February 18, 2004
Argentina from A to Z
Over lunch, 
I was emailing and describing my Argentina trip for what seemed to be the tenth time. So I decided to put it up here instead.
Photos will be up soon - I developed them already but since I steadfastly refuse to succumb to the digital camera trend (go ahead, call me a Luddite) it'll take a while to scan everything in. Add to that the fact that my scanner is not installed and I'm looking to buy a new one, and it's an even longer shot that anything will be done by this weekend.
Anyway if you're interested to find out about Argentina, read on. Else, go surf somewhere else.
Word of warning, this is a REALLY LONG entry.
Argentina was a great place for a holiday and I really hope to go back in the near future to cover the places that I missed. Any takers?
Firstly: the scenery is lovely and the country is so huge that you get rainforests at one end and glaciers at the other - the diversity is staggering. And the scenery is not just picture-postcard pretty but a much more powerful desolate beauty. One of the thoughts that kept running through my mind was how similar it was to New Zealand but so much more stark and desolate. LOTR could definitely have been filmed there, and the effect would have been bleaker.
Secondly: the people are really friendly. I found that Argentines were a very smiley people, and were quite happy to chat even though we hardly spoke any Spanish and most of them hardly spoke English. They're also very family-oriented. On most of the excursions, we saw families going for vacations together. Grandparents, parents, kids, cousins, aunts and uncles - just one big happy family.
Only complaint: people there don't speak enough English! Either that or there should be better arrangements for tourists. It's a good thing I took some Spanish but I have to say my Spanish is really quite sucky.
Thirdly: the guys are HOT! For every Maradona there are three Rodrigo Santoros. (If you don't know the former you must be female and under 20; if you don't know the latter you must be male. And I know RS is Brazilian but it's just an example.)
Sadly the ladies are pretty too, so the guys are pretty much unavailable. But hey, eye candy beats eyesores any day.
Fourthly (can you say "fourthly" or is it just "fourth"?): almost everything is cheap. Since the devaluation you pretty much have a 1st-world country at 3rd-world prices. On our first day we walked around downtown and were amazed to find signs like "Hamburguesa + Papas Fritas + Bebida o Gaseosa: 2 pesos" - that translates into "Hamburger + Fries + Drink or Gassy drink: 2 pesos".
Double scoop of gelato: 2.50 pesos.
1/2 kg of gelato: 5 pesos.
Movie tickets: 5 pesos.
Tickets to the opera: starting from 3 pesos (standing room) and ending up nowhere near the ridiculous prices that the Esplanade charges.
Nice blouse from a funky-looking shop: 30 pesos.
Dinner at a nice restaurant for 9 people: 175 pesos.
Monthly rent for a house on the delta: 200 pesos.
And now for the really jaw-dropping number: 1SGD = 1.7 pesos. You do the math.
Fifthly (I've given up on the debate on whether you can add a "ly" after): Buenos Aires is one of the nicest places in the world to live in. It's like an old European capital but cheaper, cleaner, less decrepit, and more happening on the weekends. The street layout ensures that you will never ever get lost in BA - everything is laid out in a grid, with only a few roads running at diagonals. Every block is 100 metres square and the numbers basically let you know exactly where you need to go. On the weekends there's neighbourhood fairs and street markets around, there's gelaterias everywhere (yummy!), plenty of shopping malls with really nice shops, 3-hr excursions out of the city, and everywhere you look in summertime people are just hanging out, lying on the grass.
P.S.: If you're an antiques fan, head to San Telmo on Sundays, if you're a handicrafts/local crafts fan, head to Recoleta near the cemetary on weekends. At the San Telmo feria there was a really cool stall selling figurines made out of old forks and spoons. If I hadn't run of money I definitely would have bought one. Just another reason to go back :)
Even though I had many warnings about the security issues it really wasn't a problem. There are security guards posted at street corners, and some restaurants take the precaution of locking the doors (but maybe this was to keep out the street urchin that tried to get in after we left?). Guidebooks and locals warned us about taking licensed cabs and not jumping into unmarked cabs. But I feel that as long as you take the necessary care (who goes jumping into unmarked cabs anyway?!) BA is not more dangerous than any other capital city.
As for the places we visited, I think there'll be a better idea when the photos are up. We went south to Calafate (glaciers, glaciers and more glaciers. Bring sunscreen!), up north to Bariloche (Tahoe-like region - check out the Blest cerveceria i.e. brewery), north-east to Iguazu (waterfalls. HUGE waterfalls. Be prepared to get wet.) and then back down to Buenos Aires (don't forget to catch a tango show!). My favourites would be Calafate with the fresh air and quaint little town, and Buenos Aires (see point #5).
Other places that we missed but sounded interesting: Ushuaia (southern-most city in the world), Mendoza (wine country), Corrientes (for Carnaval-like atmosphere in February), Cordoba and the surrounding region around BA. Also Aconcagua for rock climbing and skiing. More reasons to go back!
Food was generally very good, but if you're a vegetarian then you'll come back really skinny. Everywhere on the menu it was meat meat and more meat. Menus were pretty standard throughout Argentina, with sandwiches, hamburgers, steak sandwiches (lomitos), pastas, pizzas and meat dishes available. Vegetables were only available as a salad. In BA there's more choice of course, and we spent our last night in BA at a Vietnamese restaurant that was quite yummy - Sudestada. Just make sure you make reservations: we blundered in but managed to get 3 seats at the bar, where the owner/bartender was really nice to us and gave us some free drinks.
On our last day I had a really good smoked salmon pasta at a pub in San Telmo.
And don't forget to eat the gelato! Yum yum. My fav combination: menta granida y frambuesa.
Shopping is pretty good in BA as well. There's lots of shopping malls (Paseo Alcorta and Gallerias Pacifica are the two we visited), and the local brands are pretty good buys. The fairs are pretty cheap too - there was a stall in the Recoleta fair that sold glass jewellry, and at first I decided to just buy one ring but after I found out that the rings were only 4 pesos I bought the entire lot. Next time I go I'll have to devote more time to shopping :)
Ok I'll stop rambling now, but just one more word of advice: the country is huge so for tourists, flying is really the best option time-wise because you really don't want to sit on a bus for 20 hours. But internal flights are expensive. And it must be that the pilots are lousy or the planes are old, because those internal flights were 5 of the most harrowing I have ever had. The three of us looked at each other with grey faces after landing (with a sideways skid) at Calafate, and on subsequent flights it wasn't much better. Either that or the weather conditions in Argentina make for turbulent flying, in which case the pilots must then be really skilled. I'm just not sure I want to stick around to find out.
Oh, and it was quite tough to make all the arrangements from here, especially for internal flights. I was lucky to have colleagues there who helped out, so muchas gracias to Marina, Verena and Jose! Any questions, put them in the comments page :)
Posted by scrabbyfoo at February 18, 2004 03:05 PM