Category Archives: Travel

Back To Argentina

November 25, 2008 jd

I’m starting in the middle of our journey to Argentina this time, about a new area we visited. I wrote quite a bit of about the City of Buenos Aires on our last trip to Argentina in January, February, 2008.

We arrived in Buenos Aires on November 8,2008 and our trip out of town was on November 15 to the northwest of Argentina, bordered by Bolivia to the north and Chile to the west. We arrived in the city of Salta by overnight bus. The bus we took was luxurious with seats that flatten into a bed with blankets and pillows. Provided on these buses are a snack, dinner with wine, an after dinner drink, and breakfast in the morning.

Salta is both a province and a city. The providence of Salta has an extraordinary range of landscape from puma (high desert) populated only by llamas and a few other creatures, to the cloud forest and from hill sides of pink rock where cactus thrive, to valleys irrigated by the Incas of the past to produce scarlet fields of red peppers. The irrigation system developed by the Incas are still in use.

The City of Salta is at the heart of this province in the broad Lerma Valley with a background of dark green hills. Salta was founded in 1582 and became a strong hold for the Spanish which conquered the native and Inca population.

There is an active night life and the architectural is from the colonial period. Things are much cheaper here than Buenos Aires. We spent the first few days walking to the multiple museums which contain much of the history of the area. We took a tour of the city but learned much more of the city by just going out on our own, which seems to be the case in most city bus tours that we have taken.

One of the things that we liked the most was a gondola ride to a top of a mountain to a place called Cerro San Bernardino from which you can see most of the city. The cost was ten pesos (about $3 US) and is well worth the ride. One of the nicest museums was the Museo Antropologico which contains relics from the pre-hispanic cultures of the area. It was at one time considered by the natives that to have a flatten head front and back was a sign of higher intelligence. So in order to achieve that, they tied boards to the front and back of their heads to flatten the the skull as the children grew. Several of those skulls are on display along with a well preserved mummy.

By the way, people drive here like there is no tomorrow. Cars come to intersections and it seems like whoever gets there first wins. As in most parts of Argentina, stop signs are suggestions to slow down, double yellow lines means you can pass anytime you want or to drive in either lane. Pedestrians are someone to avoid hitting but not stopping for.

John O’Dell

Travel

Last Day In Buenos Aires

February 11, 2008 jd

Our last day in Buenos Aires was Saturday February 9. My observation of the City this time from the sights of my trip here two years ago is that there are profound changes happening. Some of the changes are good, such as the majority of the stores are not locked now. When we were here two years ago, almost all restaurants and small shops were locked and you had to ring a bell to get in. There are still guards or security in a majority of the stores, but they’re not locked. You have to realize that starting in 1980 until 2001 there was huge unemployment and a large majority of people could just barely survive and as in all countries when times get bad, the crime rate goes up.

Florida Street, an upscale shopping area

Inside Galerias Pacifico located on Calle Florida, one of the most famous shopping malls in Buenos Aires, designed to recall the Galeria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan, Italy, with it’s long halls, glass cupola and several tiers of shops. The frescoes were painted by local artists.

Another change is that a lot of the stores and restaurants and shops prohibit smoking, although a large majority of people seem to smoke. Now a lot more stores are taking credit cards and there are constant ads trying to get you to get cards. Two years ago, it was hard to find a store that would take a card. People here like to deal in cash, since a national sport is to avoid taxes, which is currently on twenty one percent value added tax basis.

The bad is that there are a lot of fast food junk shops such as McDonald’s and Burger King. I counted two McDonald’s within one block and a Burger King thrown in the middle. In addition, it seems like a large majority of the people drink Coca Cola with their meals. I don’t recall seeing many overweight people last time, but now, according to the local news, sixty percent of the people are overweight and you can see it. It seems like the junk food boys are carpet bombing the world with their garbage.

The curse McDonalds & Burger King junk food

You can see a large McDonalds sign on the right, then one on the far left with a Burger King in the middle. The men in the forground is an outgrowth of the unemployment, they started making a living by collecting paper from garbage thrown away and continue to this day.

There is even a McDonalds in the Jewish District which serves kosher food, the only one in the world outside of Israel. However, if you want a big mac with cheese, which is a no-no in kosher food, all you have to do is turn around and there is another McDonalds and another one downstairs serving the super size me meals. (If you haven’t seen the movie, Super Size Me, about McDonalds, you have missed a great movie about fast foods.)

Also last time almost every woman wore high-healed shoes (despite the horrible sidewalk conditions.) In the intervening time there has been an invasion of flip-flops and now they are everywhere, women wear them with nice dresses now. Also I think it is much more informal in dress now, we saw many more shorts on women, however the tops continue to be let us say “revealing” of womanly charms, which I appreciate. And the pants are painted on in some cases.

It has been a great trip, the people are friendly and it’s easy to find a good cafe or restaurant with great food no matter where you go in the City. We stayed in the Microcentro area, which is a nice part of the City but very busy and lots of traffic. But next time we will go back to the Belgrano area where we stayed last time, a more friendly, residential neighborhood. It has a lot of clothing and other shops that have great prices because they cater to the locals, rather then the tourists.

One of the many beautiful streets in Buenos Aires

A nice area to sit, notice all of the cafes with outside sitting

Travel

La Boca Area Buenos Aires

February 6, 2008 jd

La Boca, meaning in Spanish, the mouth, is the area of Buenos Aires that Italians migrating to Buenos Aires in the 19th and 20th century settled into. The area was named La Boca because of the natural shape of the harbor formed by the River Rio Riachuelo bending and flowing into the Rio de la Plata creating what appears to be a mouth.

The area is difficult to get to using the Subte, so John and I bought a guide to the collective; the huge city bus system that criss-crosses the city. (Getting there was easy, getting back a little more difficult as we were standing on the wrong street for the return buses to our area. But here are almost no bus signs (let alone street signs), you just have to go stand where other people are standing; if they look like they are waiting for a bus!!)

The vendors have painted the area to recreate the early days of the area.

The first thing you see is the huge stadium for the Boca Juniors. And the people in the area have a fervent; most would say fanatical; identification with the team. Soccer memorabilia and T-shirts are everywhere.

Anyway, the first Italian and French immigrants built boarding houses haphazardly with metal sheeting called “conventillos”. These were decorated with whatever paint was left over on the docks, creating a mish-mash of colors on each building. The colors can be inviting, but the poorly insulated buildings can be unbearably hot in the summer and frigid in the winter. It was fine the day we were there, even though it is summer here, maybe mid-80â€™s.

On of many beautiful doors in Buenos Aires

On a Saturday (when we went) it is very busy and touristy. We saw a lot of interesting things, and spent a couple of hours in an on street cafe, enjoying the dancing and singing of a local tango troupe. Lots of little stores, artists, and street vendors we did a good bit of shopping there.

Colorful vendor area

Travel

Tigre Area Buenos Aires

February 4, 2008 jd

A train ride to the outer reaches of Buenos Aires (made a little longer than necessary because John and I didn’t know we had to switch trains in the middle until we had reached some other end destination). Then a switch to the new, obviously touristy “Tren de La Costa” Stopping at 7 or 8 little beach towns along the edge of the delta, north of Buenos Aires. Very nice real estate.

Tigre is one of the most popular weekend destinations from BA, on the banks of the lush jungly banks of the Delta of a lot of different rivers. Arriving, and avoiding the El Parque del la Costa (sort of an Argentine Disneyland/county fair combo) and the big Casino at the end of the line we walked in a discovered a very cute little town. We located a B & B to stay at (an OLD family home where the Grandmother rents 4 rooms a night to tourists) for 150 pesos (less than $50 US)

Typical treatment of many houses in area, with ornate treatment of front entries.

Walking, seeing the sites, visiting cafes and of course eating the great food. The next day we did some museum visits (the fantastically detailed Museo Naval, covering the origins of boat, Argentine navy merchant museum, lots of model ships, and relics from many old ships The outside display included relics of the Falklands Islands (Here called Malvinas Island) conflict with the British.

Then we were of on a 2 hour luxury cruse of a small portion of the huge delta, thousands of islands, waterways, summer homes, resorts, camping, restaurants and natural reserves. Really fantastic and relaxing. Next trip we are spending at least a week in one of these isolated resorts (I have the map, web sites and the phone numbers now!)

Looking out from the dining section of the catamaran. Great food by the way!

We passed (rapidly) through the smoky Casino and had a nice visit to the HUGE artisan and. fresh fruit fair, Puerto de Frutas. Handcraft wicker furniture and basketry (with river reeds and trees) are the specialty, and unique to the area.

Travel

Subways of Buenos Aires

February 1, 2008 jd

A great way to get around Buenos Aires is on the subway or as they call it here the Subte. There are five lines A, B, C, D and E. You can get a map of the lines at the airport showing the routes. It’s cheap, thirty two cents per ticket when you buy ten at a time.

They were built at different times, by different regimes, and each has its own personality. Even the tiles in the halls and stairwells on the way down show the differences.

The Linea A is the oldest, and least decorated, although the wooden carts are works of art in their own right.

Linea B is the newest and most comfortable cars; it is also short on decoration.

Linea C is the Linea de los Espanola, with ceramic depictions of landscapes from Spain. In the Retiro station there are three murals by Fernando Allievi: Saturday Story, the outing of a family, First Light, a bedraggeled shoeshine boy, and La Mascara (the Masks), unfortunately, the picture I took of Saturday Story came out blurred. One problem with the Cannon SD750 camera that I use, there is no anti-shake control.

La Mascara (The Masks) Notice the faces in the pictures

Linea D has more nationalistic depictions, the line opened in 1937, there are more depictions of the Spanish civil war and the Military regime then ruling Argentina.

Linea E opened in 1944, the time of the rise of Juan and Eva Peron, even more nationalistic times. Estacion San Jose has depictions of national treasures like Iguazu Falls.

A depiction of life in a small Spanish Village Segovia, with Roman influence (Line C)

Travel

Puerto Madero Buenos Aires

January 26, 2008 jd

One night this week we went for a tour of Puerto Madero with Julio Iannetta and his daughter. Julio is a brother of Albert Iannetta, one of my real estate agents. It is a beautiful, clean, new area of the city down where the old docks of Buenos Aires use to be. When the city outgrew the area the old warehouse and granaries were abandoned for a while. But recently the shells of the old buildings have been turned into apartments, lofts, offices and of course restaurants and shops. Very High Scale.

We toured the streets that are all named after famous Argentine women. There are great places to stroll, along the riverfront and around the four large diques (basins) of the former port, with many moving bridges, including this one:

This bridge which opens to let ships through, is a work of art.

In the area there are also two of the most exclusive hotels, the Faena Hotel and the Universe and the Hilton Buenos Aires. On the outside the Faena is all old brick, it used to be the Edificio El Portino (the main port building) but insideâ€¦an exclusive 83 room hotel costing from 300 to $1200 US per night. Each of the rooms has a home theatre and large totally mirrored bathrooms with a spa. When you check in, you are assigned and experience manager who takes care of all your needs while in the city. There are many treatment rooms, a huge health club area, and experiences such as polo with the pros and painting classes with a famous artist. On Friday John and I walked through the public area of the Faena â€“ a very impressive swimming pool area with a swim-up bar, beautiful dining rooms and nightclubs, the lighting was truly an art in itself.

The Faena Hotel, an architectural master piece

We also walked through the Reserva Ecological Costanera Sur, once a landfill that nature has taken back over and is now a protected area for migratory waterfowl, swans, coots, flamingos, and other little animals and reptiles.

We found a relative of Skippy (Judy’s turtle at home in California) just strolling across the path, and redirected (him/her) back toward the water.

A wondering soul in the form of a turtle

Our apartment is very centrally located within 1 1/2 blocks of one of the main Subtre (subway) lines. These are our main method of transportation around the city, although taxies are cheap and extremely readily available. It is the black glass front building you can see in this picture, just past the statue of Man of La Mancha â€“ Don Quixote and his house.

A view towards our apartment from the Av. 9 de Juilo, the widest street in the world

Travel

Back in Buenos Aires

January 21, 2008 jd

We left Bariloche Friday the 19th on a bus at three in the afternoon and arrived the next day at ten thirty. The ride is very comfortable and the seats fold down to make a bed. A hot meal is served at night and a very light breakfast in the morning.

We checked into our apartment which is right downtown and about five blocks from the Obelisco. The Obelisco is a monument to Buenos Aires and was built in 1936 in just thirty one days. It was built to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the first, but unsuccessful founding of the city in. It was later founded in 1580.

Under the Obelisco is a shopping center and underground pedestrian causeway around the center of the subtre (an underground subway) The shops are old, dating back to the 1960’s. It’s called the Paseo Obelisco, with not much for shopping, a few barber shops, cheap clothing, cafes and other little shops. Three subways or metros meet at the Paseo Obelisco.

The Oblisco on the Avenida 9 de Julio micro central Buenos Aires

Later in the night we went to a restaurant that had a tango show. Dinner, the show and a small bottle of wine was only 70 pesos or so, about 22 bucks, we could almost touch the dancers. The dancing and singing was wonderful and full of great energy. The last time I was here I had my camera pick pocketed. This time, I bought a Cannon SD750 for our trip. I really like this camera, it’s small, you can put in your pocket, out of sight, and in crowded areas, I put both hands in my pocket. I put a four gigabyte card in the camera and was able to take movies of the dancers with plenty of memory to spare.

Tango dancers at their best

Another tip, if you have a laptop, download your pictures every night, then if your camera is stolen, you still have the pictures you took. That’s what I did last time, and only lost that one days’ worth of pictures.

Then on Sunday we went to San Telmo, one of the oldest neighborhoods in Buenos Aires, it was the home of the very wealthy until the 1877 outbreak of Yellow Fever. It is the barrio most identified with the tango, also lots of shops selling antiques. On Sundays there is a huge market inside of Plaza Dorado (an entire block of stalls) and all the way up and down Calle (street) Defensa is a huge open air market. It is at least 13 blocks long, with no cars allowed, only side to side artesans selling their wares. And many of the side streets add another block or two of people selling there wares. It took us all day to complete the circuit. So that was the good part of the day, what comes next wasn’t so funny.

Judy and I were walking on down town street broad daylight, returning to the apartment when we both felt a sudden splash on our backs. It was a slightly smelly goop sort of the texture of weak concrete. Immediately, a women walking beside us came over to help clean it off. Then a man comes from the other direction, pointing up to a window he says he saw some one throw the stuff at us. While “helping” they took my wallet out, took two hundred pesos and my ATM card. Then they returned the wallet with 2 pesos left. I had been warned about more than one person coming to your aide yet missed it when it was happening. How naive we were when it was actually happening. Oh well, I hope this helps you in your travels. The card is cancelled and we are only about 60 bucks short for the lesson.

Pick pocketed!

On Monday we spent a disappointing day going from government office to government office, waiting in line, trying to get John’s official Argentine identification number and passport. After three places and much waiting, we have a fourth place to go to tomorrow morning as everything governmental closes down by 3 PM! What a life! (Of course I don’t know when they start but I really don’t think it is earlier than 8AM. They told us to be at the next office between 9 and 3 tomorrow.