Week 7: Mendoza, Cordoba and adios Argentina!

For July 14^th-July 22^nd

We left El Calafate at noon on the Tuesday the 14^th, after running all over the town looking for an ATM that actually worked, so that we could pay our hostel which only accepted cash. It would be about 46 hours before we reached Mendoza, directly to the north of El Calafate, about 3,045 km away. We first had to go further southeast to Rio Gallegos, to catch a transfer bus that would go non stop to Mendoza. The bus ride itself was pretty chill. I had my book on the Bushes, which I enjoyed reading greatly, and got through about 600 pages during the bus ride. However, just as my traveling luck goes, there was a 2 year old kid, Rodrigo, sitting in front of us for the whole trip. Sporadic wailing was common, as well as smelly diaper changes. Little Rodrigo took a liking to Isaac, who of course encouraged him, and spent a good amount of his waking hours standing on his chair looking back at us and saying ‘Hola nene’, and ‘dame dedo nene’, and trying to grab our fingers. Our bus made a lot of stops at non descript little Patagonian towns. Through Wednesday, I think I peed in about 5 different towns. There was one moment of extreme panic for me. It was evening, and we had made a 10 minute stop at some random bus station. Isaac and I both got off the bus to use the bathroom, and buy something to eat. I returned after about 5 minutes. After a few minutes, the bus started moving, and Isaac hadn’t returned. I ran to the front to tell the driver to stop the bus (in Spanish). He smirked, told me that he had a schedule to follow, and to say bye bye to my friend. After I pleaded in panic a bit more, he stopped the bus. I got out and ran all over the bus stop looking for Isaac, but couldn’t find him any where. I came back to the bus to check if for some reason he had gone to the upstairs, but he wasn’t there either. As I came down, Isaac calmly entered the bus, totally oblivious to everything that had happened. It took a while for my heart to stop racing as I contemplated what would have happened if either of us were left at a bus stop in the middle of nowhere in Argentina as our luggage lay in the bus.

There was no shortage of things to do in Mendoza, and I think it would qualify as my favourite destination in Argentina. The first day, we walked around the city. The Parque San Martin was beautiful and sprawling. Isaac got his first haircut in Spanish. Looking to find a wine appreciation class, we somehow stumbled upon a wine and cheese event at the Hyatt, which we crashed, and felt sufficiently awkward in, though the wine and cheese were great. That evening we were invited to the house of the president of the local AIESEC (for those wondering what aiesec is, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIESEC) chapter in Mendoza’s for an ‘asado’, or barbeque, where I met Colton, a Yalie doing an internship through AIESEC there, and Bruno, who I had been in touch with in the past few months to organize that internship, as well as a lot of others. Most conversation was conducted in Spanish, though at times I was lost, especially when some of them started arguing politics in rapid Spanish, which was quite discouraging.

The next day was an active one. In the morning we went horse riding, just outside the city, in the Andes. It was my first time riding, and was pretty fun. It was amazing how well trained the horses were. One tap with the foot on their side and they start walking. Another tap, and they start trotting, and one more and they gallop. Pulling the reins to the left or right means they turn, and pulling the reins back means they stop immediately. I also discovered how cliquey horses are in their social tendencies. Our guide explained to us how horses spend all their times in small groups, and feel uncomfortable with other horses. Among the five horses with us, three of them were very friendly to each other, and clearly antagonistic to the other two, who seemed intimidated by them, and didn’t like to get too close. After three hours of riding though, my body was aching a bit. Trotting was more uncomfortable than galloping, as my body was made to jump up and down while trotting. In the afternoon, we set off for a bike tour of various wineries on the outskirts of the city, and visited a chocolate factory as well. We found out that we had been charged much much more than some of our friends who did the same tour, so at the end we returned to the bikeandwine office defiantly, hoping to get our money back. We were unable to, because of the complex web of responsibilities between the hostels who promote the tours, and the company which actually organizes the tour. Nonetheless, we argued for a good amount of time, and I enjoyed myself thoroughly, being sufficiently sarcastic and rude. It isn’t very often that you can feel entitled to be that rude and not feel bad about it.

The following morning Isaac and I parted ways, as he set off to Chile by bus. I on the other hand, set off for a ski trip to Los Penitentes with Bruno, Colton and Emanual, a friend of Bruno’s. We rented all our ski equipment for about $12 per person, and somehow fit all of it in Bruno’s tiny car. I had never ski’d before, and the four hours that we had on the slopes before it got dark weren’t enough for me to come even near to mastering the art. I fell about a hundred times. Nonetheless, it was fun going whizzing down the slopes with no control whatsoever over myself, and falling and skidding in the soft snow.

After staying a third night in Mendoza, I head off for the last leg of my journey to Cordoba by myself. I was there two nights and one full day, and found out that I didn’t really enjoy traveling by myself all that much. One of the main differences was that I had a tough time making any decision, as I was always second guessing my self. For some reason I have much more confidence in general when I’m with other people. I spent the day roaming around the city center of Cordoba, which was quite beautiful. It was full of churches and grand buildings from colonial times. Unfortunately, I was there on a Monday, so all of the museums were closed. The hostel I was staying at was particularly crazy, or atleast all the other people staying at the hostel were pretty crazy. There were some people who had been traveling for the last two years, going all over the world, and others who were students like my self. I went to a play in the evening which I had found out about during the day with some Americans, and later went to a club with pretty much most of the people staying in the hostel, French, American, Canadian, German, Irish and British (it was notable that in all the hostels I stayed at, I didn’t meet even one other traveler from a developing country), as well as the owners. It was friendship day, and so entry to the club was free, which was very welcome, being at the end of my travels.

Before I left Buenos Aires on the evening of the 22^nd, I had a final day in the city. Lucas’ lovely family very kindly allowed me to stay with them, and had a wonderful dinner, and even drove me to the airport the next day. I used my last day to run some errands, returning DVDs to the embassy, meeting with my host parents one last time, and getting back a book which I had lent to Pablo, the professor who helped me out with my article research. By the end of my almost two months in Argentina though, I felt I was ready to go home and relax for a bit, having constantly been on the move for a while. I reached Palo Alto, California, where my parents are spending 6 months at Stanford, on the morning of my 20^th birthday, and have been enjoying the laziness in the 4 days since, procrastinating writing this entry, and working on my article.

Week 6: Waterfalls, Glaciers, and last few days in Buenos Aires

This is the coldest I have ever been in July. El Calafate, the small town I am currently in is at about 55 degrees south latitude, a good deal below South Africa and Australia, and just about level with the southern tip of New Zealand. The town itself is tiny, with a population of about 7000 people. I have been travelling with Isaac, a fellow Yalie who also took part in the same study abroad program as me, as Admin had to abandon our travel plans due to crazy visa issues that she’s dealing with. (apparently she resembles one of Argentina’s most wanted to an eerie extent, and argentinian immigrations services are unwilling to let her enter their country)

The reason I am in the wonderfully (that’s right, I’m bringing wonderful back) quaint town of El Calafate is that it is an hour away from the Glaciers National Park, one of the world’s natural heritage sites. El C is a town that gets most of its business from the tourism industry. Even though its low season right now (in the dead of winter), the hostel that I’m staying at is full of tourists, mostly young students. We’ve had two full days here, and have made the most use of them. Yesterday, we went on a tour of the national park, that included a 1 hour bus ride to and from the park, a short 1 hour boat ride to the south face of the glacier Perito Moreno, and then a 2 hour walk around the different balcony viewing points of the same glacier. The glacier itself is huge, with an area of more than the whole city of Buenos Aires, and towering up to 60 meters. The last time I felt as cold as I did when I was on the boat was at the Yale Harvard football game, and that was very very very cold. The day trip was a lot of fun, in a large part because our whole tour group was students. There was a Spanish girl who was travelling alone who we befriended, two Americans who were also studying in Buenos Aires, and four British guys on a gap year after school who all thought each other was hilarious, and called each other ‘ol chap.

Today we took a boat tour of all the glaciers in the region. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see the biggest one, Upsala, because the path to it was blocked by a number of large icebergs, which had broken off from the glacier, and didn’t let us get any where near it. Nevertheless, along with seeing all those awesome bigass icebergs, we saw two other glaciers. First was Viedma ( I think that’s what its called), which was an awesome sight. The glacier is surrounded by ice capped mountains on both sides, and on one side it actually extends up three quarters of the mountain. The different colours on show were spectacular. The sea was a shade of turquoise, the ice capped peaks were white, the bases of the mountains were brown and green filled with trees, and the glacier was crystal blue. Crazily enough there was also a waterfall on the opposite side of the mountain. Why some of the water decided to freeze and form a glacier, and the other decided to remain liquid and fall down the mountain side right next to the glacier, I cannot explain. We then went to see the north side of the perito Moreno glacier, which was as beautiful as the south side. The crowd on the boat tour was very different from that of the previous day, with everyone being much older, probably because it was quite a bit more expensive.

We also happen to be staying in one of the most awesome hostels I’ve been in. The view from the common room is just spectacular, as it looks out to the crystal blue lake argentina, with snow capped peaks in the distance. The hostel is full of young people, and the common room is alive with people meeting each other, reading, playing music and eating at all times. Because the touristyness of the town makes it really expensive, we decided to cook by ourselves (well Isaac did most of the cooking while I watched and gave a few words of wisdom off and on), and created a yummy pasta with chorizos, which lasted us for two dinners. We’ve been living a pretty healthy lifestyle too, waking up at about 7 in the morning to make the tours, even though the sun doesn’t rise here till about 930 am. Unfortunately we couldn’t quite get to see the sunrise today, because it was too cloudy and misty by the time we made it on to the boat. Tomorrow we head to Mendoza, the wine capital of the country, by way of a 48 hour bus ride, covering over half of Argentina’s length. I have a sort of trashy biography of the Bush family that will keep me company. Needless to say, we also stocked up well at the supermarket, with bread, jam, biscuits, and the cheapest wine we could find ($1.7). Luckily I can’t tell a good or bad wine apart, so I think I should be fine, though I plan on taking a wine appreciation lesson once I get to Mendoza.

Before flying down to EL Calafate, I divided the last week of my program (during which I didn’t have classes) between Iguazu Falls and Buenos Aires. The Iguazu Falls were of course beautiful as well. Thankfully everything wasn’t as much of a tourist trap as I found things to be in the Niagara Falls. The boat ride that took us close to the falls completely drenched us. While on the boat, we were about 10 meters away from the Braziian coast. I met an Indian lady on one of the viewing points closest to the falls, and lost ten pesos in the process, because I had bet with one of my friends that she wasn’t Indian, saying ‘of course I would be able to recognize an Indian if I saw one’. As I spoke with her in Hindi, Spanish words unconscioualy came tumbling out at random moments. I guess the second language compartment of my brain is kind of confused at the moment. Once I go home though, I need to set that right, lest my mom disowns me.
My last few days in Buenos Aires included a lot of going out and making the most I could of the city. As it happened, some muwci folk: Dianita, Lieke, Ellen and Sara, were in town for a day. We spent one whole night together, gossiping about muwci (muwci gossip never gets old), going to bars, cafes and a club. And when I say one whole night, that’s literally what I mean, from 7pm to 7am, in real porteno style. We went to a café at about 5 in the morning, and it was absolutely full with people who were putting an end to their night (Tuesday night that too) with some tea or coffee. How Argentinians manage such a life style I will never know. As Isaac puts it, ‘they’re absolutely craaaaazy’.

Having been in touching distance of the border with Brazil in the northeast, and the border with Chile in the southwest, I now have a week left of travelling before heading home.

Week 4 & 5

This post was written on Saturday, the 4th of July, in a bit of a hurry..

I am now officially done with classes in Buenos Aires. And pretty good timing too, as two days before my last day of classes, most of the universities in Buenos Aires decided to shut early for winter break because of swine flu. We thus had to have our final day presentations in the IFSA butler office, rather than our usual classrooms in the University of Buenos Aires. We even had to have our last AIESEC meeting in a park, since the universities are closed. Swine flu has suddenly become common conversation everywhere I go. The number of cases in Argentina shot up a day or two after the elections, as apparently the government had been keeping it quiet before the elections so as not to lose votes. You can see people on the bus and subway wearing face masks pretty often, despite the fact that the virus is actually small enough to go through the pores of the mask.

Now two and a half weeks of traveling in Argentina lie ahead of me. Tonight I head to the Iguazu Falls, by an 18 hour bus ride. Next week I plan on heading to El Calefate, way down south in the province of Santa Cruz, in Patagonia, which is famous for its awesome panoramic views and glaciers. I also plan on going to Mendoza, which is famous for its wine here in Argentina, and time permitting, Salta, in the north of the country.

The last week and a half haven’t been the most exciting of my time here in Buenos Aires. A good part of them was spent trying to research and write my papers for school and my article. My laptop decided to act up just when it was most inconvenient, which made it impossible to research online. Research for my article about student political activism in Argentina on the other hand did not require the internet, but more talking to people. Because of this, I had the opportunity to meet and talk to some very interesting people here. I had meetings with three different professors at UBA, as well as with a few activist students. They were all extremely generous with their time, even though they had nothing to gain from doing so. Luckily for me, they all had a lot to say on the topic as well. Over my time here, and through these interviews, I’ve come to learn that there is a tremendous mistrust and vast ideological differences between economic classes here in Argentina, or at least in Buenos Aires. I believe that it stems from the sense of entitlement that the poorer classes have, which isn’t common in most other poor countries, where the poor have given up hope for bettering their lot. Ever since Peron’s first presidency, as he put his populist rhetoric in play, and made it a point to accord workers with rights they had never before dreamed of, these classes have made it a point to demand from the government and the local elite what they feel they are being deprived of, and to point out perceived injustices. From this stems the culture of strikes, which are an every day sight here. This, in turn, has led to frustration and a feeling of being threatened by factory owners and the upper classes, which has resulted in sustained animosity.

Last Saturday I accompanied my host father as he went to cast his vote for the legislative elections in a local school. To my surprise, no long lines greeted us, probably because there are ample voting centers in the city. The volunteers at the poll station even permitted me to enter the ‘dark room’ with my host father, where he picked the leaflet of the candidate he voted for, and deposited it in a little box outside. That night we heard the results, and they were what most people expected. The party of the Kirchners, the current president and her husband, the ex president, who are of the Peronist progressive left, suffered a major loss. They lost their majority in both houses of the parliament, and will now have to negotiate and compromise with the opposition if they wish to get laws passed. The rightist Pro party expectedly won in Buenos Aires city, though with a lower percentage of votes than last time, as well as the province of Buenos Aires, which was more unexpected. Most people think that these elections have to a large extent sealed the fate of the next presidential elections in two years, with the Peronist right thought to have the best chance of coming to power. Though some people are elated at the prospect of an end to the ‘inward looking’ ‘anti modernization’ left leaning government, others curse the return of neoliberal rightist policies which historically haven’t done the country much good. As you have probably sensed, everyone here is pretty passionate about the subject, and think that their opinion is the right one (leading to much confusion for me).

Day before yesterday I set off for the Sheraton Hotel, where the Indian Embassy was hosting a ‘seminario de negocios’ or business seminar to improve business relations between Latin American and Indian firms. It seemed to be a pretty big event for those interested, with the Indian embassies from Colombia, Mexico, Brazil and Chile sending representatives. In the audience, I saw many times more Indians than I have seen in the last 5 weeks here in Buenos Aires. Though of course Indian and Latin American business relations aren’t at the forefront of most people’s minds, there seemed to be a fair amount of Indian businessmen interested in forging ahead in this previously unchartered territory. I had a number of interesting conversations with different people: diplomats and businessmen. Since interest in Latin America isn’t very common among Indians, they were very pleased to meet any one interested in the topic. Among the different people I met, some were particularly interesting. One was the young second secretary of the Indian embassy in Bogota, who was one of the few Indians to give his speech only in Spanish, and crack a few jokes too. He was originally a doctor, and specialized in forensic medicine in India, even publishing a book in the subject. After a few years he decided to learn Spanish, join the Indian Foreign Service, and give speeches about why India and Latin America should expand their trade activities. Another was a businessman with a small start up firm based in Uruguay, who is hoping to initiate agro products trade between India and Conosur countries, as he sees a lot of potential in this. He previously lived in Venezuela and Russia too. At the end of the seminar was an amazing Indian lunch, and having been starved of Indian food for so long, I ate a lot more than was good for my stomach.

In other news:

- I haven´t shaved in over two weeks, and I´ve got quite a bit of scruff going.

- I tried mate, the traditional herb drink here in Argentina a few weeks ago, and I absolutely can´t stand it.

- Since I´ve reached Buenos Aires, I´ve spent about $550.

- I tried my best not to use ´lovely´and ´wonderful´in this blog.

I’ve run out of time now, and need to rush to the bus station, so apologies for the abrupt end.