angusmccoll

A memorial to all those killed in the battle for the Falklin Islands. Apparently ownership of the islands is still in dispute. I thought that was well sorted!

I took another open-bus tour through Buenos Aires. This time we went through the posh upper-class areas. I will say it again, this city is visually stunning. The streets are just miles if beautiful old buildings of all sizes and shapes. Many are now posh exclusive hotels and shops. Famous designers, landscapers and architects from around the world have touched this place, mostly from Europe so the city has a very European feel. In fact they describe this place as South America’s Paris. And these architectural magicians didn’t just work with buildings. Some of the parks, train stations and even a cemetery are a product of their work. The most famous cemetery in town is the Cementario de la Recoleta located in Recoleta, the wealthiest part of town. The noted and distinguished are hurried including presidents, poets, lawyers, bankers, sporting heros and even military. Perhaps it’s most famous resident is Eva Peron.

Eva Peron’s crypt

The crypts in this cemetery are complex structures and works of art. There is no expended spared on these dead. They can accommodate entire families and when you peer in through the glass panels in the door you can see the coffins sitting there exposed. There us another level below the ground that is accessible by steps.

I went for a tour today on an open-top bus. It took us through the administrative heart of Buenos Aires, then out into the colorful poorer ares of the city where dancing and horses seem to be an important part of the culture. And soccer of course. We passed an impressive old soccer stadium from another era.

I had another disturbing experience today. I was nearly pick-pocketed on the subway. This wasn’t from some poor street kid. He was well-dressed in his early 40s I’m guessing and he tried to get his coat-covered hand into my jacket pocket. Or perhaps he just liked me a lot! When confronted he simply shrugged and jumped off the train. Unfortunately it was stopped at the time. It’s becoming a sport here ‘try and get to the end of the day without being robbed’. Ok Buenos Aires – I’m up for that. I don’t trust anyone and when ever somebody comes close I jam my hands in my pockets. In a city of 17 million people, that us a lot of pocket jamming!

There is no denying Buenos Aires is a physically beautiful city. The old buildings are ornate and majestic and everywhere. It is as if the designers and builders were trying to out-flair each other. And the buildings are beautifully maintained and treated with respect. So if you are coming to Buenos Aires for the visual splendor, you will get your fair share. If you are wanting a positive human experience as well, then you will be much luckier than I to get one.

It’s a beautiful day here in Bueno Aires. The sky is a nice blue. The city really is physically impressive and I can see what people mean when they rave about the cityscape here. Both old and new buildings are visually spectacular. The architectual flare has obviously been passed down through the generations. The builders have done their job but It is the people who fail this city. They are largely charmless. There is no warmth. The happy, helpful people don’t live here in Buenos Aires any more, if they ever did. Although the man at the postoffice was charming and helpful. It was such a pleasant surprise I wanted to kiss him…in a manly kind of way of course! It wouldn’t have been out of place – they do that here. How to Fix Buenos Aires? Fill it with Peruvians or moved it to Peru. Then you would have a magnificent city.

Me and my buff in Buenos Aires.

I’ve started wearing my ‘buff’ lately. Buffs are a stretchy head cover worn by cool out-there people…and me apparently! Since I’ve been wearing it I have been getting ‘looked at’ a lot it seems, or am I being too self conscious. I suspect they are either jealous or wondering which asylum I have escaped from. Right now, like a Bali dog, I don’t give a shit. I might even walk around naked tomorrow! Only three days to go, yahoo!

Anyway, Buenos Aires is what it is. It has the people it has whether it deserves them or not but that’s its problem. And no doubt it will continue on well passed my poisonous view of it. As mentioned previously, South Americans have their saying ‘It is South America after all’! I have my own saying for Buenos Aires. ‘It’s not South America, it’s Buenos Aires’. Of the places I have visited in South America, Buenos Aires is different – not in a good way.

It’s 7.30pm and I’m having a quiet beer at a corner cafe by myself. Friends are hard to find here, unlike other places I have been. Across the street is a pile of rubbish in big plastic bags, as they do in Buenos Aires, awaiting collection. Before it is collected a mother and son are going through it all for anything of value. They rip open the bags, which must make it hard for the official collectors. The young boy is around 10 years of age and reminds me of some beautiful kids I know back in Australia. And as he finds drink cups with straws, he drinks the dregs, going from one to the next. Far out! All around are chic cafes with well-to-do drinking and eating for the pleasure of it. I’m included. I’m heart broken and tearful. Its darkish and no one notices I think. Again my own circumstances are put in pitiless perspective.

Buenos Aires was obviously built by architects and not engineers and planners. It’s a perfect example of beauty over function. The buildings are striking and grand structures running side-by-side for miles but the streets are narrow and clogged. Traffic is more chaotic and dysfunctional than I have ever seen in all my travels. Even in Indonesia it worked much better. The city is dirty. The garbage disposal system is strange. Rubbish is placed in big plastic bags and thrown on the street side where it collects until somebody comes along and ‘sort-of’ picks it up. While the grand architecture of the city may have been built by clever people, it is now in the hands of incompetents. The police seem content to live with the crime and black marketeering. When crime comes your way, expect to be treated more of a nuisance than a victim. Everywhere I go now I feel like a target. Apparently the perpetrators of tourist crime aren’t interested in passports and will ditch them at the first opportunity. And if you are lucky, somebody may find it and notify the embassy. The lady at the embassy explained two passports had been handed in on the day before I was robbed, giving some idea of the frequency of this sort of crime.

South America is booming economically but not much is being spent on the administration of this place.

I had great expectations of Buenos Aires but so far my experience of it has been a complete disappointed. And I’m still smarting from having to pay $100 to get into the country for the privilege of being here.

I was critical of Santiago but it was a far more pleasant place to be. South Americans have a saying here ‘It is South America after all’ as if sort-of appologising for not having the advantages of better developed first-world countries. That’s fine. I didn’t come here for all that advantage, in fact the opposite, and the ‘South American’ experience has been wonderful elsewhere.

I just saw an upper-class dog on a lead do an upper-class crap in the street in front of the Australian Embassy and the upper-class owner made no attempt to clean it up. That’s not South America, that’s Buenos Aires.

I got my temporary passport this afternoon.