting. First, nearly everyone I spoke with mentioned that prices had shot up for nearly everything over the past couple of years (as a result of government devaluation of the currency). Second, the black market was quite conspicuous and efficient. On Florida street, for example, black market money exchangers or cambios could be found any day of the week. While the official exchange rate hovered around 5 pesos to the US dollar, these guys would offer 8 to 10 pesos per US dollar, hence you could nearly double your money. The only problem was that not one ATM in Buenos Aires would deliver US dollars (as a result of government currency controls), so if you wanted to take advantage of the black market exchange rates, the best option was to get US dollars from Montevideo, Uruguay. Third, I noted that many transactions involved cash and no paper trail (so as to avoid government interference). For our apartment, for example, the landlady just wanted cash and nothing else - no lease agreement or anything, though I asked her to write out a receipt anyways. These observations made me aware that a robust and efficient underground economy existed in Argentina, presumably formed as a response to the many protectionist mandates issued by an apparently ineffective government. (3) The political situation - There was a major (thousands of people) demonstration at least once a week in Buenos Aires (those are just the ones that I saw myself). I saw a couple of the marches from the balcony of the apartment as they walked along Santa Fe street. Most were anti-government, though not all; I once saw President Kirchner speaking at one demonstration. While these marches never appeared dangerous, they were disruptive and closed off large sections of the city for hours at a time. It was amazing to me that any administration could withstand so many large, well-organized protests. It was clear to me that a high level of dissatisfaction existed with the current Argentinian government. Whether this translates into their removal from power in the next election remains to be seen. |
It was always nice to have dinner on the balcony. Behind the scenes, however, the rest of the apartment was not so rosy.
Prices continue to increase in Argentina, though the official (false) figures are considerably lower than the unofficial (real) figures (sourced from www.economist.com).
The Argentinian peso. Official (false) exchange rate: about 5 pesos to the US dollar. Black market (real) exchange rate: 8-10 pesos to the US dollar (sourced from www.currencies.wikia.com).
Large demonstrations and marches were commonplace in Buenos Aires, usually (though not always) against the current government.
There were many large demonstrations.
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A Quick Jump Over To Uruguay
Towards the end of my stay in Buenos Aires, I decided to take a ferry over to Montevideo, Uruguay. I spent about half a week there.
Montevideo has a population of just under a million and a half people. It was established in 1724 as a response to the Portuguese colony of Colonia del Sacramento amidst a dispute between Spain and Portugal over the Rio de la Plata Basin, one of the largest river basins in the world. The name "Monte" refers to the Cerro de Montevideo, the highest hill overlooking the city, but the source of the "video" part is still debated. Montevideo was a quiet city. Unlike the other countries I had visited, people often stopped their cars to let you cross the street. The hostel I stayed at was pretty relaxed, and I met a few cool people there. I took a few days to wander around the city and see some sights. Some of the more memorable ones included: (1) Rambla Boardwalk - A 22 km boardwalk that I spent a few hours walking along, very wide and in great condition. Relaxing. (2) Mercado del Puerto - My favourite, an old covered market full of parillas with huge racks of meat. I had the best steak of my travels to date here. Went back for more too. (3) Plaza Independencia - Montevideo's most important plaza. A mausoleum for Jose Gervasio Artigas, the father of Uruguayan Independence, dominates the center of the plaza. The Palacio Salvo, a 100 m building, overlooks the plaza as well. This was the tallest building in South America for decades, until 1935. (4) The Gaucho Museum - Dedicated to the story of the gauchos, South America's equivalent of the cowboy. In the time I was not walking around the city, I enjoyed kicking back in one of the many cafes with a coffee. In the evenings, I did not go out on the town as it was pretty quiet, and so I would typically have a few drinks with the other people in the hostel. There was a pizza party one night for one of the departing staff members that involved the mass consumption of no less than twenty or so pizzas. Overall, Montevideo largely provided me with a few days of easy relaxation. I must also mention, of course, that I obtained some US dollars while I was there so that I could take advantage of the black market money exchangers in Buenos Aires for my upcoming travels in northern Argentina. |
A view from the boardwalk of Montevideo. You can walk along the boardwalk for hours.
Mercado del Puerto was my favourite place in Montevideo. There are parillas everywhere with huge racks of quality meat.
Had a great meal here with Dave from Ireland. Out of all the steaks I had during my entire trip, this was the best.
Plaza Independencia. This is Montevideo's most important plaza. The Artigas Mausoleum can be seen in the lower right corner.
Palacio Salvo, at 100 metres high (if you include the antenna), was the tallest building in South America for many decades until 1935.
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Looking Beyond...
I had spent enough time in Buenos Aires. While it was fantastic to gain a deeper and more "real" understanding of Argentina's capital city, an inevitable routine had set in, and I had become restless. No more - it was time to depart, and see the rest of the country.