Archive for the ‘Argentina’ Category

I’m not going to beat around the bush, and I’ve said it before but Argentinian TV is pretty much universally awful. I was in a supermarket the other day and the TV in the corner was tuned to an entertainment show which consisted of 2 young trendy dudes talking to (“Do you have a boyfriend?”) and physically assessing 5 scantily clad female dancers (give us a twirl close-ups on the boobs and arse type of thing). Then a man dressed up as a monkey came on and they asked the girls which one of them was single. The lucky girl stepped forward and gave the monkey a kiss on his monkey cheek whereby he collapsed in mock-ecstasy twitching on the floor.

I am however proud to reveal that there is one light in the darkness that is Argentinian TV and that is Diana Arroz. A play on the Spanish word for rice, this advert (for rice, obviously) made me laugh out loud the first few times I saw it, and I still haven’t got bored of it. The song (which can be heard being sung and hummed all over Buenos Aires) goes “Hoy hice arroz. Lo hice para vos. Yo soy Diana Arroz.” (Today I made rice. I made it for you. I am Diana Arroz.)

I went to Uruguay on Saturday. It’s winter but it’s a nice sunny winter, so why not? If you’ve never been to Buenos Aires you wouldn’t necessarily know it, but it’s a mere 60km across the River Plate (widest river mouth in the world fact fans) from the Buquebus ferry terminal to Colonia de Sacramento, the jewel in Uruguay’s colonial crown.
Colonia is a nice little place, with the emphasis on little, 3 hours easy strolling and you’ve done it. I’ve been before and I’ll go again. In fact this time, I had to go and I’ll need to go again. Colonia you see, has a secret.

A tree, Colonia

When you arrive in Argentina as a tourist and if you’re paying attention you’ll notice the stamp that you get in your passport says Turista 90 Dias. As a tourist I would be just be a little bit excited about getting a stamp in my passport and would play very little attention to the length of time given. However, when you’re actually living (and working) here you have to pay closer attention otherwise you’ll be getting a nice fine when you try to leave, and maybe they won’t let you back in.

Colonia’s dirty secret is that every boat that leaves Buenos Aires for Uruguay has at least five long-term “tourists” on board who need to get a fresh 3 month stamp in their passport. And they’ll get one. Argentinian immigration officers must be aware of what is going on, but they just don’t even bat an eyelid and just stamp you in.  Now that I’m working I have the possibility of getting residency through work, but to be honestly, having seen the hoops I’m going to have to jump through and the money I’m going to have to spend, it’s going to be easier just to jump on a ferry once every 90 days..

Traffic on Avenida 9 de Julio, Buenos Aires. Flickr photo by alex-s

The driving in Buenos Aires is not the worst in South America, but that’s not saying much. When I first came here from Europe travelling in a bus or taxi was one of the most terrifying (or exhilarating if you’ve had a bit to drink) experiences of my life. Traffic in London seems bad when you come from Dorset, then you drive in Paris and things back home seem tame. Go from Paris to Milan or Madrid and things start to get a bit more lively. Then you arrive in Buenos Aires and nothing you’ve seen or known before applies.

When I got back here from Colombia it actually seemed tame here compared to Bogota, but nonetheless things are hectic and I am constantly amazed that more serious accidents don’t occur. Simple things here have always puzzled me like why nobody takes the blindest bit of notice of the lanes. There may be 4 painted on the road but there will be 6 cars lined up as you cross. Indicators have no link to reality. Ever. In fact it is not uncommon to see cars or driving along indicating right for 2 blocks, then the indicator stops and the car goes left.

Last week any puzzlement I may have had about why these basics are ignored was finally cleared up. Talking to some colleagues from Argentina and Holland, we were discussing the process in each country to get a driving licence. Myself and the Dutch guy talked about 15 hour long driving lessons, 30 minutes one-on-one driving tests, theory tests, the works. We then asked the Argentinian about the test here. “Test?” he answered,  “I turned up on my own in my car, he made me reverse into a parking space, showed me one road sign and asked me what it meant, gave me the psychological test and got me to draw a house, a person and a tree, checked my eyesight and that was it, handed me my licence and I drove off again in my car, which wasn’t even insured.”

So there you have it, nobody here drives like they know what they are doing, because in actual fact they don’t know what they are doing.

I recently posted a status update to Facebook informing the world that I had discovered my local supermarket here in Buenos Aires stocks 17 types of tinned corn, which I found to be a little excessive. A couple of my friends commented that I should buy each one and review it.

Which is exactly what I am going to do. And what’s more I will document it all at CornWars!

Some of the tins in my local supermarket

Monday 14th June was a big day, it marks my return to gainful employment for the first time since that rainy October evening back in 2008 when I walked out of the BNP Paribas offices in Geneva for the last time.

Perito Moreno, Feb 2009

It was a strange feeling then, and it is a strange feeling now and it’s got me thinking about what I’ve done in my 84 week “holiday”. There are plenty of websites out there devoted to all sorts of different types of travel; backpacking, a gap-year, the career break. These sites are filled (for the main part, there’s a lot of self-obsessed twaddle out there too) with information on where to go, how to get there, what to do when you get and, most importantly for my current state of mind, how to cope when it’s all over.

The thought has not been with me much over the last few months. Deep down I’ve always known that one day I would return to the world of work and it has held no terror for me. I think this is due to the fact that, unlike the gap-year student or the “career-breaker” I knew that this was much more than just a trip abroad. Deep down, I knew I wouldn’t be coming back to Europe a year later. Even if I did I woudn’t be returning to the life I knew before. Having made the decision to leave (I described it to someone the other day as the easiest decision I ever took – it was) I knew that whatever I would do in the future would be on my terms.

Train Cemetery, May 2009

The fact that I’ve gone back to work doesn’t scare me, nor does it bother me. Over the course of the past months I’ve come to realise that it hasn’t been the not working that was important. As strange as it might sound, I don’t think that it was the travelling either, although obviously it’s been an incredible experience.

What has been important since leaving Geneva is that, for the first time in my life, I was able to do exactly what felt right, at that particular point in time. People have often said to me that I’ve been very lucky to be able to go travelling (instead of working), and I would often reply that it wasn’t luck, anybody could do it. I still believe that to be true to an extent, but the thing is, lots of the people who tell me I’m lucky, would like to do the same but won’t. They tell themselves, and others, they can’t, but the truth is they won’t.

Doing what I did is not for everybody, and in some ways it was painful, I’m a long way from home. However, coming to South America was one of the best things I ever did in my life, for the simple reason that it was the first time I stopped listening to voices telling me I couldn’t do anything different and just went ahead and did it.

Now I’m here and I know that nothing will be the same again. Never again will I find myself in the same state of mind that lead to me leaving in the first place. Life is great, and it’s 100% on my terms.

I went for lunch with a friend a couple of days ago, we had a sandwich each, a drink and a coffee. The bill came to 128 pesos. That may not mean anything to you but had we not finished our delicious lunch, we may well have choked on it.

Everybody that has spent any length of time in Buenos Aires has stories about how expensive it has become. I first came here nearly 3 years ago when 6 of us ate (in a good but basic cafe) a main meal and dessert and had change from 100 pesos. The first thing you’re going to do is look up how much 100 pesos is. I’ll save you the bother, as of today 100 pesos is  £17.54 ($25.50 or €21.25). That makes our lunch clock in at £22.45, London prices indeed.

To put this into some sort of comparison, I went for a job interview the other day. It’s a customer-facing role for a professional company, requiring language skills and technology experience. Take home pay is 3,000 pesos a month (£526.33). If you’re sharing a decent flat and lucky enough to pay Argentinian rates (as opposed to tourist short-term rates) your rent & services will come to around half of that. This leaves you with £263 a month, that’s 10 lunches for 2. And I am, of course, one of the lucky few.

Veinte Pesos. Flickr image by Irargerich.

Whatever great economic progress the government is trumping, the fact remains that living here remains a struggle for the vast majority of the population (working full-time in a coffee shop pays about 1,200 pesos a month).

To illustrate this, there is a nice parallel to the Big Mac Index, the Ugi’s Pizza index, which tracks the cost of a plain Muzzerela pizza at resolutely working-class pizza chain, Ugi’s Pizza. In the last 10 years, it’s gone from 2 pesos to 16 (64% in real terms). If that’s just too depressing to contemplate, here are some great shots of people who just won’t be put off by a 16 peso pizza.

Eric Fischer on Flickr has published a photoset that examines the GeoTagging information in each Flickr photograph of a city and analyses the users behaviour to establish whether the photographer can be classified as a “local’ or a “tourist”. For example a tourist takes pictures of lots of different locations in a month, a local takes lots of pictures in the same area over a longer period of time. He then produces a map of the city showing who took pictures where (blue = local, red = tourist, yellow = uncertain).

Buenos Aires Locals vs. Tourists. Click for Full Size

The Buenos Aires one is interesting in that there is very little blue in there, it’s mostly big blotches of red. The “V” on its side in the middle is Congreso bottom left, Avenida de Mayo leading to Plaza de Mayo and the Diagonal skewing up and to the left towards El Obelisco. Towards the bottom the concentrations are El Caminito and La Bombonera in La Boca and the large blob in the centre towards the top is Recoleta Cemetery. Other hotspots include El Puente de la Mujer in Puerto Madryn and Plaza San Martin (north of Plaza de Mayo)

After a couple of months planning and a successful trial evening last week, we are very pleased and happy to be able to announce a new dining experience in Buenos Aires.

Real Mexican Food has finally arrived in the Argentina capital. Xochitl means homecooked food, prepared by a very capable pair of Mexican hands, you will have never tasted anything quite like it.

We can take parties of up to 8 people and are currently available Wednesday and Thursday nights. A 3 course freshly-prepared meal, costs only 60 pesos per person. For more details visit our website or drop me a line at thegringostarr [at] gmail.com

Hasta pronto!

• Only men drink alcohol, except Tia Maria which is only drunk by women
• It’s not possible to like beer and not like football
• There are only 3 things important in a women’s life: washing clothes and talking about it, cooking food using packets of processed crap for their families and having men that drink beer and watch football whistle at them in the street
• A flooded street corner is “News”. It deserves a 20 minute live segment
• Commercials that take up half the screen and have sound are to be shown during a football match.
• By law, football commentary must mention Diego Maradona every 45 seconds
• In case they forget what they are watching, it’s advisable to run a trailer for the program you are showing during that very same program
• Argentina has already won the 2010 World Cup. It’s just that the rest of the world doesn’t know it yet
• Light entertainment shows kill your soul just a little bit each time you watch them
• To be a star on Argentinian TV it’s important that you don’t actually look real

Argentine Megastar 66-year old Susana Gimenez

Chocolate Heir and Reality TV Star Ricardo Fort

Just in case you think I’m being overly harsh on Argentinian TV, I give you this, from Senorita Gimenez herself, Argentina’s biggest TV star. This show is real, and it wins prizes.

KM 4373, Ruta 40

For those of you paying attention, you will remember that I have already written about Ruta 40 from my Patagonia trip. On that occasion I travelled on it southwards from Bariloche to El Chalten, a distance of around 1,500km. It wasn’t however, my first time on the 40.

A few weeks before heading to Patagonia I’d been on a week-long roadtrip in a hired 4×4 from Buenos Aires to Argentina’s North West corner, based around the city of Salta. A lot of that trip was done on an unpaved section of Ruta 40, with a reminder every kilometre of the size of the country and the road that runs the length of it.