hey guys, I got back from a week-long vacation in Buenos Aires about 9 days ago. truth be told, it wasn't the greatest vacation and I'm happy to be back. Buenos Aires really had it's Renaissance back in the '40s and '50s-- beautiful buildings, monuments, and statues were put up-- and in the decades following they simply maintained them, but with the economic downturn of the last few years, and rampant corruption, the city has fallen into severe disrepair. it looks like it really used to be The Paris of the South, but it is quickly sliding into becoming another Manila or Mexico City. the river that runs by Buenos Aires is the 3rd most polluted in the world, the cars are all small or old, or small and old. no S2000s, not even close. I only saw a few BMWs, a couple Mercedes' and then out of the blue a Ferrari 355 late one night next to the Hard Rock Cafe. I did see and take pictures of one of the last old-style Beetles for sale and took a bunch of pics (below)

some highlights:
the tango. omfg, what a truly beautiful and amazing dance. I seriously got a bit hot n bothered when I saw some young couples tango dancing in the street for pesos. woah.

the weather. lives up to it's name. temperature ranged from 70 degrees at night to low 80s in the day. bright and sunny, with a slight breeze most of the time. thank god for the breeze, because without it the diesel fumes from the buses would've been no fun. (I hear that the weather at other times of the year can get quite rainy and nasty.)

major disappointments:
the food. everything that the tango is, their food is not. really. I ate in a bunch of different restaurants, and across the board the food was awful. only when I went to a place that specializes in steaks did I get a good meal. Argentinian beef is quite good, but not incredible (like I had read). and I bought the most expensive cut of meat on the menu. otherwise, they deep fry a lot of things, and fail to spice their food. they rarely serve vegetables with the meals and if they do, they're boiled until practically a mush. the first meal I had on the airplane was the best meal I had all week. seriously.

the city. it has really fallen into disrepair. most symbolic was seeing Evita's monument. it was tagged with grafitti and people had scratched their names into the marble. the city didn't even bother cleaning the dirt and mud off of it. very very sad, and quite representative of the rest of the city.

 

Evita's monument

 

kinda cool to see one of the old-style Beetles for sale, with 0 kilometers.

 

the Obelisk. my hotel was very close to this well-known monument, so it was nice being able to catch a cab to anywhere in the city and not worry about getting back because all I had to do was ask the cabbie to take me to "L'Obelisko"

 

entrance foyer of the hotel where I stayed, the Central Park Kempinski. judging by the entrance, you'd think it was a 4-Star hotel. but really, the rooms were 3-Star at best. the elevator was just plain dangerous. it was antiquated with no sensor to detect if a person was in the door. I saw one lady almost get crushed and I myself had a few close calls. I even tested it by putting my arm in front of the door and it just kept pressing and would've trapped and amputated it. very scary actually, especially if there was more than 3 people on it, because the last person exiting had to watch out!

the staff was very courteous and helpful however.

 

if you have any questions about Buenos Aires, I'd be happy to answer them. however, I only spent a week there. and I don't speak Spanish... but I certainly had to learn quickly, because far fewer people speak English than I expected.

 

did you take any pics of the polluted river, i wanna see how bad it is

 

no pics of the river. not much to see, really. but the first day I went on a tour and the tour guide said that it was the 3rd most polluted in the world, that nothing lives in that river, and then went off on how Carlos Menem promised that when he was elected people would be able to swim and fish out of the river again in 1000 days. well, they're not even close to that, and the person or person's in charge of the money set aside to clean up the river are in jail for embezzling it. government officials actually being charged and imprisoned for embezzling is apparently out of the norm. it's pretty indicative of how polluted the river is when the president of the country himself said that it'd take 3 years of clean-up before the river is even safe to swim in... and that didn't happen.

 

I have to say, in speaking with the people, they all have an deep underlying bitterness at the levels of graft and corruption. it's like they know they're being robbed whenever they pay their taxes. sad.

 

I live in argentina from 1985 to 1993. This was before the whole country fall apart. I sometimes wonder how is it like to be back there again after all this years. I love argentina, I grew up in argentina, it is pretty much my childhood. when I was in argentina from age of 6 to 14, the river and the polution wasn't as bad.

It is sad to see it this way, wish to return sometime to visit.

Eddie