Argentina - Buenos Aires and the country side

Friday – April 27, 2007

First of all, and once again getting past the hydrocarbon pollution from flying around the planet, and the contradictions of separating my trash at home contrasted to pouring barrels of C01 into the air as I fly south for the next 15 hours, and then dealing with the culture induced paranoia of bombs in shoes, shampoo, water bottles and etc. There is something basically humiliating in being treated as a potential terrorist while at the same time understanding that terrorism exists and that it exists, in large part, because of the way the developed world, particularly the U.S., has treated the undeveloped world. On to Buenos Aires….

Buenos Aires airport has a very efficient customs, at least it does this evening, and we are met by my traveling companion, Diana’s, cousin who will ferry us from the south of town to the north where we will catch an overnight bus to La Cumbre.

As we drive across the night time Buenos Aires there is something that is very different for such a big city, 15 million population, and it is so obvious that it takes me a couple of miles before I identify it. It is dark and there are multistoried apartments and businesses on both sides of the expressway with no lighted windows! So my first conclusion is that everyone is still at work at eight o’clock in the evening but that doesn’t account for children at home and the elderly; are they all sitting around in the dark? The answer is that Argentineans are energy conscious – they turn off their lights except in the room where they are occupied. As I looked more carefully I noticed the bluish glow of the T.V. with no other sign of light in the apartment. Diana tells me that they also turn off all the pilot lights in hot water heaters except when they need hot water. Most water heaters are “demand” heaters which means only the amount of water needed is heated at the time you need it.

The city seems impervious to energy economics since street lights are ablaze throughout. Huge bill boards along the highway are also lit up advertising all of the things you could buy if your utility bill wasn’t so high.

I am an early to bed early to rise kind of guy but this is not a category recognized by Argentineans. Our arrival at 8:00pm coincides with the end of the work day and dinner is served at 10:00pm. Since we have a bus to catch we have to order takeout empanadas since no respectable restaurant opens until 9:00pm. The take out is delicious and plentiful and our time is quickly passed in a tiny two bedroom apartment that couldn’t be more than 500 square feet in size yet seems to comfortable accommodates a family of four plus cat.