Argentina in Pictures

So this post was started a week or two ago, but now it seems really old.

Mendoza

A few weeks back we crossed the border from Chile to Argentina. The border is in the middle of the Andes Mountains and the border crossing was in a large warehouse building surrounded by mountains. 

Mendoza is the first big city on the Argentina side. It is known for having wide avenues, an abundance of water due to a irrigation system started before the Spanish arrived, and for being the hot spot in Argentina´s wine region. 

Unfortunately, we spent a lot of time sitting around waiting for "the money guy" who had offered to exchange our american dollars for Argentine pesos at the blue dolar rate.  

Argentina´s economy has been facing some tough times which has destabilized the currency and created inflation. To protect from inflation Argentinians exchange their pesos for dollars, however it is virtually impossible to get US dollars in Argentina because everyone wants them, so the people are willing to pay a higher rate than the government has acknowledged... basically demand sets the price around 13-14 pesos per dollar but the official rate is around 8.  So if you want your money´s worth, you go with the blue dolar rate and you wait all day for the money guy. 

We saw an interesting protest of street artists and musicians who have apparently been labeled a public nuisance.  

Below is some art from the actual art museum... 

Mendoza was nice, especially the icecream and all the green areas, but we were eager to move on to the next city and see a little more of Argentina. 

Córdoba

Cordoba is the second biggest city in Argentina so it seemed like a good place to check out.  We found an abundance of places to shop, some nice churches and a few lovely  museums (so pretty much the norm of a big city).

Buenos Aires

BA is the place to be. It´s loaded with great parks, great art, good museums, lively street performers, sweet old buildings of every style and its just a classy place. Below are pictures from our first three days. We went on two walking tours and a day journey on our own through an artsy district and a nature reserve. 

The congressional building

Evita is still all the rage

Casa Rosada (presidential office)

monument to the Mothers who prostested to find the kidnapped(adopted) children of disappeared 

massive art fair

The cemetary is almost like a mini city.

Much more later!!!

3 Chilean Cities and a Feeling of Familiarity

My travel partner (who asked to be referred to as Eduardo even though that is nothing like her name) and I spent a week in the middle part of Chile. Specifically we saw the cities of  Valparaiso (the port city), Viña del Mar (a wealthy commercial city) and Santiago(the capital). 

Valparaiso was an important port city before the opening of the Panama Canal. It is currently in a rebuilding phase and has become a sort of hipster artist city that reminded me a lot of Portland or Seattle. The city is built up on cerros (hills) many of which have short rail lines to help ease access. 

Valpo's history of decadence lives into today's posh cafés and upscale restaurants, all of which offer delicious high quality food and great service. Since entering Chile  it has been hard not to contrast it to the other South American countries and Chile always stands out as feeling more modern, more like home, or perhaps more European.  In Bolivia we couldn't get decent bread to save our lives, in Chile delicious fluffy French and Italian bread was offered by the goat load.

 Even when it comes to the very South American street dogs, Chile stands out.

In most of Chile the streets are packed with very large, very friendly and very smelly dogs. These dogs are part of Chilean culture, not quite owned by anyone but definitely fed by everyone. All of South America has stray dogs but these ones are the fattest. It is estimated that there are over a million stray dogs in Chile.  While on a tour in Santiago, we were sitting down outside of the presidential office and a stray dog came up to us greeting each person by placing his dirty paw on our legs and asking to be petted. The stray dogs of Chile follow you around and protect you(same in Argentina), they will wait for you when you stop and escort you to your next destination. We had an escort of about 6 smelly dogs on a tour in Valparaiso, they took it in shifts. 

The best part about Valparaiso specifically though is the art. The streets are basically covered in graffiti and murals, quality varies but it is lovely to behold and offers a new sensation around each corner. Even the stairs and the electrical poles are covered in art.

I have so many pictures of street art I can't post them all.

Valparaiso was definitely a lovely city to see though I feel bad for anyone who had to climb all those hills.

We only spent a little bit of time in Vina del Mar because we walked there along the coast from Valparaiso. The rather wealthy area reminded me of American suburbs. Big houses, an abundance of stores and American restaurants such as McDonalds  and TGI fridays. 

The highlight other than the walk and some french fries was the museum where we got to learn about Easter Island and Chilean wildlife. 

Also a German guy built a castle there...

Santiago is a massive sprawling city of millions and yet while there we found the city center very walkable. Familiar comforts like Starbucks beckoned but so did the thousands of Japanese restaurants (Eduardo ate sushi 3-4 times in the 3 days we were there).  Though very much a modern city, Santiago is sprinkled with little hints of the past like a fortress on a hill, and government buildings in classical styles. 

The highlight of the visit for me was the Museo de la Memoria y Los Direchos Humanos. The museum is dedicated to the Chilean history under the military junta and Pinochet.  The museum has displays thoroughly documenting human rights abuses, and the political and social life at the time. It also documents the struggle to return the country to democracy.  Moving exhibits included letters and gifts sent home from political prisoners to their families, children's drawings of life at the time, stories from torture survivors and news clips describing the attempts to organize resistance.  I really enjoyed the museum and it was a perfect compliment to the walking tour guides explanation of the events of Sept 11th 1973 when the coup occurred.  

For me growing up after these events I had never really understood the magnitude of the dictators of South America - that is until seeing the pictures, quotes and physical history of the time period on the streets and in the museum.

It was also interesting to compare the devastating time period under military rule to the modern day image of Chile as a prosperous and free nation, perhaps the most prosperous in South America.Today it is hard to imagine the types of repression faced by the population just a few decades ago, when today the educated, cultured, monied people of Chile take life in stride, freely express themselves on walls and in fashion. 

Presidential Office, site of the Military Coup of 1973

A former symbolic building of socialism, then the Junta, now a cultural art center

Modern Buildings of the financial sector (according to our guide this sector was based on Manhattan)

Art depicting the influences on modern Chilean life