Observations from Buenos Aires

Well, C and I are back from our trip. I'm just going to share a few general observations for now, then relate 2 stories a bit later. First, it sucks to have a cold when you are on a plane for 10 1/2 hours. I had just gotten over a cold/flu before we left and on the day we left to come back, suffered a bit of a relapse. Didn't feel too well yesterday, today a bit better.

It was obvious to us that prices had gone up in Argentina. While the exchange rate is still good for U.S travellers ($1 = 3 pesos), prices for most all goods and services had gone up since our last trip 2 years ago. Even our Argentine friends commented that they had noticed that prices had risen. The said that the government says prices have risen about 12-15%, but they say it's closer to 35-40%. Their economy is getting stronger and you can see the results in new construction, rebuilding of infrastructure, etc.

This trip, we noticed military personnel at various locations throughout Buenos Aires. We did not see that our last trip. We thought it might be because of a national holiday on Friday (perhaps military parades), but our friends said that normally the military only parades on the Argentine independence day. Our friends could not explain the presence of military in the city.

The subway workers were on strike while we were there. As it was explained to us, the government (which either owns or controls the subway) offered the workers a 16% raise. The workers wanted 24% and thus went on strike. Now, an Argentine strike is a bit different than what we are used to. What they did was for 2 days, not charge anyone for riding. They just opened the gates. For the rest of the time we were there, it was free during both morning and afternoon rush hours, but you had to pay during all other times. As it was explained to us, the average Argentine didn't understand how you reject a 16% pay raise and had the workers done what we would consider a normal strike, they would lose the support of the people. Needless to say, the subways were packed, and not just during rush hour. In the middle of the day, there were times when we were crammed in like cattle and could barely move.

It was the beginning of fall and the weather was great - low 60's and blue skies during the day, upper 40's at night. We had only 1 day (out of 9) that it was windy and thus felt cold. But it was strange to see many, many people bundled up like it was the depth of winter in Buffalo when I was walking around in a short sleeve shirt.

We noticed many more English speaking tourists this time around. Not just Americans, but British and Australians. We went to a tango show (geared to tourists) and there were folks from Israel, Japan, Russia, Canada among many others.

Guess that's all for now - in the next few days, I'll relate a couple of stories that I feel will be very enlightening concerning how America, Americans, our President and our policies are viewed by Argentines (many of whom have travelled not only to the USA, but to Europe as well).