Don't cry for us Argentina!

This is the end of our adventure. We wanted to come to Argentina to see how the people live, to try and learn their language and to enjoy life as they do. We ended up living in Buenos Aires in apartments for almost four months. We also lived in the center of Bariloche for three weeks and the remaining five weeks we spent traveling around the country. We covered most regions of the country except the most southerly, Tierra Del Fuego, leaving something for our return trip.

We wanted to enjoy all of BA, having previously lived in two other barrios(neighborhoods) so we rented a wonderful two bedroom apartment in a nice quiet Palermo neighborhood near the huge parks, embassies and museums. Like any other BA neighborhood, it has the local groceries, vegetable and fruit stands, laundries, flower stands and newsstands. Our closest corner has a bank, a pasta/pizza cafe, a grocery and the Voulez Bar, a good restaurant serving morning, noon and night. There is also a policeman on duty all day long standing next to the bank.

There is a large supermarket for groceries a few blocks away and if you want they will deliver your groceries if you have a large purchase, which we didn't. The laundry will pick up and deliver. Many restaurants deliver take out, even the ice cream store.

We enjoyed the neighborhood. We visited several interesting museums: Eva Peron's, Modern Art of Latin America (MALBA), Museo Nacional de Arte Decorativo (a family mansion built in the French style in 1917). We spent time in La Boca and San Telmo, two of the oldest barrios of the city, browsing the many art, craft and antique stands, watching the tango demonstrations and listening to the street musicians. We discovered many very good restaurants within the neighborhood: Bella Italia, Celetto, Secretos. This is late fall and the people still enjoy sitting outside to eat. We had a great time one Saturday listening to the violin player during dinner at Annetta's. We recommend them all. We also had a lot of fun visiting with friends we made earlier in the year.

We have met many wonderful people here and have made some nice friendships. We can't go through the list because it would be long and we would fear leaving someone special off. We would like to thank all of the these people for making our visit so enjoyable.

Argentina, like the U.S.A., is a vast country with many beautiful places. The variety in the terrain and climate is amazing and at times shocking. The beauty of the mountains, lakes, range land, deserts and cities is something to behold. The people have the same friendly and easy going attitude across the entire country. We were welcomed everywhere we went. The people were always interested in how we perceived them and their country. They were also very interested in the U.S.A. and have high hopes for our ability to again lead the world to prosperity. These people know what real crisis is because they have lived through many over the years, and they seem to understand that they just need to keep working to make their life better. The many people that we met don't expect that what the government does will make their lives any better. They just hope it doesn't make it worse. For example, in 2000 the banks were closed for part of December and January of 2001. No one could access their money during that period. When they opened they could get their money but it was devalued by two thirds. Interest rates for mortgages run from 10%-14%. Credit card rates are double that. Life here can be very difficult.

Even though we are a long ways from the USA, in Argentina we see its influence on television, in the movies and on the dinner table. In years past everyone drank wine, a lot of it. They consumed twice as much wine per person as any other country in the world, all of their own wine, no imports. Now bottles of Coke are on the tops of many dinner tables, as well as bottled water. And the bulk wine of past days has been replaced with wine of very good quality made here in the modern wineries, many of which are now owned by French, Italian and American interests.

People talk about Buenos Aires as the "Paris of South America" but I venture to say it is the "Paris of the Americas". I don't know of any city in North America as European or Parisian as BA. The sidewalk cafes, the bistro restaurants, the clothing styles, the plazas, the boulevards and the architecture of Buenos Aires make this so. Currently the peso is 3.75 to the dollar so this exchange rate also reminds me of what traveling in Europe was like 25 or 30 years ago.

While you can never know for sure what the future will bring, we hope another visit to Argentina is in our's. So until then, "hasta luego".