Posts Tagged ‘buenosaires’

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.

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..

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!

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).

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!

OK, so two photos today and not of anyone actually tangoing either but two iconic tango places in Buenos Aires.

Carlos Gardel is to Tango what Maradona is to Football. Except more so. And he’s dead. The world’s greatest ever Tango singer, Gardel was killed in a plane crash in Medellin, Colombia in 1935. This is his tomb in La Chacarita cemetery. Recoleta may attract all the tourists, but I like La Chacarita better – it is much more attractive, with much more space and it has Gardel. What more do you need?

Keeping with tango songs, the opening line of the best-loved one is “Sur” an elegy to Lost Love set in the southern barrios of Buenos Aires. The first line namechecks the corner of Boedo & San Juan, which is now known as Esquina Homero Manzi in tribute to the song’s author and, like Gardel’s tomb has become a shrine to all things tango.

Bife de Lomo, La Brigada, Buenos Aires, 26th June 2009. Bon Apetit as they don’t say here!

Yes, yes I’ve missed you too…

Haven’t been able to write an entry for the last few weeks as I’ve been travelling round and the internet in the house is a little temperamental. I left Buenos Aires for a well deserved break after Christmas to go to the falls at Iguazu, which are said to be better than Niagara and I can disagree with that. On the Argentine / Brazilian border they’re made up of over 200 individual falls, all in the middle of a national park. The national park is all jungle and there are lizards, toucans, cayman, turtles and huge butterflies all around you. After that I spent a few days in Paraguay, staying with a friend who is there for two years with the Peace Corps. I’ve never felt more in the middle of nowhere than there, but it was all very relaxing, although the heat (42 degrees on New Year’s Eve) was a little bit too much to be honest.

A week back here, most of it spent on my bed with a cold and stomach troubles and then off to Salta, Jujuy and the Quebrada de Humahuaca in the Northwest on the Chile / Bolivia border. Only got back yesterday so I haven’t done the photos yet, but the scenery was incredible, jungle and desert on the same road. A fair bit was on gravel roads which were one hell of an experience to drive on, through amazing coloured rock formations and enormous cacti as far as the eye could see…

Back from Uruguay, only to find that the internet in the flat no longer worked. Was fixed today hence the delay in updating my exciting adventures. It was a amazing trip, if you’re not on Facebook you can see the pics here, The beaches were empty, weather amazing if a little windy and generally full of great people. The Uruguayans we met were a very relaxed yet open lot. Friendly in the way you just never seem to get in Europe. No agenda whatsoever, just happy to chat. Loved em.

Been back here since Wednesday, vaguely aware it’s Christmas in 3 days but doesn’t feel like it. It’s very hot and I haven’t heard Slade once. Although I was walking home the other night at around 5ish and saw a lady sitting on a chair outside an open hairdressers shop having her hair styled. Not something you see every day, but somehow doesn’t seem out of place here.

Got my Yellow Fever jab today, complete with very exciting certificate to show I’m disease (that one at least) free. Apparently most countries round here won’t let you in without it. Which is kind of a relief. Am going to Brazil on Friday and then Paraguay on Sunday for New Year. Will be staying with a guy I met in Uruguay and I’m told the family he lives with will kill a chicken in my honour. I’ll make sure I get a photo..

They sell beer in bottles over here, with a deposit on the bottle. Yesterday we decided to tackle this little lot stacked next to the grill, so we could buy beef and more beer.

We had to find a shop happy to take 350 empty beer bottles, which, after a lot of negotiation from Raul the Colombian, we finally did and they even let us borrow a couple of trolleys.

And after 4 hours of lugging glass about we were rewarded with 6 kilos of steak and 30 more bottles of beer. A very productive day.