Advertisement
Walking around Salta
Man Salta is beautiful. It has its own feeling of being undoubtably South American but also very European like an Ecuadorian in a designer suit. Hola, Bonjour, Hello: take your pick, Argentinians respond to them all, and I am pretty sure that many prefer hello.
What a weird place. Culturally this is the weirdest place I have ever been, at least of its kind. I have experienced, in Montreal let's say, the feeling that a people feel strained to portray and live the culture that they have adopted. It is kind of like a guy in a stylish suit that is baggy in places, which he knows and causes a slight insecurity, but nonetheless he is trying his best to play the persona of someone in an Armani. Here, though, there is a key difference to Montreal: Montreal is trying to be its own kind, a oneofakind, whereas here the feeling is unmistakably that they want to be another's kind, a Western kind; part of the club - "I'm in an Armani too, guys! Wait up!". Some examples:
Restaurants going for the old, quaint look have names like "la colonial" (that one is in the gorgeous palm tree covered plaza) and always have their name written is sweeping gold coloured script. Most places, though, have modern facades and names in English, like "New Time"
Walking around Salta
Man Salta is beautiful. It has its own feeling of being undoubtably South American but also very European like an Ecuadorian in a designer suit. (also in the plaza), or "Bank Boston" in modern Arial font, something strait from the hip sections of New York City. Names like Bank Boston give a good analogy to what I have felt since the second I got here: It is in English, but is not quite; the South American Spanish makes it gramatically a little off (it of course should be Boston Bank, but in Spanish it would be Banco de Boston or Banco Boston). Good try, though! I get what you are going for... But you are
going for something
I don't have the impression that they are pretending, though, either. They aren't. People know good food, good poetry, politics (one guy I met moreso than the American friend I was with), and I am told Buenos Aires has some of the best theatre in the world. But they are bruised from a bad economy and feel, I would say, a little left behind.
I really like it here, I could really see myself spending a lot of time in Argentina in my life. This morning I went for a great coffee in the Plaza, where the waiter was as formal as a Parisian
Walking around Salta
Man Salta is beautiful. It has its own feeling of being undoubtably South American but also very European like an Ecuadorian in a designer suit. and as polite as a Canadian. I then went to a colourful, clean but homie little store with an assortment of fruits in baskets reading for the plucking, strait from the streets of Paris. I do miss, though, the raw sort of way of the other countries I have been to. There, if something was physically possible there were no formalities in the way, no matter how subtle. In my last entry I described how a taxi driver actually obeyed the Do Not Enter sign here and how I immediately knew something was very different. Well, that feeling has been fleshed out more: they have No Parking signs, which are enforced; people actually line up in lines, instead of a push and shove free-for-all when the ticket counters open (note, though, that in Bolivia old ladies are always whisked to the front of the line, no questions asked); here there are advertisements everywhere and are, I have no doubt, a source of pride. I wouldn't be surprised if people put Coca Cola ads on their bedroom walls as posters.
Last night I went to a bar, called "Barney's Barn" or something like that, and had some drinks with two
Walking around Salta
Man Salta is beautiful. It has its own feeling of being undoubtably South American but also very European like an Ecuadorian in a designer suit. Argentinians. We talked about Bush, smoked cigarettes, drank Heineken, and, at times, spoke in English just to prove to me they could, at least a little. Towards the end of the conversation, after touching on free trade agreements and The Simpsons, I told one guy (who was actually from Buenos Aires) that I could really see myself moving here. He was dumbfounded. After throwing out a big puff of air, a sort of half cough half laugh, he leaned towards me and said, in Spanish, that I had it all wrong. "You", he said, "want to move here? That is backwards. We all want to move to YOUR countries - Spain, Canada, United States" (that last one surprised me at first, but not anymore) " why would you want to move here?". Actually fishing for an answer, I responded with "But I like it here. I like the fact that it is very much European but still a type of its own." The song in the background changed to Coldplay, a trendy British band, and a girl wearing a shirt saying "shit happenings" walked by, giving me a long look and a smile. My friend still looked stupified and had
Walking around Salta
Man Salta is beautiful. It has its own feeling of being undoubtably South American but also very European like an Ecuadorian in a designer suit. nothing to say, except to shake his head in short, fast strokes and shrug his shoulders. "Well" he finally spurted out "if you make it to Buenos Aires, give me a call". Here he switched to English "we can go a movie" . Here I smiled, which he really didn't like.
Ciao for now
Advertisement
Tot: 0.178s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 18; qc: 93; dbt: 0.0837s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb