Buenos Aires

It's actually been about a month since I have been in Buenos Aires. Quite a nice place city, great night life, tango, steaks, mate, political demonstrations... The general feel of the city is way relaxed, nothing happens before noon. Then cafes begin to fill up, around 4 pm the parques are full of people sitting around with friends and family drinking a bit of mate (the main drink of Argentina and Uruguay, a bitter tea you drink tradionally out of a gord= which is also called mate, the tea is actually called yerba), dinner is usually not until 10 or 11 pm then maybe out to a bar, the boliches or night clubs don't open until 2 am and then you stay out dancing until 7am at which point hopefully you can find a pizzeria open somewhere.

I happened to be around the Plaza de Mayo on the 24th of March to see the political demonstartion commerorating the aniversario of the military coup that marks the beginning of the Dirty War in Argentina.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_war

The Madres de la Plaza de Mayo marched into the Plaza around 3:30 bearing their flag with the photos of all the desapparecidos or disappeared persons that went missing during the period of state sponsored violence 1976 to around 1983, as they do every Thursday. But becuase it was the aniversary of the coup there were tons of political activists, student groups, labor organizations, etc... demonstrating in the plaza as well.

In general Argentines seem to be quite politically active with respect to demonstrations and protests. Another demonstartion going on while we were in BA had to do with strikes in a campo over the new export taxes imposed on soy, beef, and other products. President Krisner is not in good favor at the moment from what I can tell. The campo was striking and blocking roads, stores in Buenos had no meat or cheese and people of BA were outraged, they would go out into the streets banging pots and pans in protest.

I spent a few nights in San Telmo, Buenos Aires bohemian neighborhood. Most of my time was spent drinking mate with Leah and the two guys who worked at the hostel. I also stayed for a week in Palermo in the apartment of two friends who graduated from Tufts with me. One of my friends had received a Full Bright Scholarship to come to Buenos Aires to produce a documentary about the cartoneros, people who make a living going through peoples trash in order to collect recyclable material and sell it.

Wikipedia on the Argentine 2001 economic crisis:

"Several new homeless and jobless Argentines found work as cartoneros, or cardboard collectors. The 2003 estimation of 30,000 to 40,000 people scavenged the streets for cardboard to eke out a living by selling it to recycling plants. This method accounts for only one of many ways of coping in a country that at the time suffered from an unemployment rate soaring at nearly 25%"

What else can one say about Buenos Aires, there are l you have to pee every 5 minutes. about 8,000 stray cats or cats that were abandoned by their owners, living in packs in the Botanical Gardens... I saw RENT the musical live in spanish, the Parillas are cheap (grill restaurants that specialize in Argentinas infamous steaks and other grilled meats) steaks in abundancy (unless the campo is on strike), pleanty of empanadas, ice cream, and pizza to munch on, and of course mate.

Depite the great steaks, night clubs, and tango shows, by far the best part of Buenos Aires was getting to spend time with not only my friends from Tufts but also two fabulous Argentines, Hugo and Florencia, who we met in Cambodia and traveled with throughout SE Asia for about a month. Flor even hosted an amazing asado (BBQ) at her parents house with about three courses of meat, empanadas, red wine, beer, and jello shots to finish off the evening.

---

---