What to make of Buenos Aires? After three weeks wandering the streets, it
would be arrogant to suggest I am anywhere near having a handle on this
city. Each time I take a corner I
discover something different and often unexpected. Each street of the city is unique and has its
own character; from the architecture to the people and even the breeds of dogs
on leads. I guess that is not unlike
most cities but this is certainly a city of extremes. Magnificent old and new buildings side by
side with other woeful examples of architecture; wealth and extraordinary
levels of poverty coexisting in the same space; glistening clean beside reeking
piles of garbage hosting dead animals and who knows what; and politics that polar opposites. It is an assault on the senses not unlike
Milan or Genoa. An old city still
figuring out how to preserve the old while creating the new. It’s a city awash in people (12 million and
counting), culture, arts, fashion, food, and pretty much everything else that
one can imagine of a city with a chaotic, and sometimes violent history.
I was reminded of these extremes the
other day. I was luxuriating in the
dappled shade of a tree in the old Plaza Durango, sipping a lovely Mendoza
Sauvignon Blanc watching the antics of the hawkers and buskers, when a small
boy of about 10 years old with extraordinary patience and skill caught a
pigeon. My initial thought was ‘wow’ as I
watched him cradle that pigeon gently stroking it. Then in a blink of an eye, he snapped its
neck and ran off with a couple of other little street kids to enjoy what was their freshly
caught lunch! I was speechless for
sometime processing what my eyes had seen.
It’s amazing to me that there but for some quirk of the universe that
allowed me to be conceived where and when I was, go I. Associated with this experience, I have also
struggled with the wastage I have observed.
Buenos Aires folk love their beef.
On average, Argentinians consume around 60kg of beef a year per person. I am told that is about 1.2kg per person per week,
which if you were eating it every day is, probably an easy target. But for me, who rarely eats beef these days, it’s
beyond comprehension. However, feeling
the need to sample what others constantly babble about while almost salivating,
I ordered a tenderloin fillet last night.
I am sure I was served half a cow!
It was magnificent and it did melt in the mouth but no….I couldn’t
consume it all. So, needless to say, it
went to waste. Leftover tenderloin beef
or a dirty pigeon? Something seems out of balance.
But I guess it is all part of that
wonderful thing called cultural difference.
Travel provides such amazing nourishment for the mind and soul and it’s
these types of challenges and grappling with how you respond to those challenges,
which I am really grateful for.
So to sum up Buenos Aires: unexpected, a little ‘shady’, but incredibly
interesting Prepare to be perplexed.
Snapshot notes: English is not widely spoken at all, despite
what tourist books will tell you so learn some Spanish; pick-pockets are many
and very good at their task; Argentinians don’t like spicy food; red wine is
cheap but very good; and ‘it’s a good wife’ I am…apparently.
