Liking or disliking somewhere is rather dependent on your intention for being there. I know many people that have visited Buenos Aires for a short time and absolutely loved it and I know some who have come and really not liked it. I've come to appreciate both sides of the coin. It's easy to interpret life as sheer bliss when you know you are returning to the comforts and familiarity of the place you call home. This statement kinda puts holidays and travelling into clear perspective. Are these experiences real? Sure! They are a snapshot, exposing flavour. At the start of a stay anywhere you search and rave about the things you like, which become the things you luuuurve. You notice and bemuse over the things you don't like or find annoying, which become the things you laugh at and write about in semi amusing blog entries. At the start of this adventure I saw a very funny side to BAs bothersome bits.
The length of my experience here has always been quite uncertain and therefore sometimes I'm overly conscious of a nagging worry that I might have to endure the pains of this city for periods that don't bare thinking.
You can visit Buenos Aires with your head in the clouds:
Your gob will be full of delectable ice cream, the flavours of which have been chosen from around 80 ranging from Lemon Choctastic to Cherry Bombastic. Your quarter kilo tub seemed like the best value for money and lets face it anything less seems like a waste of time.
The Helado delight washes down a steak (cut of your choice) that was cooked to perfection jugoso (juicy and bloody) by a sweaty Porteno guarding a parrilla that's cooked over a million cows in its lifetime. Your sights are etched with the cities varied architect delights laying on a wall of crisp blue sky. Your ears receive sweet tango songs oozing from various florest stands. The bustle of the city will give you a rush as some blue shirt coffee kid rushes past you in a busy microcentre calle (street), with a tray full of cortados (coffee). Here I have managed to photograph this kid and the 'out of place' event.
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| 21 Chocolate Flavours |
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| Out of Place Coffee Kid |
You buy cheap Mendoza wine from your local convenience store because you don't want to break your budget, alas, your search for a dud wine in Argentina is failing miserably.
You are never without anything to do gratis or not. The city is like an activity nest.
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San Telmo Street Art |
You can attempt to live in BA with your head in a hot noisy ambient balloon:
Despite an effort to guard your health and watch what you eat, your weight and blood pressure will rise in response to ingesting hidden sugars and salts the Argentine food industry deem necessary for many of their processed foods. A mild effort to avoid these foods becomes a somewhat larger effort, often leading to failure. Innocent products like bread and juice will have a sweetened taste to them because Argentines need it SWEETER! If it ain't azucar it's some other sweetner.
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| A good day on the subte! |
You'll walk down a calle following a rain shower and step on an unstable paving stone that see-saws and gives your clean outfit a splatted mud effect. Busy looking back you skid on a dog turd that was perfectly central on the side walk. You descend into the subte (underground) and the temperature raises about 10 degrees. At a seemingly non-rush-hour time you board a carriage and have to position your head within millimetres of someones' armpit, for the entire length of your journey. The fast pace of the microcentre hits you like a whack in the face. Individual commuters insist that their journey is more important than anyone elses. Shivalry is out and the revving of autos and motos is in. Pedestrians and vehicles vie for 'right of way'. You attempt to inhale and exhale to wash away the stress but instead take a big gulp of collectivo (bus) fumes. Desperate for some nature you travel to one of the cities parques, which always has a eye and an ear intact with the sound and sight of the ambient traffic. Zoning out is near impossible with the variety of hooting sounds: whistle hoots from collectivos, sirens from ambulences and general horns from... well... general autos.
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| Check out the 'moto' continuing forward despite the pedestrians having the right of way. |
And so, on Christmas Day I left Buenos Aires in search of peace. An overnight sleeper bus delivered me, on Boxing day, to San Carlos De Bariloche, a large town on the tip of Patagonia and the Andes. I'd forgotten what peace smelt and sounded like and then was reminded when the peace I had re discovered was interrupted by a dog barking at 5 o clock in the morning. No more atmospheric 'auto' hums, just a dog wanting some attention. It's all relative to where you are but I'll never forget los ruidos de Buenos Aires!
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| A new home with a view Parque Carihue, Lago Nahuel Huapi, San Carlos De Bariloche A hop, skip and a jump away |
