Uruguay Part I

This morning I scheduled a ferry out of Buenos Aires for Colonia, Uruguay for about 16 of the students that are on our trip.  I have to say that this trip is HIGHLY recommended if you are going to be spending some time in Buenos Aires.  It is a great change of pace and the ride over isn't that bad.

This is the buquebus terminal that we were departing in.  

One thing that I found interesting is that the Argentine and Uruguay customs agents are all of the Argentina port so my passport was stamped by both agents one after the other.  Our ferry left about 30 minutes late, but from what I can tell... that is actually pretty routine here.

Duty Free shop and foyer in the ferry.

Live Entertainer: Singer

This woman was a pretty fantastic singer... I may just be saying that because all of her songs were in English and I knew what they were, but I was happy that she was on board.  The trip from Argentina to Colonia was 3 hours, but there were plenty of refreshments and things to do.  I purchased some fantastic things from the duty free shop.  The lady there told me that you can buy $500 US when you enter Uruguay, but only $125 on your way back to Argentina because of the difference in the customs laws.

When we arrived there was a pretty awesome island with a lighthouse, but it was pretty foggy so it was difficult to see.

We arrived in port just fine and then I rented an exceptionally awesome thing:

Thrifty Golf Cart 

This is a golf cart that I rented.  I really wanted a buggy or something a little faster, but this is all they had left.  It is amazing... you can drive them just like any other car, they have lights and other things and prevent you from having to walk ANYWHERE.  Also, there is a horn.  It keeps you dry in inclement weather and my guess is that it has already been worth the $60 I will pay.

Hostel Espanol - View from our hallway

Our hostel is pretty nice considering that is only costs $16 USD per night and we are only staying there one night.  We get a locker, towel and bar of soap... which is more than some offer.

We had a very nice lunch, which I will write about later in another edition of my favorite foods, because it was amazing!  We did some sight seeing in the barrio historico in town and then went to one of the beaches. The picture below is one of the views from atop one of the rock ledges.

Barrio Historico Beach

 When it got a little darker we went to take pictures of the lighthouse.  I have plans to go back tomorrow and try and take a tour inside and more pictures, but it looked quite majestic at night.

Another day in Uruguay tomorrow...

Ciao,

Tim

Cafe Tortoni, Comedy & La Manzana de las Luces

Yesterday after class a group of decided to go to Cafe Tortoni.  Apparently this place opened up in 1858 and has been open ever since.  The inside still looks like it could have been in 1858 and the waiters greet you in tuxes.

In reality you are paying for the history and ambiance.  The coffee wasn't spectacular and the churros were average.  The waiter was really nice and spoke some English and tried to interact with us pretty well.  If nothing else, I can say that I did it.

After the trip to Cafe Tortoni I made arrangements to eat dinner and head to a comedy show with a local and a friend.  We first met up at his apartment and I was amazed by the size of his balcony.  It was a private balcony almost as big as the whole apartment.

View from the balcony

When we arrived at the comedy show I was able to try Fernet, which is very popular here in Buenos Aires.  I believe they were giving away free samples because they are marketing a new mint flavored Fernet.  I thought it was actually pretty delicious... but I had also had about a bottle of wine before we went to the comedy show.

Fernet display with bottle.

In reality I only understood about 5% of the comedy show.  It caused me to reevaluate what I define as a "fluent" speaker of another language.  I think part of being fluent is understanding cultural context and cues along with vocabulary and syntax.  At least I was able to understand some of the body language and I'm a little sad that I didn't understand more because based on audience reaction... these guys were hilarious!

Several times throughout the show they came out in this car and performed skits.  Here's what I figured out from what I saw in the show:

Top Left:  This guy is the obvious gay one.

Top Right:  This guy really likes to make sexual movements with his hips.

Bottom Left:  This guy is passionate about whatever it is he was saying that made everyone laugh.

Driver:  This guy was wearing suspenders and could make me laugh with his facial expressions.

Today after lunch and booking my tour to Mendoza I went to La Manzana de las Luces.  I really just wanted to see the secret passageways that are underneath the building.  It is 12 pesos to enter and I tour guide gave some good information.  She spoke really quickly, but I caught a couple stories about murder and deceit.

The tunnels weren't as awesome as I was hoping, but it was a good little piece of Argentine history and for the equivalent of $2.75 USD - it was worth the 40 minutes tour.

Headed down to the tunnels...

Tomorrow I head to Uruguay for a couple of days...

Ciao,

Tim

Puppies, Pigeons & Petrol

Today we had our grammar finals which means starting next week our classes don't start until 12:30 each day.  This means today was my last day of fighting the end of the morning rush hour. (I am smiling, you just can't see it)

So this blog post includes three things that I have been meaning to talk about, but don't really fit into any blog - so I'm going to write about them here.  I don't usually use the word petrol for gasoline, but I find alliteration amusing, so you'll have to bear with me. 

The first thing I would suggest is that people that love dogs be mentally prepared when they come to Buenos Aires.  Whether we are doing our walking tours, going to class or just headed out for a bite to eat there is almost always certainly some sort of stray dog around.  I have included the following pictures of some that I have been able to snap photos of, but rest assured that there are more out there.  If you are like me... you will find a reason to want to take all of them home.

John Doe Doggie #1

John Doe Doggie #2

John Doe Doggie #3

While we were doing the architectural walking tour I saw this sign for the first time:

I immediately though to myself... yeaaah... riiiiiiight.... (drawn out for emphasis), and as I turned around I saw this cute little guy running all around the park.

John Doe Doggie #4

He was wandering around freely until some teenage kid picked him up by the gruff and tossed him at some man laying down next to a bench in the park and then walked off.

Another thing that they do here, that is similar to other large cities - they have dog walkers.  I snapped this picture of one.  It really amazes me at how well behaved the dogs are... I'm pretty sure my puppies at home would have none of this.

The next animal that comes in no short supply in Buenos Aires is pigeons.  I snapped a couple photos of how they get when someone decides feeding them is a good idea.  

Pigeon side note:  I actually saw a pigeon fly into a tree the other day and flap it's wings to maintain its balance while it ate berries off the tree limbs.  It was pretty impressive acrobatics. 

Lastly I thought I would end with a math problem to show everyone what gas prices are here.  I don't know about you, but when I travel (even within the United States) I like to check out gas prices.

$6.289 Pesos per Liter of Petrol

Stick with me until the end... or just scroll to the bottom if you trust my math skills.

$6.289 Pesos per Liter

There are 3.78541178 liters in a gallon.

$6.289 ARS Pesos x 3.78541178 = $21.81 ARS Pesos per gallon

Current exchange rate: 1USD = 4.52 ARS Peso

$21.81 / 4.52 = US Equivalent per gallon

$5.269 U.S. Dollars per Gallon of Gasoline

Ciao,

Tim

Let the city take the lead...

Today my Spanish courses were cancelled because of planned protests in the city.  Public transportation was running when I woke up so I decided to go out for the day.  This blog post is a little all over the place, because that's exactly how my day went.

I started off by leaving the house and heading South down Santa Fe.  I knew that I wanted to eat somewhere new and probably needed WIFI if I was going to have any chance of figuring out the rest of my day.  I stopped a nice little cafe and it wasn't anything special, but it was new and different.

Cafe con leche y tres medialunas.

I remembered that one of our professors recommended that we go to "barrio once" to see some of the things there and look at the shopping.  We are studying the Jewish immigrant population in Buenos Aires and Argentina in general and this was one of the first established Jewish communities.

I had a plan, paid my "cuenta" (bill) and headed on my way.  I needed to get over to the subte (subway) and so I walked down Callao to get over to Cordoba to catch the subte.  Little did I know, Buenos Aires had a little surprise for me...

Sarmiento Palace

In an early blog I wrote about going to Sarmiento's home and the school he built in the Delta, but I stumbled upon this palace in his name on my walk to the subway.  

Turns out... I also got a view of the Parish del Carmen on my walk also... and it was a beautiful day.

Parroquia del Carmen

I made it to the subway and got off on my stop near Once.  With no better plan, I just figured I would wander around and see what seemed interesting.

Plaza Miserere

I walked around the Plaza Miserere and was able to take a photo of the monument that stands there as a tribute to the first President of Argentina - Bernardino Rivadavia.

Bernardino Rivadavia - Monument

Near the Plaza Miserere I found a small area that is dedicated to missing/dead children of some sort.  To be completely honest I am not really sure what it was all saying, but I have added it to my list of things that I need to research.  I took some pictures of the memorial...

I can only assume that these shoes tied to the string are the shoes of the missing/dead.

Justice

A view of the memorial area

After walking around and looking at some of the pictures of the missing/dead children I continued my journey of finding new things...

I walked along the building above until it opened up into a shopping center and subway station.  I was immediately greeted by some of the protesters that were en route to the Plaza de Mayo for the demonstrations that were to take place.

This is the protesters as they were leaving the inside of the building - where they were drumming and setting of fireworks that sounded like gunshots.  They are carrying a large Argentine flag and were going to march the plaza.

The shopping was decent and cheap as promised by our professor.  I didn't carry a lot of pesos on me, but I believe that I will be returning to purchase some new shoes.  I found a great pair for under $40 USD.

I decided that one of the other things on my Argentine bucket list was the take one of the original subway cars that run on the A line here.  I decided to figure out how to get home from one of the stops or just transfer to my regular subway.

Original Subway Car - still in operation

I didn't have to decide which station to get off at or whether or not I was going to use the transfer because the rail line shut down at one of the stations and the workers made everyone get off the subway.  They weren't going any farther because of the demonstrations.

I arrived on the street from the subway platform to the following:

This road was basically cleared of all automotive traffic...

because these protesters had the other side of this intersection completely blocked...

and three helicopters like this were flying over the situation.

So, I started to walk in the other direction and wouldn't you know it... I got another surprise from the city.  I came across the national congressional building here in Buenos Aires.

Plaza in front of the national congressional building and the congressional building in the background on the left.

I walked around for a bit and had lunch at a nice cafe near by.  I decided to get in a taxi and go home as I watched a large police vehicle traveling the direction of the demonstrations...

Police vehicle traveling down a street in Buenos Aires littered with protest fliers.

It was an interesting day and I truly enjoyed it...

Ciao,

Tim

National Strike - Class is Cancelled

We received notification that class will be cancelled on Wednesday June 27th due to the potential risks associated with the national strike that is to occur here in Argentina.  I figured this would be a good time to relay information that I have understood up until this point.

Background
About a week ago Hugo Moyano called for a strike of fuel truckers.  President Cristina sent in military police and launched a criminal complaint over the strike.  These individuals blocked fuel depots and refineries, but then Moyano called off the strike when they were able to reach an agreement for a pay increase of 25.5% for the workers.  This may seem like a lot to workers in the United States, but the inflation here is about (depending on who you believe) 25% annually if I take the median of both the extremes I have been hearing.  The Economist has an article from February that has some interesting information and quotes inflation at about this, but I have heard statistics on the television news sources here that quote it as high as 1.8% every week.

Moyano and President Cristina

It should be noted that the President Cristina Fernandez-Kirchner has generally been seen as a supporter of unions and Moyano and Cristina were allies during her first term and his support did help her in achieving victory for her second term.

There have been many people who have questioned the motives of Moyano as political showmanship or a vendetta against Cristina and so the strike has not gained sweeping support throughout all sections of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) here.  Moyano is the Secretary General of the CGT, which is an umbrella that covers various groups.  A U.S. comparison would be like the AFL-CIO, but it's my interpretation that the CGT as a national organization has a little more influence over its member unions than the AFL-CIO in the United States.  The other large labor organization that covers mostly agricultural workers as opposed to industrial is the CTA here.

Planned Strike
Even though it appeared the Moyano received the pay increases that he was requesting for the oil workers he still called for a national strike of workers on Wednesday June 27th.  The CTA has announced that it will not be requesting that its workers participate is this strike and the leader of that union even stated in a release that one of the reasons for the lack of participation is that Moyano was against him during the 2008 farm crisis... so clearly there is history here.

We have been told that the subway and bus workers union will not be striking so it is likely that public transit will not be effected, but historically these things have a tendency to unfold the day of the protest.  In Buenos Aires, the workers may not be striking on your morning commute, but by lunch time they may join in and everything will just unexpectedly stop.  It does, however, appear that the airline workers will participate and thus flights intra/inter-country here will be effected and the university workers union (covering everyone but professors) will also be participating.

This strike will include workers throughout the city and provinces here, but it is really hard to tell how wide spread it will be.  We do know that Moyano has requested the workers organize a massive protest march to the Plaza de Mayo which is on my daily commute to class.  Local accounts have been estimating that this should take place around 2 or 3 p.m. but everyone agrees that the situation is unpredictable.

I am enrolled in the State Department's SMART traveler program and received the following official notification from them:


Security Message for U.S. Citizens - Call for National Strike
U.S. Embassy Buenos Aires, Argentina
June 26, 2012
Dear U.S. citizen,
The Argentine umbrella labor organization CGT has called for a national strike and demonstration march in the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires on Wednesday, June 27, and other labor groups are expected to join the strike.  The situation remains fluid, and the eventual dimension and details of the strike and demonstration remain uncertain at this time.
Some but not all elements of public transportation are expected to be affected, along with partial or complete work interruptions in
potentially many other sectors.
U.S. citizens are advised to exercise caution and maintain awareness of their surroundings.  As mentioned in the State Department's country specific information page for Argentina, demonstrations are common in metropolitan Buenos Aires and occur in other major cities as well.
Protesters on occasion block streets, highways, and major intersections, causing traffic jams and delaying travel. While demonstrations are
usually nonviolent, some individuals break from larger groups and sometimes seek confrontation with the police and vandalize private
property.  U.S. citizens should take common-sense precautions and avoid gatherings or any other event where crowds have congregated to protest; in this case, one can expect much of the "Microcentro" of Buenos Aires to be significantly affected.  Information about the location and other details of possible strike and/or demonstration activity is available from a variety of sources, including the local media.  Passengers on buses, trains, and the subway should also be aware that these forms of transport are sometimes interrupted by strikes or work stoppages. U.S. citizens living or traveling in Argentina are encouraged to enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP).  

We'll see how today goes and I will keep you updated on the situation,

Tim

Buenos Aires: The Paris of South America

After our Spanish classes were done today there was a coordinated walking tour through certain parts of the city with the same title as this post.  This tour explained some of the architectural influences throughout the city that were inspired by various European countries.

I am not particularly good with this type of information, but the buildings were beautiful and the information was relatively interesting.  I can't recite it all verbatim so pictures of some of my favorite buildings will have to suffice.

This building was magnificently large... and it was a single family residence.  I can't imagine one family needing this much space.

If I understood the Spanish of the tour guide correctly, this building was built in the 1930's.  It is still large by today's standards and I can only imagine how people felt looking up at it 80 years ago.

This building now is the Ministry for International Commerce.  

This is one of the interior gardens of the Ministry for International Commerce.

The two buildings above obviously have very different influences on their individual style.  They are positioned as they are pictured with the one of the left on one side of the intersection and the one of the right on the other.  It was an interesting juxtaposition.

I was a big fan of the entrance to this building.  This was at one time the U.S. Embassy.  Now it houses the Latino American Art Museum.  

Perhaps my favorite sight of the whole day though was impromptu.  As I was walking home and the sun was going down I was right by the Obelisk that sits in the middle of 9 de Julio (a large street with many, many lanes of traffic) and noticed that the sky, moon and obelisk looked amazing.

In this picture I really like the way that the sky looks and the angle of the obelisk.

I then realized from this angle you can see the moon on the top left of the obelisk and had to snap another photo.

Sometimes beauty is found when you are least expecting it...

Ciao,

Tim