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Mar. 29, 2005 I´ve been in Buenos Aires, Argentina for about four months, and I have another month or so before my visa expires. I suppose I could have applied for a third visa, but instead I've decided to go to Asunción, Paraguay on May 5, for a few months. Summer in Buenos Aires lasted from December 21 to March 21, and it was a beautiful, warm, sunny summer indeed, 85 or 90 degrees almost every day. Now that the South American autumn has arrived--April 1 here corresponds to October 1 in the Northern Hemisphere--there's already been a noticeable cooling, with more cloudiness and rain, and the worst is yet to come. The latitude is about 34.3 degrees South, which corresponds to the latitude of Los Angeles and Charleston, South Carolina. The summer daily high and low here are almost exactly those of Los Angeles, so cooler at night than in Charleston. The winter daily high and low here are almost exactly those of Charleston, which is 7 or 8 degrees lower than Los Angeles. So far, I haven't seen any of the interminable cloudiness and fogginess that characterize Southern California. Getting here was a nuisance. Online, I bought a budget ticket package, with three flights: Los Angeles to Costa Rica, Costa Rica to Perú, Perú to Buenos Aires. Thirty-six hours before my departure, when I had already given up my place in LA, I found that the second flight had been canceled, but the first and third had been confirmed and could not be canceled. So I had to go in person to an agency and buy another ticket to Lima, making use of only the third flight of my original package. So I don't think I'll buy any more tickets online. Trying to call the agency on the phone, I was kept waiting more than an hour by a recorded message, and finally gave up. My very first experience in Buenos Aires was very unpleasant. A cabdriver told me he'd take me into town for 25 pesos, about $8, but when we arrived, he claimed I owed him another 45 pesos, or $15, for tolls. I was very annoyed, but let it go. I got a room for about US$13 a day, and there are even cheaper places around, but once I moved in and got comfortable, I decided just to stay. This is on Avenida Rivadavia, named after the first president of Argentina, in a neighborhood perhaps once fashionable, now showing signs of age, but very safe and secure apparently. One of the most outstanding features about Buenos Aires is the endless profusion of stores. Almost every major street in the city is lined with stores, one after the other, block after block after block. Even side streets have stores. The major shopping street is called Calle Florida, which runs north and south not far from the waterfront. There must be 20 blocks of stores and malls on Florida, just teeming with people. This is no market place, by any means. The most opulent mall is called Galería Pacífico, which just bowls you over with its elegance, comparable to Trump Tower in New York City, way out of my class certainly. And there are other ultra-chic, as well as moderately-priced, malls all along the way. As might be expected, electronics and computers are well-represented there, but the emphasis is on clothes. Bearing in mind that whatever I buy I'll have to tote when I continue my travels, I do almost no shopping. There are restaurants along the street too, with prices only one-third to one-half of US prices, but I usually just grab something at a stand or a grocery store. Another major shopping street is Avenida Corrientes, perpendicular to Calle Florida. Corrientes is also lined with stores on both sides for 20 blocks or more. As one proceeds west the stores decline gradually from upscale to downscale until you get to the Abasto of Buenos Aires, which is a 100-year-old shopping center as stout and sturdy as an armory. The inside has been completely modernized though, with mostly expensive shops. South of the Abasto, you start to find vendors, with hot dogs. soda, sunglasses and cheap garments, strangling all the sidewalks in all directions. Nearby is a fashion district, with fabrics and sewing supplies in abundance. There are some slummier neighborhoods around town too, like Plaza Constitución and Retiro, loaded with cheap shops, where you see people camped out on the sidewalk, apparently good places to avoid at night. The train station and bus terminal are in Retiro. American products are not as common as you'd think. If you go into a drugstore, like one of the outlets of the ubiquitous Farmacity, you see hardly any recognizable brands, so you have to take time reading the labels to figure out what they are. There don't seem to be any really big bookstores either. Going to the largest bookstore I could find in order to buy a Portuguese grammar and learning they didn't have one, I was sent to a tiny bookstore inside a building where you have to ring the doorbell on the sidewalk and answer a voice to get in. You'd never have guessed it was there. The other remarkable feature about Buenos Aires is the architecture. The modern office buildings and hotels are centered about Avenida Libertador. There you see the Sheraton Hotel, for example, and you know, without any description, about what it looks like. And there are many others in the genre, 30 or 40 story towers. But what I´m talking about is the traditional architecture of the older buildings that one finds on Avenida Callao, especially, but also on Avenidas Corrientes, Córdoba, Santa Fe and others. This is where you see lavish carved-stone domes, spires and turrets, colonnades, pilastrades and balustrades. On the walls you see sculptured festoons and swags, with ornamental wrought iron grilles, enameled black, before the windows. The doors have elaborate surrounds and aedicules of marble, with brass hinges, knockers and knobs. And everywhere you look there are cornices, parapets and moldings of stone. Most of these buildings must be at least 80 or 100 years old, but they're in good repair. Right on my street there are several such handsome buildings, and I feel very comfortable among them. On the water front, at Buquebus, you can embark for Montevideo, Uruguay. Round-trip fare for ferry and bus is about $56. It takes 3 hours to sail across El Río de la Plata and 2 more hours to roll to Montevideo, with an hour or two for boarding and transfering procedures. You get a new visa when you return, but I don't know how many times they'll let you do it. I gambled that I could just leave my baggage in my room in Buenos Aires, instead of lugging it, and I got lucky. The only disappointment is that Argentines are not very friendly. They're strictly aloof and indifferent. You're lucky if anyone every does so much as say hello. This is in great contrast with Egypt, Mexico, Thailand or Indonesia, where people are as amiable as can be. I'd compare their attitude to that of people from Los Angeles or New York City, basically self-centered and distant. Mestizos seem to be a minority here, though the Guaraní Indians live in Northern Argentina. Hispanic or Castilian types seem to predominate, though there are many Italians, Chinese and Jews here too. Food is entirely different from Mexican food. I don't think there's any such thing as a taco, tamale, tortilla or enchilada in the whole country. I haven't tried much in the way of Argentine specialities, as I am anything but a gourmet. The variety of Spanish spoken in Buenos Aires is called the Lunfardo, and involves lots of peculiar words, with new verb forms and pronouns to boot. 'Y' and 'll' sound like 'sh', while 'b' and 'v' sound like 'w', with the result that 'caballo', for example, sounds like 'cawasho', very confusing. The best thing about Buenos Aires, at least for an American, is the prices. Everything costs one- third to one-half what it costs in the US, except perhaps for electronics and appliances, which cost the same everywhere. And I am here more just to live than to see the sights, so that's a real boon! ------------ About the author Thomas Keyes: I have written two books: A SOJOURN IN ASIA (non-fiction) and A TALE OF UNG (fiction), neither published so far. I have studied languages for years and traveled extensively on five continents. Email: udikeyes@yahoo.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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