Buenos Aires is a seemingly endless city. It's hard to imagine that a place so big, sprawling, and congested, can go so relatively unnoticed to the rest of the world. It's not like the city's unrecognizable. Buenos Aires will always have its famous icons; Evita Peron, Maradonna, Steak, Tango. It's just that as a whole the soul of the city seems to be an enigma to most, including me.
GETTING THERE:
Getting here is the most annoying part. First you fly to Houston, or in some cases Miami, Panama City, or Mexico City. Regardless, if you're from the east coast the first part of your trip is significant enough. The flight from Houston is obnoxious. The wait in Houston is worse (unless you like good Mexican food), and the flight to Buenos Aires can only be described as what it must feel like to be married. It's 10 hours of pure hell, spread out over what feels like an eternity.
First 2 hours, great. The movie is cool, we get some wine, there's no turbulence, and you know you have a bright future ahead of you, ie: Buenos Aires. After that it slowly goes downhill. The flight gets a little bumpier, you realize you're watching "Die Hard(er) 4", the guy in front of you reclines his chair as far as it can go, and the wine is $5 a glass.
Once you make the conscious realization of your commitment, you're uncomfortably stuck in a purgatory with such limited caviats as going to the bathroom, and blankly staring at the sparce lighs you see as you cross over the g-string that is Panama. After what seems like an eternity you realize you still have 8 hours to go. But, like most trips, once you arrive you soon forget the pains of your travels. After 20 hours of traveling and 15 hours of total flight time, we arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
THE CITY:
The city is layed out on a massive urban sprawl. It's hard to get a feel for how big it is on the first day. After you explore around a little, you really get a good sense of the enormity of the whole place. Picture New York thrown into downtown LA, with the cultural amenities of Rome or Paris, and the inherent grime and pollution of any city if its size. Oh yeah, and everyone speaks Spanish (duh).
To put things in perspective, roughly a third of the population of Argentina lives in greater Buenos Aires. Therefore, the city swells with a diverse mix of the country's inhabitants. The people, Portenos as they're called, look more European that indiginously South American. More specifically they look Italian. Even the dialect, which is lamented by many other Spanish speakers, has a distinctive Neopolitan accent to it. From what I'm told, many locals are proud of their European heritage, and relish in the notion that they're city is considered "the Paris of the south".
Portenos are arguably some of the friendliest people I've met in all of my travels. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being the friendliest (Canadians) and 10 being the rudest (French), I'd put Argentines at either 2 or 3. They make a conscious effort to be polite even if you don't speak their language well. It's part of the Argentine culture to be cordial, and politeness is expected regardless of how well someone knows you.
MAKING WAVES:
So after 2 weeks of enjoying the new, the young, and the modern Buenos Aires, we're heading to the coastal town of Mar del Plata. Though it's a little early in the season for most beach-going Argentines, we've decided that we need the sun, sand, and seashore to gain some perspective. Honestly, I'm looking forward to escaping the hustle and bustle of this booming metropolis.
Until then, "ciao!", as they say here. Wish me luck with the inevitable sunburn, and I'll give you all the fun details when I return from my late spring weekend in the southern hemisphere.
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