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Published: September 16th 2012
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One of the things Fiona would love to change about the world is the tension that exists between being completely softhearted and trusting on one hand and being wise and cautiously cynical on the other. This has really been highlighted on this trip and especially here in Buenos Aires. The economy here, like many other places in the world at the moment, is not so strong. When we have travelled in cities around the world, and on subway systems in particular, we have been confronted by beggars in all shapes and sizes. Some have obvious disabilities, some have tried to earn money by performing and others by telling sad tales. How do you discern when to give and when you are being ripped off? And if you are to give how can you give to everyone and how much do you give?
It has been interesting watching the locals on the Subte here in Buenos Aires. They are much more likely to give than what we have experienced or seen in other countries. There are quite a few people who are on the Subte with white sticks. Fiona's cynical Australian voice tells her that it's a ruse, but when you
see the locals pressing money in their hands, her nicer side reminds her just how lucky we are to live in a country with accessible health care and benefits.The other way people seem to make money on the Subte is by selling things there. They travel up and down the carriages dropping their wares on your lap. When they come back they take back the goods or you give them money. To start with we didn't even look at what they gave us or else we didn't let them give it to us. But now we realise this is actually a bona fide way of trading here. Not what we are used to at all.
And today we realised how cynical we were about the guys saying cambio. We discovered all about a parallel foreign exchange market that exists in Argentina. The apartment we rented in Bariloche emailed to remind us we needed to pay the balance of our rental in cash and in US dollars. We didn't think this was a problem until we tried to get US dollars. We didn't bring any with us and never expected to have any issue. However, due to the economy, Argentinians
are no longer allowed to buy dollars and tourists can only exchange back into dollars what they have left from originally purchasing pesos. We tried a couple of banks and even with our poor Spanish figured out we weren't going to get any. Enter the cambio men. They purchase dollars off tourists at a better rate than the official one and sell it to Argentinians .They obviously fill a gap, but we were still too cynical to go to them. We were worried that if they gave us fake US dollars we would have no idea. Luckily the apartment landlord said he would accept a money transfer and we didn't have to worry about fake notes or backstreet deals. As we were purchasing dollars it wouldn't have been a good rate for us anyway.
That sorted, the next thing we had to do was the most important thing whilst we are in Argentina. We had to go and pick up our tickets for the Pumas vs All Blacks match. We had planned our whole trip to Argentina based on the fact we could go and see the All Blacks play their first Rugby Championship game in Argentina. However the
official All Blacks tickets were way too expensive so Fiona had bought some from the official Pumas tour company. This did mean a trip a bit further out of the centre of Buenos Aires and more time on the Subte. We found the office and met with Tomas who had been emailing with Fiona regarding the tickets. It was nice to put a face to the name and even nicer to actually hold the tickets in our hands. We even found an Adidas shop nearby with All Blacks shirts at fantastic prices and so we are now completely set up to enjoy the match.
We ate more empanadas and took the Subte to Palermo. We had 2 ice cream shops to visit and we had been hoping to go to the Evitas museum. However we read in the guide book,as we were on the Subte, that it is closed on Mondays. The guide has been wrong before so we decided to walk by. It was on our route anyway if we were going to the ice cream shops.The first place we tried looked terrible. We nearly didn't go in. Boy are we glad we did. It was fantastic, possibly
up in the Italian gelato league. Fiona and Toby loved the zabaglione. Harriet didn't like that flavour at all but she did like the dulce de leche that came with a huge chunk of brownie. The second shop was a let down after the last experience, but Harriet and Toby still managed to finish the pot.
The Evita museum was closed as expected. We will have to come back when we return to Buenos Aires at the end of the month. But what couldn't wait was pizza. As well as gelato the Italian immigrants brought pizza to Argentina with them. It is quite different form Italian pizza with a thicker base and way more cheese, but as Harriet loves pizza we searched for the best pizza in Buenos Aires. All of our research came up with the one name, Guerrin. We also learned that you have to order a sort of flat bread that you put on top of the pizza.The pizza was exactly as promised, thick crust with huge amounts of very stringy mozzarella. We weren't sure about the flat bread though. The restaurant was very atmospheric and it was a great place to have a meal.
On the way back to the hotel we stopped to look at the statue of Carlos Gardel. It is just around the corner from the hotel and is outside the bar he used to dance and sing in. They seriously love him in Buenos Aires. Apparently even more than 50 years after his death there are people who have to listen to his records every day. That's dedication.
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