Buenos Aires

Argentina is a long skinny country that occupies the southeastern side of South America. From what I can tell, there are some cities in the south of Argentina and lots of pampas grass, cowboys called gauchos, and many cows. I cannot attest to any of this personally, as the only stop we made in Argentina was for two days in the city of Buenos Aires. We visited Buenos Aires on February 25 and 26 (Days 42 and 43 of the trip).

I’ve developed several of my own hypothesis about why we skipped almost all of Argentina, but these are all speculation:

• Perhaps there was nothing of particular interest to cruise passengers in the South of Argentina (that would go along with the idea of it mostly consisting of pampas, gauchos and cows).
• Perhaps starting from the Falkland Islands, we followed the most direct route by going mostly north and not veering west to reach the coast of Argentina.
• Perhaps there are regulatory, political, or logistical reasons.

Buenos Aires felt friendly to tourists, more European than many places we had been, and had an authoritarian feel.

We visited the presidential palace in Buenos Aires. One of these balconies (the second one I believe) is where Eva Perrone delivered her famous Don’t Cry for Me Argentina song. Well, not exactly. In real life it was not a song, it was a speech.

Near the presidential palace is the Plaza Del Mayo. This place is well known because it is a site of protests. One well known group of protestors are the mothers call attention to their disappeared children, who had been kidnapped and mostly killed. Later, when it was clear many of their children had been killed and would not return, the grandmothers protested. They were trying to find some of the next generation that had been secretly “adopted” by powerful members of society.

Buenos Aires is a powerful and sobering place. I tend to read more into what is not said by the guide in a place like this than what is said. I never felt like I got much of a sense of what it is really like. I am left with interest and curiosity. Perhaps a return trip would help.

In most places we visit while going around the world, the best way to buy things is with your credit card. By using the credit card, conversions of currency are done easily at a reasonable rate. This is not the case in Argentina. The Argentine currency is so weak and inflation so high that everyday people try to do all transactions they can in American dollars.

Since the official exchange rate between dollars and Argentine currency is so unfavorable, ordinary people do whatever they can to avoid official exchange of currency. They want to hold dollars, but the official exchange rate devalues the dollar. So, our guide explained that instead “everyone” uses “Blue Markets” to exchange to dollars.

Since credit cards must use the official exchange rate, our dollars using credit cards were worth about half as much as we could get while using dollars to buy things in American cash in the markets.

Our guide stated that Argentine people do all their savings in dollars. They stash American dollars in cash away in their homes. Of course, as in most of Latin America, there were lots of bars on the windows of the homes.