Santiago, Chile

   On  December 13 we flew from Mendoza to Santiago, a short 75 minutes in the air.  You may recall we planned to take the bus all the way across Argentina and then through the Andes mountains to Valparaiso, Chile on the Pacific Ocean.  We did bus half way across the Pampas, but by the time we hit Cordoba, we were exhausted and it was very hot and so we stayed there for five days.  We chose to reboot and are glad we did.  We spent the last two days in Santiago and had some great experiences.

   The Museum of History of the Nation is in the Plaza de Armas, right across from the Cathedral. Both places are beautiful and worth a visit.  The history museum begins with the pre Colubian period and goes up through the colonial period, the expulsion of the Jesuits by Carlos (he was worried they had become too rich and powerful and could subvert his empire) and the development post the 1810 revolution, ending in 1973.  Why end in 1973 when Chile has had such remarkable economic growth and success in the last 38 years?

   In 1973 Salvador Allende, the Marxist president, was overthown by a military coup led by Augusto Pinochet.  About half of the people loved Allende and the other half preferred the military.  During the military period there were abuses of human rights and the nation was very much divided.  The curator told us that the history is too painful and recent to be treated adequately in the museum so they have decided to wait until some future date to tell the tale.  Meawhile the museum is full of furniture, painting, cannons, guns, uniforms, displays, maps and utensils from a rich history.  It is a very nice museum to visit.  But when you arrive at the final room and it ends with the shattered eye glasses of President Allende, for he committed suicide in the Presidential palace as the soldiers were coming to arrest him in 1973, it does give you an impression that the museum has already decided whose side they are planning to take when they bring the story up to date.

   Next we walked several miles to the Museum of Pablo Neruda, the Nobel Prize winning poet.  He was a good friend of President Allende, who appointed him Ambassador to France.  He also was friends with Pablo Picasso, Fernand Leger, Diego Rivera, the Mexican muralist, and all the left winged artists and intellectual crowd of the 1950s through the 1970s.  His home is fascinating, built of three structures on the hillside of the Cerro San Cristobal in the Bellavista neighborhood.  He was a collector of things and has great paintings, glasses, furniture and objects throughout the three houses.  The tourguide was excellent, and we had an English woman, a couple fro Brazil and the two of us on the tour.  We see very few Americans here, but quite a few Chinese and Japanese businessmen hard at work doing deals to obtain copper, and other industrial materials. 

   The view from our hotel, the excellent Four Points by Sheraton, is amazing. They are building a skyscraper that is 300 meters tall, nearly 1000 feet.  It is the Costanero Center.  Construction began in March 2006 and they are getting close to the top now.  With all the earthquakes in this country, their engineers have plenty of experience and are building dozens of new tall and magnificent buildings.  This is a national capital of a great nation with a fantastic future ahead of it.  It should name the "crane" as its official symbol as the sky is full of huge yellow cranes building for the future.

Cordoba, Argentina

A magical place for an evening stroll.

Our favorite hotel in Cordoba

Azur Hotel in Cordoba

We decided to change our itinerary and stay five days in Cordoba at this great hotel.

 

http://www.cntraveller.com/magazine/the-hot-list-2010/azur-real-hotel-boutique-cordoba-argentina

 

 

 

Azur Real Hotel Boutique

We had no idea the Azur Real Hotel Boutique in Cordoba was listed on the "Hot List 2010" in Conde Nast Traveller magazine. We booked this hotel on the advice of Trip Advisor.  It is lovely and the price was right. It is a boutique hotel with only 14 rooms. Here they provide all the comforts of home. I especially like their pillow menu (Menu de almohadas): Duvet, Cervical, Plumas, Soft, Firm and Latex. The message said, "To ensure your dreams are as sweet as possible, the following pillow menu is at your disposal". I decided I like this place! The location is a couple blocks from the cathedral in the city center. Two years ago an old townhouse was rennovated incorporating both traditional elements like exposed brick walls and wrought iron balconies with contemporary furnishings, glass sinks and interesting light fixtures. The roof top includes a soaking pool, gym and spa. The area is furnished with comfortable outdoor furniture situated under a canopy which makes for a lovely spot to relax and read.  We have enjoyed our stay in this hotel so much that we have decided to extend our stay and skip Mendoza, a city we know and love from previous visits. That was a tough decision. Rather than continue on our bus journey across Argentina, we are opting to fly directly to Santiago, Chile from here. We found the travel from Buenos Aires to be exhausting even though the buses are very comfortable. The distances in this vast country are huge and the buses stop frequently making the journeys even longer. 

 

Dale just finished blogging about both his reading list and reflections on the political and economic situation in Argentina and the world. I have a reading list too that looks quite different than his. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand, Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls, Water for Elephants by Sara Green, The Olive Farm by Carol Drinkwater, Shattered by Dick Francis and An Irish Country Doctor by Patrick Taylor. I had several other titles on my wish list to read recommended to me by my daughter in law but I did not realize that Amazon is not available for download in Argentina. Good thing I have the entire Sir Conen Doyle Adventures of Sherlock Holmes on my Kindle.....that will keep me occupied. Of course Dale and I can always switch Kindles.....hmm......if I am desparate!

 

Books, the economy and presidential politics

One of the best parts of any vacation is the time to relax and read some good books.  We have both spent time over the last two weeks reading on airlines, in buses driving across the Pampas, and now in this beautiful little hotel in Cordoba.  A good moment to share my thoughts on reading materials for future reference.  Warning:  Gail says this is too long and no one will read it, so feel free to skip to the end.

I have been deeply involved in litigation resulting from the economic meltdown of 2008.  Many of my clients have had their bank lines cut off or reduced and that led to all kinds of unintended consequences.  I want to understand better what exactly happened, why and how to respond to the various attempts throughout the world to fix the problems.  This has also been an election year in
Argentina (they had their own meltdown in 2000-2005, came out of it with a bang due to the rise in comodity prices, and are now slowly recovering from the 2008 recession that reduced their rate of growth.)  They did reelect their president (it's the economy stupid and the economy here is doing better than most places.) 

So I subscribed to La Nacion (Argentina's daily newspaper) last January and have tried to read a few articles on politics and the economy in Spanish every day all year long.  Good preparation for this trip.  It comes on my Kindle every morning and is inexpensive and enjoyable.

It seems to me that the main difference between our US government overspending and the Argentine version, is that we have the advantage of being able to print lots of our own dollars and other people accept them as if they are real money.  
Few countries in history have had a golden printing press.  Certainly no South American country has ever been given that luxury.  So if they print paper money, other folks just ignore it, or laugh at them and refuse to take the pesos.  If America did not have the Exhorbitant Privilege: The Rise and Fall of the Dollar and the Future of the International Monetary System by Barry , Eichengreen, we would be defaulting on our bonds right now.  Excellent book.  Buy it.

Now if you really want to be frightened, read Endgame: The End of the Debt SuperCycle and How it Changes Everything, by John Mauldin and Jonathan Tepper.  Or, Currency Wars: The Making of the Next Global Crisis by James Rickards.  These authors know what they are talking about and it does not have a happy ending. Timing is everything, so we may be lucky and have a few more years or decades before the collapse, but when it comes it will be a doosey.

I just finished Churchill by Paul Johnson, and it is a great biography. Before leaving home I read Churchill and Ghandi, and that was also a fine dual biography.  I like Johnson's even better and I really admire Churchill.  He was a great leader, we need someone like him now to get us out of this mess (although he made some major economic blunders during the 1920's that hurt Britian's economy badly for three decades until Margaret Thatcher turned around the socialist ship of state.)

Next, The Party:  The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers by Richard McGregor.  The Chinese economic model has done very well by taking all the earnings from the people and reinvesting it into infrastructure.  That will not last forever and when the people are tired of being abused by their leaders, we will all hear the explosion.

A little business history to put anti trust law into perspective is in The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America by Marc Levinson. I grew up with an Atlantic & Pacific grocery store in Seattle, most people in America today do not even recognize the brand. It would be like if 40 years from now no one recognized the name WalMart.  Who knew that the Robinson-Patman antitrust law could cause so much destruction, and not even with good economic reasons.  The antitrust law was debased and became a politcal witchhunt.  We would not have WalMart or Costco or Target or BiMart today without the pioneering cost saving work of the Hartford family.  They created the Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company which grew into the biggest grocery chain in the world, thousands of outlets, and saved the average American family ten percent every year on their food budget.  What did the Congress give them in return?  Prosecution (and conviction) and persecution for decades.  Why?  Because the populist congress, led by Wright Patman an ambitious small town Texas congressman and state legislatures wanted to save the little guy, protect the small grocer from competition.  This is beginning to sound like a theme, eg big is bad, soak the corporations, break up Microsoft and the banks, raise the taxes on millionaires and billionaires, etc, etc, etc.  The more things change, the more they remain the same.  So you better read and understand history or we will make the same stupid political decisions that got us into the soup.

  The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis is excellent and tells the secrets of the Wall Street bankers who thought 64-1 leverage with other peoples money was a good idea.  Argentina 2001-2009:  From the financial crisis to the Present by Rosanna Zaza, is a Kindle booklet that has solid data.    When Money Dies by Adam Fergusson traces the disaster of hyperinflation in Germany in the 1920's and the consequences.  Paris 1919:  Six Months That Changed the World by Margaret Macmillan, gives us the historical background for the German hyperinflation. 

  There are more books I could list, but you get the idea that things tend to repeat themselves. Economic cycles, populist movements, religious revivals, materialism, antimaterialism, socialism, antisocialism, colonialism, anti colonialism, dictators in Latin Amereica followed by dictators in Latin America,  the ebb and flow and ebb of human rights in China, and in the Arab world, and the need for freedom of speech and assembly in Moscow and Boston (the NYTimes yesterday had photos of police manhandling anti Putin protestors in Moscow and police clearing out the Occupy protesters in Boston...irony anyone) and so goes the human parade. 

There was a great parade here last night, we watched them march through the streets of Cordoba, cheering the fact that today, their Presidenta was sworn in for another four year term in office.  The demonstrators were carrying banners with photos of Evita, their last heroine and compare her to the new new thing Christina.  I watched the live speech the Presidenta made (how could I miss it, it was carried on 10 different channels live and with repeats on the news on all the other channels later).  Her one great applause line brought a standing ovation in the Congress with ten minutes of cheering and pounding and joy; the cameras panned out to the Plaza de Mayo in front of the Casa Rosada as the thousands of flag waving Peronista supporters cheered her promise.  Let me try to quote her:

"Yo NO soy la Presidenta de los corporaciones, yo soy la Presidenta de la Nacion, de los Argentinos..."  She actually sneerer when she said the word "corporaciones."

She promised to fight against the corporations, against the International Monetary Fund, against the bankers, and against Wall Street and for the people of Argentina. She promised more money and benefits for the people, economic development and jobs, jobs, jobs.  and the people cheered.  I do not think the people who invested in Argentina sovereign debt bonds will ever get paid back.

It felt like I have seen this movie before.  And we will see it again.  And meanwhile the dollar will depreciate and the cost of living will increase and people without a good education will play video games and not study hard and ask for a free lunch and the world will look for a savior. 

There is none except Him who was born in a manger.   We did go to church last night at the Church of the Good Shepard,the priest was a kindly old man with a strong voice and the beautiful old gothic church was crowded with sincere people who greeted one another with the Peace of Christ and are looking forward to a somewhat different happy ending.  Enjoy reading and also spend some time praying for the future of our world. 

Reflections on the Advent Season

December 1st we observed that Christmas decorations were nowhere to
be found in Buenos Aires or Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay. Now we
understand the reason this was so. Yesterday, December 8th was a
national holiday and all the stores were closed. It was the day of the
Virgin, a day when families and stores prepare and decorate for
Christmas. Churches held Mass. Today we see nativity scenes set up in
the churches and the stores decorated with Christmas trees, ornaments
and lights. But the commercial element of Christmas is nothing like
back home. Last week I checked my Facebook account and saw Christmas
postings everywhere with Christmas cartoons, comments about Christmas
shopping and people bragging that they had finished addressing their Christmas cards. (I can brag about
that myself this year).  We do not see this kind of intense
pre-Christmas frenzy in Argentina. It is early in the month I know,
but in America I saw Christmas lights on display before Thanksgiving.
The crazy shopping that goes on during Black Friday
makes up about 25 percent of our nation´s annual retail sales. This
modern consumer culture seems so wrong and just plain exhausting.

Last week we saw school children celebrating their last day of school
in the park. Families are picnicing together as they enjoy the warmer
temperatures. Next to the occasional Christmas decorations displayed
in store windows are lots of summer plants and flowers. People are
anxious to be outside to soak in the green grass, trees in the plazas
and parks in the city.  All this stands in contrast to the Advent
meditations of winter that I am used to in my northern tradition. I
like the idea that the spring and summertime bring nature alive...new
life. This will be the lense through which I observe, reflect, and
engage in Advent this year while in South America. The four weeks
before Christmas is meant to be spent preparing for Christmas day or
the birth of Christ. Advent will be a time for me to reflect on the
hope of Christ´s return and the peace, joy, love and new life He
offers those who believe in Him.

Cordoba, Argentina

Cordoba - World Heritage site

Cordoba, founded in 1599.  The Jesuits built a dazzling cathedral, a monastery and crypt here. Their mission was to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to educate the people. They were very successful and this city remains the higher education center of Argentina.  The city hall complex is also magnificent as are many ancient buildings surrounding it.  In 2000 UNESCO declared this entire city center as part of the "Humanity Cultural Heritage of the World."  For the men and women and children we saw worshipping in the church and praying in the surrounding areas, this is a living Christ centered space that brings us Joy and thanksgiving.  To God be the glory.

People enjoying the Rio Parana

According to our guide the Parana is over 57 kilometers wide at Rosario and is crossed by 14 bridges.  You can see the one bridge is probably over 2 kilometers from the mainland to the first island.  This is a gigantic river than flows south from Brazil and empties into the Rio Platte at Buenos Aires and then into the Atlantic.

Monumental architecture reminded us of Berlin

Rosario

Rosario is the Chicago of Argentina. It is a dynamic city with a huge port, an international grain and beef export operation and a history of mafia crime bosses. The third largest city now, over 1 million people call this home and are proud "Rosarians."  We went on a guided tour and the guide from the Pampas Tour agency was great.  He lived for 20 years in Spain, for 3 years in London and he is an English teacher.  He took us to the park and took this photo of a beautiful flower calendar that is maintained daily by a local school. During the tour he told us of all the history of this great city.  The mafia boss was actually acquainted with Al Capone. Over 50% of the population are of Italian ancestery. The national flag was designed here and they are very proud of their heritage.  There is some monumental architecture to commorate their various battles and a gigantic marble "ship of state" representing the ongoing movement of the nation.  Actually the architecture reminded us of Berlin in the 1930's and there are a number of Germans here.  The largest brewery in the country was founded by German immigrants here.

Still, there was more than a little sadness in the history and the present time is full of uncertainty.  He showed us the prison where thousands of liberals were tortured, murdered and "disappeared" during the bad years of the dictatorship in the 1970's.  He told us that the current mayor is a socialist and the city council is far far left of center.  We saw some demonstrators and when we asked, what do they want?  He said they say their welfare benefits are not big enough and they want the government to distribute cash so they can buy Christmas presents for their children.  He was very concerned for his country, the economy, the joblessness and the uncertain future.

I asked him if he thought the economy was getting better.  No he said, there is over 10% unemployment, some say as high as 20% and inflation is growing very fast, over 20% per year.  One good measurement is tourism.  He said less than 5% of the tourists here are from the US, most are from New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Europe.  His tour was over 2 1/2 hours long and he had a driver who spoke German and French.  The guide himself spoke Italian, Spanish, English and Catalan.  They were both well educated men, teachers and professional tourguides.  The total cost of the tour was 250 pesos, that is about $65 and after you subtract their gas for all that driving, I calculate that each of them earned about $10 per hour.

He told us his son has gone to Spain for additional education, but there are no jobs for him either here in Argentina or in Spain.

We are living in difficult times, everything is so uncertain.  He seemed friendly but frightened.  And the recent reelection of Christina Fernandez de Kirchner as President does not give him any more confidence. 

  The city was pretty clean, nice buildings in the main areas, a great riverfront with sandy beaches and lots of people swimming and boating.  Our hotel, the Plaza Real, was excellent and the food there was terrific and a bargain.  Lomo de bife was only 57 pesos, that is tenderloin for $14 (and they served two steaks on the plate). Of course he had to enjoy a bottle of Salentein Malbec, 98 pesos, rich and memorable wine.  It took us four hours to travel by bus from Buenos Aires to Rosario, the bus ride cost $15 each. A very nice place to visit, but there are so many time cities to visit here, we just keep coming back. 

Recoleta reprise

We have written about the cemetary in Recoleta before.  If you scroll down this blog to 2009 you will find a short history of this world famous graveyard.  The tombs are so interesting that we could not resist a return trip.  The photos are not adequate as the space is huge and the tombs are packed extremely close together.  Famous people, dictators and their wives like Evita, sports heros like Luis Firpo the boxer and race car driver Juan Manuel Fangio, successful business men, the social elite of the nation are buried in this place. Even the dictator Facundo Quiroga was buried standing up near his former rivals, men he had executed.  The history of Argentina in a two acre walled cemetary.

Walls, windows and doors in Colonia

December 6, 2011

  Before we leave for Rosario, here are a few more photos of the beautiful Colonia del Sacramento.  Founded in 1680 by the Portugese, it was highly sought and fought over by the Spainards and the original walled fortifications still stand.  The entry portal looks like it was transported from Portugal, complete with a 330 year old crest above the door.  The low buildings, made of stone, brick and with red tile roofs are in a style known as "Portugese" and are surrounded by sycamore trees. The town now survives on tourism and after the collapse of the Argentine economy in 2001 the town suffered badly.  Now the economy is doing well in Argentina and the hoards of tourists arrive with cameras every day.  We stayed overnight and there were few tourists as we walked the streets in the evening and early the next day. The fruit and wine are excellent.  A delightful town to explore.

Antique cars in Uruguay

Colonia del Sacramento

December 4-5, 2011

Today we write from Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay. It only took one short hour on the Buquebus boat to cross the Rio Plata to travel from Buenos Aires to this quaint old town that is a World Heritage site. After we settled into the beautiful Radisson hotel, we strolled through the ancient cobbled streets to the old part of town. There were inviting restaurants with outdoor seating lining the plaza and stone buildings alongside narrow streets. We chose the Santa Rita that overlooked the Rio Plata with a table set under a giant palm tree. We had the perfect spot for people and car watching. We saw several old antique cars today. You see, cars do not easily die in Uruguay. Vehicles that would be considered scrap anywhere else in the world are needed here for transportation. We learned that new cars can cost more than a house due to government import tax policies. Economic decline and government policies that include high excise taxes, customs duty, luxury taxes, supercharges for any new car purchase made it impossible for the 99% to buy a new car. So as in Cuba a car is repaired and maintained to last as long as possible. As a result there are lots of cool antique cars that have been lovingly refurbished in this little town. We even found a couple of 60-80 year old cars marking the entrance to the aquarium and a restaurant. One was parked permanently and turned into a flower planter. After a late lunch, our afternoon was spent lounging around the beautiful swimming pool and patio with Kindles in hand. Quite frankly, much as we love Buenos Aires, it has been nice to take a break from the city.

Japanese Garden

Japanese Garden

December 3, 2011
Buenos Aires has a Japanese Garden and it is lovely. It was created as a gift from the people of Japan and was expanded when the young crown prince and his wife came here for a visit.  We needed the quiet beauty of this place for we had just been crushed by the crowds of people at the bus terminal.  We walked from our hotel all the way to the Retiro Omnibus station to buy our bus tickets for the first stage of our journey across the continent.  The station is next to the train depot and the mass of humanity reminded us of Grand Central Station in New York.  It was hard to walk with so many people pushing and shoving but we finally found our bus ticket office and bought the tickets.  Then we went to the Japanese Garden for some rest and calm.  It is an oasis in a bustling metropolis.  A wonderful place of plants and trees, water, bridges, paths, sculptures and happy people. 

Tango Show

December 2, 2011  Day 4 

Last night we went to a dinner theatre tango show on Florida Street. Unfortunately, no photos were allowed during the performance. It rivaled a NY Broadway production. The musicians were outstanding. This show did not focus on the lewd moves often associated with tango. Don´t get me wrong, there was plenty of close body contact. The lifts and speed of the dancers was incredible. Somehow the women seemed to dance on air. There was a kind of ballroom quality in their presentation. Oh yes, there were speedy leg kicks and the dancers did invade each other´s space at times. These precision leg kicks required careful placement.

 Two men dressed as Gauchos gave a great series of dances, reminiscent of the days when men spent months on the Pampas, with no women and had to entertain themselves by dancing for each other after supper.  They were real athletes, acrobatic high speed: a tap dance in boots. But this show was a big time production and had a different look than the dances we saw performed two nights ago at the Café Tortoni.  There it was a smaller, intimate stage and the two dancers relied on flirtatious looks and sexy costumes in their choreography. Here a dozen highlytrained pros showed the many varieties of tango style.  The musicians, two
 violins, two bandolinos, a piano, a bass and two excellent singers, were all topnotch.  A wild, fun and fantastic evening.

 
I have always wondered how the tango made its way from the brothel to the ballroom. It took time. Initially, Argentine families of good
reputation wanted no part of this cheek to cheek dance. It took years to make its way to the middle and upper class family home. But overtime boys of these families would sneak off to the milangos looking for adventure. They learned to dance there and would then teach their sisters, cousins or female neighbors a purified version of the tango. Being a good dancer soon became a way to impress the ladies and I think that is probably still true.

The city of Buenos Aires was rebuilt between 1880 and 1930. The old Spanish city with narrow streets and one story buildings was
replaced with French architecture, wide boulevards and gorgeous parks. Argentina became one of the richest nations in the world. The wealthy families from Argentina would travel to Europe and some kept homes there. The tango was introduced to Parisian society. A tango dance craze then spread to London, Rome and New York.  Finally, the tango returned to Buenos Aires with the dancers dressed in a tuxedo. That was the version of the dance we saw last night and it was sophisticated, complicated and  interesting. Not only that, my tenderloin steak was fabulous. We got to bed at 1 AM. Our nights on the town are getting later and
later. We almost missed breakfast this morning!

Piazzolla Tango

The critics for the local newspaper write that the Piazzolla Tango show has both the best food and the best tango dancers.  The show was great and the food was memorable.  The lomo, or tenderloin, was the biggest one we ever have seen.  It was also the best one I recall ever eating.  The Argentine beef deserves to be part of the story.

Fruit stalls in Palermo Soho

Day 5  December 2, 2011
  Today we walked for miles around Palermo Soho, visited fruit stalls to check the quality of the apples, pears and cherries.

The new crop of cherries from Mendoza has arrived.  Some of the crates looked like mixed quality, color not consistent, but the size was pretty good.  The price was 25 pesos for a kilo.  At the current exchange rate of $1 US = 4.27 pesos, that is nearly $3.00 per pound, an expensive treat. The Granny Smiths looked great and there was a lot of competition from tropical fruits. It is always interesting to see how fresh fruit is displayed in different countries.  Here the stalls are very clean and decorated with flowers, baskets and dried fruit and nuts.  

We found a crafts fair at Serrano Plaza and looked at all the merchandise.  We ate a few empanadas and then walked all the way to the Plaza Italia.  Fascinating neighborhood of upscale clothing designers and shops. Gail loved the clothes and the childrens toy stores.  The attitude is counterculture and anti-establishment, but the young people are all fast paced and fashionista a la NYC.  Palermo Soho, south America with an attitude.

  Later in the day we had to move to a different hotel, the Intersur Recoleta.  It is just two blocks from the Etoile, but we only reserved four days there and that hotel was fully booked and so we are now in a brand new hotel. If Gail had been in charge of planning we would have the entire trip scheduled, booked and prepaid.  I am a more spontaneous traveller and as long as she will let me,  we will move from hotel to hotel, town to town, as the spirit moves us. Keep you posted.    

Ligure seafood restaurant

Day 4  December 1, 2011
One of our favorite restaurants in Buenos Aires is Ligure.  We found it on our first trip in 2007 and have returned every visit.  This is a city of beefeaters, and Ligure does have plenty of meat dishes, but it is really a seafood restaurant and after a few days of red meat it is nice to visit a supurb seafood restaurant.  It is on Juncal street, just a couple blocks from the San Martin plaza and an easy walk from the Marriott or the Sheraton.  The fish is fresh and well prepared but the best quality of the restaurant is the staff. 
Carlos Alberto first came to work here on August 1, 1978 as a "joven" or waiter.  He is still here and has served us in 2007 and 2009.  All of the other staff looked familier to us as we walked in today, but he came up and greeted us, a quizzical look on his face.  After we ordered and he came back to fill our glasses, he asked "Quanto tiempo en BA?"  I explained to him that we were on our third trip and that we had been to his restaurant, and have been served by him all three times.  He smiled and said we looked familiar.  A few minutes later he reappeared with a bottle of champagne and two glasses.  He welcomed us as old friends and poured the champagne.  I asked if we could take his photo and he smiled and said, "Si, como no?"
  We had a beautiful fresh trout with baby shrimp and mushrooms and a fresh green salad, it is the beginning of summer here and the vegetables are excellent.  We walked several miles back to our hotel, enjoying the sunshine and the happy people.  What a great day to photograph the architecture and the "Porteneos"  the "people of the port."  Argentina. Carlos Alberto, muchas gracias.  Nice

Street repairs and presidential elections

The traffic here is bad, millions of cars and dense blocks of mid rise buildings for miles.  A street repair is a major inconvenience for drivers.  The water system is good but every once in a while a pipe rusts, or cracks and repairs must be done.  As an old water district lawyer, I have had several interesting cases involving leaking fire hydrants and expensive repairs so I always stop and look at the crews working on these projects. 
The Argentines just had their national election in October.  The president, Christina Kirchner was reelected with a 54% vote, impressive.  She is a Peronist and is very supportive of working class people. Inflation is high, but union wages are rising fast enough to keep up with it.  Argentina is not paying its bonded indebtedness, but neither is Greece and Italy, Spain and Ireland are on the same path.  The international bond market does not appreciate her ideas, but her populist policies seem to be working at the moment and things are running smoothly (as long as the world needs the agricultural commodities Argentina produces). 
So what does that have to do with street repairs?  One of my informal measures is the number of men on the job and how many are working compared to how many are leaning on shovels or using their cellphones.  Here the ratio today was two watching and one working.  About the same as I would expect at home.  Perhaps Barack and Christina are not really that different.  Hope the US can pay our bonds off when they come due.
Just what is the proper ratio of watchers to workers?  At least the workers are smiling.

Tango dancers

Tango at the Tortoni

I love cafe con leche, empanadas and tango. They were all part of our
Buenos Aires experience today. Each day in Buenos Aires begins with a
breakfast staple....cafe con leche. It is a strong coffee mixed with
scalded milk a bit like cafe au lait. An empanada is a spanish pastry
that is made by folding dough around a meat or cheese stuffing (it
comes from the verb empanar which means to wrap in bread) My chicken
empanada today was the perfect bite to tide me over to our post tango
show dinner at 11 pm.  We are starting to get into the local rhythm of
life. Maybe it is because we are on vacation, but the people seem to
take life slower here than back home.

We viewed a tango show at the historic Cafe Tortoni (1858) in a small theatre
in the back of the coffee shop. The history of this dance is so
interesting with it´s rather seedy beginnings. I read an article today
that claimed the dance become popular because of a worker shortage in
Argentina. When the British came to build the railroads in the late
1800´s, the land owners needed cheap labor and recruited immigrant
workers. Unlike the US where entire families immigrated to begin a new
life in America, single men came to work in Argentina. They hoped to
earn enough money to return to their homelands for a better life but
most could never realize that dream. So, by the turn of the century
most of the population in Argentina were male immigrants from various
countries.  The one common language was music. Many different cultures
 and dance styles merged together and it was in the tenements where
these laborers lived that the Tango was born. Men would dance with
men. The best dancers would then compete to please the few women that
were around. An interesting theory...on the other hand, most people
think the tango was born in the brothels. Whatever the case, it is a
facinating dance to watch. The pace is fast, music lively, costumes
skimpy and the women are gorgeous. The dancers on the Dancing with the
Stars show in America will have to pick up their pace to keep up
with the professional tango dancer in Argentina. They move so fast on
stage. We did our best to capture the moment in a photo. Another fun
evening in the Paris of the South complete with great tango and a late
dinner.