I’ve completed my second visit. It’s always good to get a second look at your first impression. Basically, I like the city. I could live there. The city has a lot of beauty and is not too noisy or congested. To explain, Rome is a very noisy city with the narrow streets and all of the scooter traffic. Ho Che Minh City and Hanoi are intriguing cities but the endless scooters and (particularly in Hanoi) the air pollution are a real problem. Athens would be a challenge. Cairo is just too congested and polluted. Paris, London and Amsterdam, yes I could probably live there.
Back to Buenos Aires, I like the place. The most off-putting thing was the thefts we experienced. Other than that, I found it to be a very accommodating city with nice, gracious people. We could not have been more warmly received by the people at the school where we were working.
So, a few very random observation in no particular order:
– Nice wine menus in the restaurants. The restaurant prices are not out of line with the price in the stores. Apparently, the way the game works is that you will order a low priced wine from the list and one of two things happen. One, they are out of that wine and you have to order something else. Two, they will bring you one bottle and if you order another they are out of it and you have to order a more expensive bottle. We went through this numerous time. Yet, wine, for your buzz is actually less expensive than beer.
– Argentinians do love their beef. Anecdote: We were at a very nice restaurant when we were visiting the falls. At the next table was a middle-aged couple. They ordered a beef platter that was brought to them on something resembling a small grill. There were no garnishment such as vegetables or potatoes. They ate the whole thing. Then, the waiter brought them another one! I like beef but too much is just too much. The beef in Argentina, to my taste, is a bit tougher that what we get in the USA but it is more flavorful. I’m sure this has to do with the way the cattle are raised. I’ll bet that the beef in Argentina is more natural and healthier, if that can be said about beef.
– Architecture in Buenos Aires is a mix. The modern buildings are not particularly impressive. However, amongst all of it are some really beautiful, architecturally unique older building. I think the good outweighs the bad.
– I’ve traveled in a number of “world” cities. To my mind, in Buenos Aires there was less fluency in English than in any of the others, including Southeast Asia. I don’t know why that is. It doesn’t mean that you can’t get by because you always can. This is not to be construed as judgmental. It is a simple observation.
– Now I have to cause trouble but still; The eye candy for a heterosexual man can’t be beat in any other place I have been to. Tight, low cut tops are the norm. Cleavage rules! It’s not as if the faces are the most beautiful or the hips might be a bit wide. Nevertheless, in nice weather the women really strut their stuff. You can’t walk ten feet without seeing something eye catching. What a place!
– For Argentinians the cheek kiss is the norm. I’d never kissed a nun until I visited Argentina but now I’ve kissed a Mother Superior. We were really giving it to Percy (the Baptist minister) for having kissed a nun. The show of affection is a good thing. Nothing wrong with showing gratitude, friendship and acceptance.
– We did experience some of the poverty. The area where the school is located is not far from a shanty town. It appears that many of the residents of the shanty town are garbage collectors. The collectors go around with carts, scavage anything that is recyclable and eek out a living. Some of them have horse drawn carts. We cleaned out a storage shed at the school and put the stuff at the curb. The pickers came by and took the stuff away. In the richer, downtown areas you will see pickers going through the garbage. Along the highway going from the airport into the downtown area there is what looks to be a terrible slum. It is not a pretty advertisement for Buenos Aires.
The slum.