Thoughts on Argentina

Hi All

Having left Argentina four days ago, I can now reflect on my time in that interesting country. Above all else, Argentina has an air of sad but proud decay about it, a once highly prosperous country that seems to have been brought to its knees by decades of political instability, although in recent years it seems to have got a bit better.

Arriving at Ezezia International Airporty last Tuesday put us back to the 1960s - one stuffy little customs and immigration room, no quaratine control, and a bored looking security guard who didn´t check the screen as our bags passed through X-ray. We were the only native English speakers there - surrounded by staunch Argentines for whom this sort of hampered life was normal. I realised then that tourism in this part of the world is scarcely developed, and that we had better learn some Spanish and fast, or hope like hell that Brittany would pick it up quick (which she did).

We got a taxi to the airport, and this was an experience. 6 lanes of road either side, strewn with rubbish from the numerous barrios (Spanish for slum) surrounding us. Half built and semi-decayed housing estate towers rose up in every direction, like the set from an apocalyptic war. Buenos Aires is a city of 15 million people after all. Soviet design appears to have taken strong hold here, and as a planner, I re-iterate my rule - never build cities on the flat.

Central Buenos Aires was a surprise however - traffic everywhere, noise everwhere, but somehow it all worked, and the streets were relatively safe, even after dark when we all went out. The subway was exciting, as I have never been on one. Quick efficient, and heavily used, the only drawback being dodgy ticket clerks who short-changed me, a gain for them perhaps but only a $NZ 20.00 loss for me. That won´t happen again.

Politics appears to be big here, if not quite as big as football. Everywhere there are signs and graffitti devoted to Peron and the Kirchners, especially considering that Nestor Kirchner, the former President and husband of the current President Cristina Kirchner had died only a few weeks before we arrived. People are upset - this guy seems to have been the modern day Peron, attempting to rebuild the country from the military dictatorship that ran it from 1975 to 1983 and then the right-wing agenda that took hold after it.

We went into the posh neighbourhood of Recoletta, where wealthy Argentines seem to live out the glory years of Argentina, hidden from the knowledge of what is happening to the rest of the country. The socialist political graffitti wasn´t to be found here though!. What we did find was incredibly unhelpful banks and restaurants with hidden charges for everything - and Portenos Spanish is almost indecipherable. I was glad to leave.

The centre of town is reminiscent of Moscow or an Eastern European capital - huge Italinate columns on buildings similar to the Acropolis of Greece (Peron admired Mussolini), and security guards and police everywhere. As electronic banking is so limited, armoured cars with armoured drivers are everywhere. But cracked sidewalks indicate that that whatever money there is, isn´t being spent on the basics.

Our neighbourhood was quite nice, but still challenging with our lack of Spanish. So when the time came to hop on the bus (an experience in itself, given the crazy Indian-level chaos of the bus station at Retiro) I was pleased to get out of the city, and highly pleased not to have to live in one like it.

More to come on the bus ride to the Argentine border and onwards to Santa Cruz, and then our current experiences in Bolivia.