Four weeks in Buenos Aires

I finally got round to putting together a little clip of my BA adventures...

Things I didn't realise I took for granted in NZ...

• Grass
• Dogs as pets
• Storm water drains
• Honesty and trust as integral parts of a society
• The city maintaining the pavement/path
• Mild temperatures
• Short distances - The mountains and the sea can be reached on the same day (maybe even the same hour!), anywhere. And getting across a NZ city is a piece of cake! Well, maybe not Auckland...
• Intelligent traffic lights – there's another blog post there...
• Plastic - Eftpos, snapper, c/card – generally not needing cash
• Snapper on the bus – You don't have to tell the driver where you're going, you don't have to know the right price and no need for annoying coins in your pocket.
• Complimentary water
• No stares when I pull out my semi-large camera
• Leadership ability
• Booking things on the internet, fast.
• Talking fast and being understood.
• Hot water cylinders
• Police solving crime rather than creating it...
• Not having to explain where my country is, all the time. Or which Kiwi I'm referring to (fruit, bird, people, sports team)
• Rubbish is picked up

I'm on the road again...

Its time to leave home base and explore a bit. First up is a 15 hour flash bus ride for 90 NZD to Iguazu falls.

I'll be there for 4 days.

A typically atypical, travel story

Ok, I want to travel north. Catch up with a friend in Jujuy, visit a missions organisation in Paraguay, possibly connect with a contact of a contact in Missiones and see the mighty Iguazu falls.

The catch is, I need a Visa for Paraguay. Most likely due to diplomatic reciprocity (Paraguayans are probably not part of our visa waiver programme...). A visa requires proof of exit from the country (return trip of some kind). So I spent quite a lot of time trying to figure out my schedule, balance with what other people are doing so I could book a bus into and out of Paraguay.

However, you can't really book a bus into Paraguay. You really got to be there. Fortunately, a friend had been before and suggested, along with Javi that perhaps the NZ flight would do as proof.

Ok x2, I want to travel Monday, visa takes 24 hours, plan to head to the consulate on Thursday. Its kinda last minute due to the mucking around I'd been doing figuring out dates but I've got all day.

Nope, I don't have all day, at 11am I found out the consulate closes at 2pm... great. Just great.

Race off, get paper work printed, get cash to pay an exorbitant fee of $45USD (thats lots here) and head to the subway which will get me almost to the consulate door.

The subway is closed. Ha ha, very funny, there are 6 lines carrying thousands of people on trains every 5 mins, its never closed, its never late. No really, the subway is closed. Dang those unions!

Achk! Ok, have to figure out which of the hundreds of buses roaring by, goes to town. My little map book has all the bus routes but it doesn't actually mark where they go as there are too many. Text Javi.

Its flippin hot, there's taxis everywhere, its ridiculously noisy on Cabildo, there's a massive line for the bus. I squish onboard but this bus is going no where quickly, so many people at every stop and traffic is manic!

A 20min subway ride turns into a 40min bus ride. Its 1.45pm and I've still got 15 blocks to go... I give up on the bus and decide to walk. I can't run, its too hot and I'm dressed like a local with jeans on. So I stroll along thinking I'm going to miss it for sure. Think about taking a taxi but I'd be paying money to get there too late and anyway, there all taken!

Arrive at consulate at 2.05pm. It closes at 3pm.

Lady asks for documentation. I've got a waist bag thing inside the front of my pants for security, stick my hand down to grab passport.

“are you alright”

“sorry...?”

“Do you need to go to the toilet?”

[Ah yeah, in NZ when we need to go to the toilet we just stick our hand down the front of our pants...].

Fill in forms except...

Where will you stay? – not sure

What is your arrival date? – not sure

What is your transport? – not sure

How long are you staying for? – not sure

Initially I thought this would be a problem but it wasn't. Good! What kind of backpacker knows where they'll be in a whole 9 days...? Gee whiz...

Ok handover forms, lady asks for 45 greenbacks. Can't you take Pesos? Nope, greenbacks. Oh crud. I've got 30mins to get the cash. She gives me vague directions but I'll find it for sure.

I don't find it. Shouldn't it say something obvious like dolores? Or Cambio? Exchange, something like that...? Nup. I go back at 3 empty handed. Fortunately, she feels bad that she didn't give me proper directions and says if I bring in the currency tomora they'll do it in 1 hour! Sweet!

I follow directions and end up at a little tourist info store. Not what I expected. They use a little calculator to work out a rate for me. Ha! This ain't NZ now but I got my cash.

Friday, I head back early (aghhh). Everything goes fine. I chat to a young Paraguayan dude who's been here for 5 years and is getting his papers sorted. He has many American friends he has practiced English on but he gets annoyed that they complain a lot about the food (I'd like to say I was surprised but isn't that why every street has a Maccas and a Starbucks...?). He teaches me some Guarani, I capture it into the mobile, this'll be handy, the further out in the country you go, the more Paraguayans mix up Spanish and Guarani. Perhaps this could be a NZ situation in 20 years...? (except the further into the city you go the more the mix up...). I practice on a 4 year old next to me, he seems to get what I'm saying, and laughs!

Me - Mbaeichapa?

Him – Oami!

Me – [in spanish] Muy bien!

The next thing I know I have my visa and this typical travel story comes to an end. See, you just don't get stories like this if you don't travel!

FAQ

Why are you going to Argentina?

I've had this thing about South America since I did a work exchange to California in

02/03. Now's the perfect time to check it out. Got savings, got a cheap flight, got no rent cost in NZ and I've got a place to stay in BA. If the region rings my bells while I'm here, I just may come back for a longer period, some time in the future...

What are you going to do there?

Umm... Figuring that out as I go. I'm interested in community development in poorer areas and with indigenous people. So far I've connected with a local church who have a couple of things going on that I've checked out. I'll also be heading up to visit SIM in Paraguay and visiting a friend Louise in Jujuy [hard to pronounce - kindof like hu-huy except softer and with more breath...]. And will be getting right into the tourism and visiting one of the seven natural wonders of the world - Iguazu. See my calendar for dates as I figure them out.

You like to travel but you don't like tourism...?! What gives?

Yeah, when I was traveling in the U.S in 03, I spent three days in Vegas. Although there was some amazing sites to see there, I came away with a bitter taste in my mouth, so to speak. I had dreams of working on cruise ships, sailing around the Greek Islands, traveling through Europe and generally participating in all the standard things Kiwi travelers do but that vision came unstuck. Vegas was not a nice place, to me it felt like an incredibly oppressive place and despite being amazed by the Bellagio and the Venetian, after three days I was very keen to get out. There was really only one reason for that city to exist, to support an industry based on greed and selfishness. That experience had a lasting effect on me and impacted my world view in terms of how and why I travel.

But in saying all that, tourism is still a great way to develop an economy and I really enjoy meeting new people, experiencing and participating in their culture and comparing and contrasting it with my own. I can't see that desire disappearing anytime soon. However, when I'm traveling I want to be contributing not just consuming. I want to get to know people, not just take their picture.

Ok but aren't you just doing the typical tourism thing now?

Yes and no. I don't have any issues with tourism in itself, its just the motivation behind the tourism that sometimes gets on my nerves. If you enjoy western specialities like consumerism and individualism then you're not really going to get what I'm going on about unfortunately. I think our western approach to tourism, is very self-oriented. We look for the latest buzz. What can we take from this country? What experience can we have which will make a nice badge on our chest? (Not to say that I don't have fun collecting "badges" but its not the priority). Tick off a few nice places that we can say “I've been there”. Or maybe its just some kind of self-actualisation thing...? Trying to discover who I really am... But do we actually contribute anything (apart from some cash)? Do we actually get to experience what it is like to live in that area? Struggle with the issues and systems those people struggle with...?

If you like travel so much, why don't you leave NZ and head off overseas permanently?

NZ is my home and that's where I'm meant to be right now. I've got an awesome crew that I'm looking forward to returning to. For me, travel seems so much more exciting when you have people to share the stories with and to journey with over the long term. Also, I have lots of great projects and people to be involved with as soon as I get back to Welly so, it's unlikely you'll see me leave NZ for any greater length of time in the next 4 years or so...

Any other reasons for traveling? (15/11/09)
Every time I travel I always want to record it in text and photos as I go but the travel tends to be too much too fast and I run out of time to write. This trip is a chance to put my ideal travel philosophy into action. I've basically taken the maximum time possible for my schedule (2 months) and gone for less rather than more. If I was a proper backpacker I'd be racing around trying to see as much as possible but this trip is the opposite. I'm trying to go slow, meet people and allow plenty of time to write about my experiences. Its still travel so I won't have time to write epic national geographic pieces but at least I get to record it all and a few people get to travel along with me.

[This post may get updated over time]

Hair hair!

Facial hair is pretty standard here. Good.

I guess it should be expected though, since the stereotypical Puma has a scraggly beard, bushy dark hair and some girth to his eyebrows...

Of course, perhaps 1 in 30 males actually looks like that.

Also, over these last 3 weeks, I have now spotted 2 ginga beards! Woop, woop! You guys rock. One was a jazz musician with a grey cheese cutter just like mine, the other was an Hasidic Jew and his beard rocked!!

But thats not my point. My point is that my beard is bigger than everyone else's (except the Jew).

Now, to figure out how to say that en Espanol... ;)

*This story is dedicated to Nich DC :)*

What do you do?

When you've got 500 bucks in your pocket but you can't afford the $1.25 bus?
You have to have coins for the bus.
Coins are precious so shop keepers won't change your money for you.
You could buy something and hope for some change... but shopkeepers aren't stupid, they make the prices round figures, so no change there.
You could try and change with a friend but they prolly need their change too.
You could queue up at the bank for 20 mins but thats a pain.
And to make matters worse... the $1 coin (they use the $ sign despite the fact the currency is called pesos...) is worth more than $1, due to the metals its made of, so it regularly gets stolen and smuggled into Brazil to get melted down which means they are a rare commodity.
The one saving grace is there are no annoying 1c pieces like there are in the States...! Gah.

So what do I do?
I try to get the train or subway as much as poss and always pay in notes (to get change).

A reintroduction to grass

Grass, Malcolm. Malcolm, grass. Ah, pleased to meet you my long lost friend! (If you're in a rush, skip to the pics at the bottom).

Weekend before last I headed out of town for a weekend camp with Javi's church and in the process was reintroduced to something I take for granted in NZ. Unfortunately in this city, grass is a very rare commodity, and where it is, it is not looked after anywhere near as well as back home.

Anyway, to keep it brief, here's a few of my observations:

The people
There was approx 40 of us, which was a nice size, not too overwhelming for this spanglish speaker. It was an interesting mix of people from both lower and middle class backgrounds. Ex drug addicts, troubled teens and a mix of middle class types. Predominantly European though, as is most of BA.

With a lack of language and cultural understanding, its hard to know whether the jokes are funnier here or people just laugh harder but a good time was definitely had by all, late into the night. I get the feeling that this culture is generally a bit more “extroverted” than home.
But thats hardly going to surprise anyone! They were very welcoming and I immediately felt at home, which was nice, in only my 2nd week.

The time
Things run later here. Start later, finish later. I like.

A good example of this is Sunday arvo. After we were packed and tidied up, we sat around for a couple of hours and waited for everyone to finish, so we could take a group photo and all say our goodbyes (combinations of hugs and kisses).
I was sitting there for a while trying to comprehend this. Sure, I have lots of time to sit around and enjoy the slow pace but I couldn't imagine this happening back home. Don't you guys have to get busy or something...? Don't you have “stuff” to do? You know all that weekend biz to catch up on? No? But you're back at work tomorrow and you're prolly going to be commuting for hours... No entiendo, una papa (see Ultimate Phrase blog).

The futbol
Of course I couldn't pass up a chance to play the beautiful game and connect with the locals. They have an annual singles vs marrieds game at the camp but the English speakers were all married, so I swapped allegiances. Despite my football ignorance, lack of fitness and general language inability (who knows if they have terms like “man on” or “line” in Espanol, or who they were telling me to kick it too...), I managed to have a good time!

Fortunately my standard strategy paid off. Stay at the back, get in the way of any one attacking and pull off the occasional successful tackle (since the place was pretty wet, the more splash the better!). One tackle that got me particularly soaked had the crowds roaring with delight!
Well, crowd of 10 anyway, I can dream.
Afterwards one of the opposition teens attempted to tell me I was “good” and via translation, I wouldn't let him play his game, combined with various pats on the back. Haha. Yuusss. Little did they know...
or maybe they were just being nice. Its fair enough though... with the All Whites somewhere below 100th in the world, there would be no expectation that a Kiwi could actually kick a ball.

The time factor mentioned previously did come into play here too. I asked one of the marrieds when we were going to finish the game (at this stage I was about ready to crash!). The reply was something like "when we win..." ha! Eventually with some more questioning from me, there was some chatter and movement amongst the players...
Half time.
Oh great! Half time. Just what I need.
Yes... I get the feeling things works a little different here.

All we need to do is give it an English name and it will be cool...

Need some cool technology? Not sure where to go? No need to worry coz we've got...

MultiHard

The shop for all your technology needs.

Seriously!

Bam!!

The day started with a bang. Literally!

At 5.55am on Sunday, it was raining, not that I was aware of that, I was blissfully asleep until...

The loudest but shortest sound I have ever heard, combined with a seriously bright light, blasted me awake! I jolted up and said something like “oh my goodness!!” I know, the next lamest thing I could have said was “hi-de-ho neighbourinho” but I'm just reporting it how it was...

My first thought was that a bomb had gone off – which is not inconceivable, since two Jewish buildings (including inhabitants) in BA have been obliterated by extremists in the last 5 years.
However my initial shock was calmed by Javier,
apologising for his city,
again.

Turns out it was fork lightning. Extremely close to our building.
Whoa!

Words can't articulate the ridiculous sound of that much energy firing through the sky. A laser from a sci-fi style space craft is about the best I can do but without any explosion on impact. Crazy.

Traffic problems solved!

I think I've found a solution to Auckland's traffic problems!

No need for motorways, no need for public transport...
Just bust down 10 or 15 blocks, a hundred buildings or so and create a 20 lane behemoth of an avenue!!

I present to you the lovely 9 de Julio Avenue...

The picture can be deceiving... there's at least another 3 lanes on either side, which you can't see!

Or perhaps a one way, 11 lane avenue is more to your liking...?

What d'ya reacon JB...?

Home base

Tres de Febrero is where I'm based. I'm staying with my friend Javier and his mother Vita in the Nuñez barrio (neighbourhood). Its three stops on the train from Retiro station which is pretty close to the downtown area or the subway gets even closer to town (runs under Cabildo).

View Malc's el mapa de sudamerica in a larger map

The three residents of 2966:

Me

Estoy visitando Argentina por 2 meses. 
Hablo un poquito de espanol (speaks small spanish)

Vita
Born in Bolivia, emigrated to BA over 20 years ago. With limited kitchen resources, manages to cook/blend/juice up a storm!
No hablo ingleise.

Javier
Spent half his life in Bolivia, half in BA and last 3 years in Welly. Is currently on a decent break at home before returning to Welly at the end of the year.
¡Hablo espanol y ingleise!

Tres de Febrero is Feb 3. Javi doesn't know why the street is named after that date, or why the parallel street is named Sept 11! Curious.

The ultimate phrase

Yeap, it's a fact, I've discovered the ultimate phrase that will win friends and influence people! When I don't understand whats happening, just pull out The Phrase. When its time for some comedic effect, just launch into The Phrase. To pave the way for future Kiwis to go where I've been before... The Phrase.

So what is it you ask?

Well, its simple really, and its perfect coming from a foreigner who hasn't aced the language yet but has a sense of humour and comes from an easy going culture. It goes like this...

¡No entiendo, una papa!

Which means:

I don't understand a potato!

If you're not from here, you may not get it but let me assure you, it pulls in the laughs!

What has become apparent in reciting this phrase, is that a simple formula can represent whats going on. It appears that the ROI (return on investment, if you're not Andre...) on this phrase is directly proportional to the amount of effort I put into the delivery, times the inverse proportion of how expected it is.

Where N = effort, a = expectation

ROI = N(1/a)

So as you can see, the potential for comedic effect increases as the expectation of it happening declines. For instance, say I go to court in BA, and the judge asks me a serious question in Espanol. If I put in a 10/10 effort with “a” at about 0.01 the ROI will be 1000!!

Thats pretty much off the scale folks. Not that there was a scale to start with, but if there was... it'd be off it.

So now I just have to look out for these 0.01 scenarios and cash in big time!

Note: there are a few different options I could have gone with (some would impress kids on the street more than this one) but this phrase has the highest laughs to lowest offense ratio.

Give a dog a bone...?

This was one cheeky dog.

Most days it leaves its owners home from down the road. Walks along the pavement and stops at the lights. Then when the pedestrians cross, it crosses with them (its a really busy intersection). Once across the road it wanders over to this guys shop. It jumps its front legs up onto the window sill (note the dirty marks on the wall, prolly from the dog) and barks 5 or 6 times at the shop owner inside!

Once barking is done, the dog moves back to its position on the pavement and waits for the well trained shop owner to throw it a bone or two!

Thats one smart dog! (Or dumb shop owner, you be the judge of that)

Tigre and the river delta

Javier and I recently jumped on a commuter train and headed north to Tigre. Tigre is a fairly touristy (touristic if your speaking Espanol) area due to the river delta. Its my first experience of a delta. The Rio de la Plata (River of Silver) and its tributaries flow south from Bolivia, Paraguay and Brazil. In its last 50 – 100 kms, it spreads out over a wide area. Hence the delta.

In order to see some of the delta we took a ferry ride. Click on the Google map link on the side of this blog to see the route we took. Its kind of like a large suburb/holiday town with a bunch of canals running through it, mixed with some very poor areas. Our 2 hour loop took in just a small amount of what there was to see. This included: a glassed in memorial house to a previous president, a school, many simple holiday homes, a resort or two and a few general stores.

According to Javier they've improved the water quality around the waterfront quite a lot. It used to smell quite bad. However, as you can see from the photos there is still a large amount of silt in the water. Who knows how far upstream it comes from, probably the Amazon I imagine. And it all gets trapped in the slow moving delta water which explains the presence of many dredging ships.

Make a Free Flash Slideshow

Bife de chorizo

There's nothing that represents Argentina quite like a big thick chunk of rump steak. Yeap. Yeah.

Last week Javi and I lived it up and visited the very popular La Cabrera in a stylie end of town called Palermo. Well, technically it wasn't THE Cabrera as that one was booked out at 6pm (thats 3 hours before the place comes alive!) so we went to their “back up” restaurant 3 doors down...

I guess thats what happens when the Lonely Planet says “if you eat at only one steakhouse in BA, make it this one.”

We started off with some complimentary bread. Good idea and pretty common here (although not much help when you're trying to avoid gluten...).

Then we tried Javi's recommendation of Provoleta. Its a large chunk of hot, chewy and ridiculously tasty cheese, bbq'd on the traditional parrilla and placed on our metal dinner plate that looked like a cow...

For the mains, of course we had the bife de chorizo which is a traditional cut of beef. And rather large. It came with a collection of sides in little dishes to share. Very nice.

And to finish it off (there's no way I could fit dessert), they brought a tower of lollipops to choose from!

You know you're in a big city when...

A group of locals debate what is the best route for you to walk to get to a location a kilometre way...

The ten step challenge for a new mother...

You've got a young one with you and you need to go to town. You can't take the car as its either too expensive to own one or the parking is insane. So you take the colectivos (bus). And thats where the fun begins.

1. Make sure the bus stops while avoiding stagnant water in gutter.
   

2. Climb the stairs (no low floor buses round here darl) with baby in arm and collapsible pram (don't even think about non-collapsible!)
   
   
   
   
3. As soon as you've got you and the crew onboard, grab hold of something. Friggin quickly!!
   
   
   
   
4. Ok? Assuming you got past step 3 wait in line for the passengers in front of you to pay coins into the ticket machine. Keep holding on for your dear life.
   
   
   
   
5. Tell the driver where you're going, he'll clock it into the machine while he's driving...
   
   
   
   
6. Get your coins (the only option - no smart card, no notes, no clicky card thing) and start feeding them into the machine, while holding baby, disposing of pram and still holding onto something (you may need more than 2 hands for this exercise).
   
   
   
   
7. Take ticket and change if required
   
   
   
   
8. Make your way to a seat (fingers crossed someone gives you one close to the front).
   
   
   
   
9. Sit down and keep holding on.
   
   
   
   
10. Get off the bus
    

Woop woop! You made it, congrats, your a legend!

Humility 101

There's nothing like failing at the local lingo to bring on a sense of humility.

I've been working on some key phrases recently:

Sorry I don't understand

How do you say?

Do you speak spanish?

I speak a little spanish

Speak slower please

None of these phrases will actually help me to communicate anything useful but at least the locals will know why there is a blank look on my face when they pour forth a volley of meaninglessness.

Mental note: The next time someone is struggling with English in Wellington I'll be more patient, I'll use simpler words and I'll realise that they aren't stupid, they're just struggling with a language which is more complicated than the one I'm trying to learn!

Murphy's Law

It appears that Murphy's Law works over this side of the planet as well...

Its raining.