Farewell Buenos Aires

This will be my last post on Andrew in Argentina. I’m in the United States as I write this. I came back a few days early to help get ready for my sisters graduation. Sorry to those of you I didn’t have a chance to say a proper goodbye to!

I will miss Buenos Aires for sure. The weather and cafes will always be in my heart.  I’ll miss the nightlife too (BA puts the US and Europe to shame). Every single night of the week the party goes all night. Most of all I’ll miss the people I met. I was lucky enough to make great friends with people all over the world.

I set some personal records on this trip as well:
- Most consecutive days outside the United States (104)
- Longest distance from Oskaloosa, IA (5665 miles)
- Furthest south (34.5° S)
- 3 of 7 continents visited now

So pivoting from South America to the United States has been very easy. It’s the little things that make life sweet. Like ketchup bottles in restaurants, signs in English and prices in dollars. The thing I like most has to be the quiet streets and clean air. You really don’t miss these things until you go without.

I’ll leave you with a video that always makes me smile. It sums up travel in a lot of ways for me. It shows that are some beautiful places in the world but what really matters is the people you meet along the way. It also helps to travel with a smile and a sense of humor :-)

The Evita Code

Only a week left before I take off. I have a lot of random pictures that I’ve taken but haven’t been able to work them into a blog post. I learned from Dan Brown that if you have a bunch of random facts and cool locations you can weave them into a highly profitable novel and movie. I await your offer Dreamworks!

Chapter 1

Andre Vidrio stood in front of the massive monument that had just been constructed in Plaza San Martin. As head of symbology at the University of Northern Iowa (the most respected university in all of northern Iowa mind you), he’d been called to Buenos Aires the day before to investigate.

“This thing just sprang up over night” inspector Callao informed Dr. Vidrio as they stood before the massive structure. “What do you make of it?”

Vidrio thought about it for a moment.

It’s obviously the work of the Illuminati he thought. Well, not really but I’m getting a free trip out of this.

“Obviously who ever did this has knowledge of Greek Symbology. The spiral shape with books on the outside was used to identify things of great importance” Vidrio explained.

Just then, a car pulled up and out stepped the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She walked up to Vidrio and introduced herself.

“Hi. I’m Detective Angelica Patnodo. I’m your liaison for this trip” she explained. “What’s our next move?”
“Recoleta Cemetery. Quickly.” he said.

They jumped into her car as they headed towards the cemetery. On the way he explained.

“The monument was obviously built as a distraction. I just looked at my watch and today is May 10, the anniversary of the siege of Jerusalem by the Roman Emperor Titus. It’s common knowledge that Romans loved cemeteries. The next clue will be located within the cemetery”
“Isn’t that a bit of a stretch?”
“Who’s the symbologist here?”
“Okay okay.”

Upon arriving they rushed inside the massive brick walls surrounding the cemetery. They headed straight for the most famous tomb, that of Eva Peron (Evita). Evita was responsible for inspiring Argentina in the 1950′s and inspiring Andrew Lloyd Webber to create a really shitty musical in the 1970′s. The tomb was unremarkable for somebody of her stature as it was located down a narrow corridor and out of the way. Vidrio and Patnodo approached the tomb to solve the next clue.

“Wait a second, I’m seeing a connection… Evita…Argentina… wine… grape… purple… Barney… kids… Sponge Bob Square Pants… pineapple… coconut… palm tree…West Palm Beach…Florida… United States…Washington DC…Washington Monument… I’ve got it!” Vidro said.
“What the hell are you talking about it??” Patnodo questioned.
“Quick! To the car! To Avenida 9 de Julio!”

They made their way down the massive avenue that is as wide as 7 lanes in each direction. In the distance he could see what he was looking for. The obelisk. Almost an exact replica of the one inWashington DC. An obvious conspiracy of some sort. The Freemasons, Illuminati and The Priory of Sion all rolled up into one. These people and their obelisks…

“Is this the next clue?” Padnodo wanted to know.
“Sure, why not? I’d just like to point that America’s Obelisk is much bigger” replied Vidro
“All this running around has got me all riled up. Want to go down to Plaza de Mayo and make out?”
“Sure, after I describe in detail all the buildings that are there. First you have the Casa Rosada where the President works. Next is the Catedral where General San Martin is buried. Finally, a fountain in front of the national bank.”

“Wow, you’re so smart”

“I know I am. In conclusion, neo Nazi’s built the structure from the beginning of the story. <Note to WordPress editors: insert some babble about Nazi’s and their hatred for books>”

The end?

Water

 

I’ve always been drawn to water. Something about the sound of water has always made my ears perk up and want to stop to take pictures. Like all the great cities of the world, Buenos Aires has plenty of fountains, lakes, rivers and streams to take pictures of. Above are the fountains in front of Congress.

The Japanese Gardens on the north side of town are beautiful with a nice body of water that flows around the whole park. Pictures above and below.

The rose gardens in Plaza Holanda feature a moat (below) that encircles almost the whole park.

The view is pictured below is from one of the pedestrian bridges to get to the gardens, looking back on the city.

The Clock Is Ticking

Two weeks from today, I’ll be on my way home. Hard to believe it’s May already. I’ve been here for 3 months now and time has flown. When I arrived, it was summer and now we’re well into fall. It’s chilly but still pleasant. It’s the equivalent of early November here (in terms of daylight/seasonal timing) but it feels like early October in Iowa.

 

So it’s time to start hitting all the sites I’ve been neglecting this trip. All the pictures you see here I took from Palacio Barolo which is one of the tallest buildings in old town BA. It provides the best view of the city I’m certain. It was one of my last things on my “to do” list before I leave and it certainly didn’t disappoint.

 

Another thing I need to take care of is by gifts for my family. Shopping is a bit of an adventure in its own right here. As you enter the stores here, there is immediately some one right on you to follow you around the whole time. I’m sure they’re just trying to be helpful (or to prevent me from stealing things) but I’m kind of big on personal space. My instincts tell me to not reward annoying customer service but eventually I’m going to have to break down and buy something.

 

Most of the Argentinean goods that people tend to buy contain some amount of silver. The deal is that any item with silver in most upscale stores won’t have a price on it; it’ll have number on it to indicate how much silver is contained in the item. You then have to ask the clerk to come over with the calculator and reference sheet to find out how much you need to pay. There’s definitely has been some sticker shock the last few days for me. It’s sort of double shock in that the first number they throw me is in pesos, which is always going to seem high since it’s 4 times the US dollar. The second shock is after you do the math and realize it’s still horribly expensive.

Puerto Madero

A lot of older cites struggle with finding the right balance between old and new. I quite like the way Buenos Aires does it. Puerto Madero is the new business district built on the grounds of the old shipping yards on the east side of downtown. It’s nicely separated from the historical center without being too far away. It’s just far enough away that you don’t have all the great historic buildings in the shadows of big modern skyscrapers. It’s the best of both worlds.

Downtown is in layers. On the water you have the nature preserve that runs north and south a few miles. The next layer as you get closer to the city is the line of modern skyscrapers, followed by the marina where all the old brick warehouses have been turned into high end restaurants and shopping. Then on the other side of the highway starts “classic” Buenos Aires.

Generally I don’t spend much time in this area but the nice wide sidewalks along the marina and nature preserve do make for a good spot to run. Also there are few cars in this area which does reduce stress and improve air quality. I think I’d like working in these office buildings in that they’re clean and modern with what has to be the best views of the city. I’m sure you could see Uruguay from them because I could see the tops of the skyscrapers when I went to Colonia. Not to mention tons of great restaurants to spend your 1-2 hours for lunch in.

Lastly, the star of the port is the “Puente de la Mujer” (literally “Bridge of the Woman”). According to the designer it’s supposed to represent a couple dancing tango. It’s beautiful at sunset.

The Buenos Aires Book Fair

It’s Easter weekend here in BA and for the most part everything is shut down. I’ve been here for 3 months and this is the third 4-day weekend that they’ve had. The first was Carnival and then the second was their Memorial Day. I think the United States could stand to have a 4 day weekend once a month. So with the city being completely dead yesterday, I was surprised to see an abnormal amount of people on the D-line subway. In broken Spanish I asked somebody what was up and I was able to pull the word “book” out of the sentence of his reply. So I got off the subway at Plaza Italia with the crowd and followed them to the “Buenos Aires International Book Fair” at the La Rural Convention Center.

At the entrance I could tell it was a big deal. There was an 8 line booth just for selling tickets. In a lot of ways this whole convention reminded me a lot of the Iowa State Fair. The process of admission was similar and there were various building all laid out over this fairground type space (even a few animals hanging around). I later read that the attendance last year was 1.2 million people over a similar amount of time. I know that Iowa State Fair is always striving for a million.

Anyway, upon entering the first building, I could tell this isn’t going to be a few local dealers selling their books. This was an out and out big company affair. Lots of money spent on each booth, spokesmen/spokeswomen who look like models and tons of little gimmicks. One booth had a band on top, another had a hologram type of machine and one even had a 3D driving simulator (not sure what any of these things had to do with books). The embassy from every country had their own booths representing their literary culture. France had books in French, Brazil had Portuguese books and the good old United Stateswas there representing too (picture below). I didn’t end up buying any books but I did learn a lot of new Spanish words :-)

The Dogs of Buenos Aires

 

One of the things that separates Buenos Aires from the other major cities of the world is its dogs. They are big and playful. Huskies, Labs, Dalmatians and Golden Retrievers all have a home here. Seems in most big cities, small dogs are the fashionable thing to have. Fluffy little dogs that are more of an accessory than a companion. Not here. These dogs were meant to live and have fun. They take over the parks on the weekends and for the most part are very well behaved. Their owners will tie them up to a tree and leave them for a while so sometimes every tree in the park has at least one dog tied to it.

On weekdays, you’ll teams of them moving down the street with some poor soul trying to control them. The upper class hires dog walkers to walk their dogs while they are at work so as a dog walker you can maximize your profit by walking as many at one time as you possible can. By city law, you can only walk 14 at a time. I can only imagine the chaos the prompted the city to take action. Were people trying to walk 30 dogs at a time?