Buenos Aires – My November 2013 Report

Buenos Aires, like everything, is changing. Some changes are welcome; some are dreaded.

The city’s program of installing bike paths is the best we’ve seen anywhere. The bike paths replace parking lanes entirely, giving bicyclists a truly dedicated and protected two-way path. And they are all over the city, bisecting it in every direction. At home, in Evanston and Chicago, bike paths are half hearted . . . a joke really; a very dangerous joke played on bicyclists by politicians who don’t have the courage to act decisively and responsibly. In Nashville, we were shocked to find “share the road” signs on the expressway (!), where the speed limit is 55. Sorry, but that is simply idiotic. I must say, BA is way ahead of the curve!

Photo above: Bike lane at the end of our block, along Julian Alvarez.

Buenos Aires has also changed the situation with trash, at least in Palermo and Villa Crespo. We haven’t yet been to any of the other barrios this time, but assume this is now prevalent everywhere. Previously, people did one of three things:

1. They would put their trash into a metal basket, well above ground, meant to keep animals from foraging (except for squirrels, because there are no squirrels here). Notice the metal basket in the photo below; next to the green Estanciera truck:

Another:

2. They would place their trash bags against the nearest tree or into the gutter along the curb.

3. In some blocks, for reasons I don’t know, they would walk to the corner and throw it into a growing pile.

Now there are one or more large bins on each block. Our neighbor cheerfully asked us to instruct our housekeeper to no longer place the trash against the tree in front of his house because the city now imposes fines for not using the new bins.

Images above and below: The new trash bins.

One outcome, it appears, is that we haven’t seen any carteneros (poor people, searching through trash for cardboard and other recyclables). We haven’t seen those on foot nor those that came around on horse and wagon. At least not so far. Although the sound of the horse clopping on the pavement was charming, the reality is that these people are desperately poor, searching for anything that can be reused or sold as scrap to make a few pesos. We often saw entire families picking through trash in the dark of night. Last night, there wasn’t a soul to be seen. UPDATE: During the three weeks that followed my initial report, we noted that there are still lots of carteneros working in the night.

Yet another outcome is that the city appears noticeably cleaner than it did in the past. Not clean … just cleaner. Some of our friends here don’t notice the change because they are here all the time, but to us, there has been improvement. And little, by little, the city is paving over the century old stones with asphalt. It makes the roads more quiet, but we lament the loss of the granite paving. In places, the paving was artfully and beautifully laid in circular patterns. Along El Salvador, comes to mind. Gone. The stones (see photo below), I have read, were brought from Europe as ballast on ships.

A year or two ago the city entirely remodeled the park at the end of the block. Now they have added a fenced dog run. That’s a welcome addition. And the city continues to install more curb cuts for the handicapped:

Unfortunately, the guy at the rear wasn’t paying attention and stopped the flow of concrete too late, leaving them with a large slug of unnecessary concrete. After this photo, they all came to stand and look at the pile of concrete and to discuss what to do about it.

As we traverse the city on our bikes we notice that new construction continues with abandon. But we don’t understand it. The government restrictions on the U.S. dollar should have stopped the real estate market in it’s tracks, and we’re told it did.  Yet we see developers tearing down buildings, helter skelter, and replacing them with new ones. Who is buying all this, we ask? Everyone shrugs. Meanwhile, boutique hotels have been closing right and left. Even the venerable Malabia House in Palermo Soho has bit the dust. In spite of that, we see new restaurants and shops that have appeared just since our last visit in April. People keep trying; plodding forward against the heavy current of a sputtering economy and against the odds. Hooray for them for trying! Suerte!

Above: Just one development that is a couple blocks from Casa Palermo. See more at the developer’s website. And that’s just one developer.

Meanwhile, the peso continues to be in trouble. :(  The official exchange rate is now around $6.11 pesos to $1 USD. The “blue rate” (read: black market rate) is around $9.80 pesos to the USD. Last April the official rate was around $5 pesos and the blue around $7.50. The rate of inflation is a mystery, but many insist it’s around 25%. Things are noticeably more costly, but still affordable for foreigners and those with dollars.

In spite of the economic woes, we observed at dinner last night that the restaurant was packed full, with people waiting for tables. The ambient noise was loud from all the talking and laughter and clicking of wine glasses. The lights were bright and there seemed to be sense of hopefulness. But the portions were smaller and we noticed some patrons sharing; something we’ve never seen before.

There is one thing that hasn’t changed. One thing that you can count on. When it rains, it pours.

-jrb  11-28-13

Made in Argentina?

One of things I love about Buenos Aires is that you come across shops like this little women's shoe store. Interesting designs at a reasonable price. ($35 USD for a pair of all leather "tennis shoes.") And when we asked if they are made in Argentina, the woman said "Yes, of course. In the back," and opened the door to the rear of the store, to show us the workshop where the shoes are made.

Where: Lineal at El Salvador 4380 in Palermo, just a few blocks from Casa Palermo.

Dining on budget?

Lunch in Buenos Aires is still a bargain (11-28-13). I had steak (bife de chorizo) with fries, a basket of breads with butter, a glass of wine and desert for 67 pesos (excluding tip). That's about $10 USD at the official exchange rate or $7.50 if you can exchange dollars at the "blue rate."

Where? Los Remanseros. Around the corner from Casa Palermo, at the corner of Medrano and Costa Rica.

p.s. the fries were perfect … crispy on the outside and like mashed potatoes inside.

Far Away and Long Ago - a book recommendation

Far Away and Long Ago is the childhood memory of naturalist William Henry Hudson. He was born (1841) in the Quilmes Partido in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, son of settlers of U.S. origin, and grew up on the pampas of Buenos Aires. The account covers the period beginning about 1845 and ending around 1860, during Hudson's formative years. The book has a bit more about birds than I care to know, but they were Hudson's love. He is an excellent writer and offers a glimpse into a fascinating period in a fascinating place. Following is an excerpt, as a sample:

One hot day in December I had been standing perfectly still for a few minutes among the dry weeds when a slight rustling sound came from near my feet, and glancing down I saw the head and neck of a large black serpent moving slowly past me. In a moment or two the flat head was lost to sight among the close-growing weeds, but the long body continued moving slowly by--so slowly that it hardly appeared to move, and as the creature must have been not less than six feet long, and probably more, it took a very long time, while I stood thrilled with terror, not daring to make the slightest movement, gazing down upon it. Although so long it was not a thick snake, and as it moved on over the white ground it had the appearance of a coal-black current flowing past me--a current not of water or other liquid but of some such element as quicksilver moving on in a rope-like stream. At last it vanished, and turning I fled from the ground, thinking that never again would I venture into or near that frightfully dangerous spot in spite of its fascination.

The Palace of Running Water

Museo del Patrimonio Histórico at the Palacio de las Aguas Corrientes (Palace of Running Water)

Av. Córdoba 1750, Buenos Aires
Museum entrance at Riobamba 750, 1st floor

Click here for photo slideshow: Palace of Running Water

Avenida Córdoba is an often used thoroughfare, so although many tourist pass by this grandiose Baroque structure, most miss this attraction because the entrance is around the corner at Riobamba 750. In addition, although residents pay their water bills on the first floor, the museum is only open Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, 9-noon.

The building construction began in 1887 and was completed in 1897. Norwegian designer Olaf Boye was responsible for the building's design; the English construction company Bateman-Parsons and Bateman took responsibility for construction. The façade is made up of over 170,000 tiles and more than 130,000 enamel bricks, as well as glazed castings of the coat of arms of the fourteen provinces and the capital, which at that time made up the Republic of Argentina . The ocher and blue-greenish terracotta glazed tiles were made by Royal Doulton and shipped in crates from Britain. Each tile was numbered, corresponding to it's exact placement on the building. Located at the highest point of the city (such as it is in this incredibly flat city), El Palacio de Aguas Corrientes was built as a disguise for what was essentially a water tower meant to provide clean, drinking water to the locals following the yellow fever epidemic of 1877.

Water was collected from the river, off the shore of Belgrano, and diverted through canals to Recoleta, where it was pumped to El Palacio. Twelve metal tanks inside stored 72 million liters of water. Today the equipment is defunct and the building serves as the headquarters of the water company Aguas Argentinas. It also is home to the waterworks museum that has hundreds of toilets collected from across the world as well as a library, drawings, antique sanitary artifacts, models and other materials on waterworks across the globe.

Prior to the construction of the distributed municipal plumbing system, water was collected and held in pools and containers in individual homes. In the mid-1800's water was literally sold in buckets to homeowners, brought from the river, full of silt. These conditions helped spread disease. Because the new water storage building was located in an area that was being populated by the city’s wealthy families and their mansions, the building was meant to complement the surrounding architecture and as a monument to what was a world class city.

An excerpt from the book "Far Away and Long Ago" by W. H. Hudson provides a clear, first hand description of the situation around 1870:

" . . . the principal and sublime stench in a city of evil smells, a populous city built on a plain without drainage and without water-supply beyond that which was sold by watermen in buckets, each bucketful containing about half a pound of red clay in solution. It is true that the best houses had _algibes,_ or cisterns, under the courtyard, where the rainwater from the flat roofs was deposited. I remember that water well: you always had one or two to half-a-dozen scarlet wrigglers, the larvae of mosquitoes, in a tumblerful, and you drank your water, quite calmly, wrigglers and all!

All this will serve to give an idea of the condition of the city of that time from the sanitary point of view, and this state of things lasted down to the 'seventies of the last century, when Buenos Ayres came to be the chief pestilential city of the globe and was obliged to call in engineers from England to do something to save the inhabitants from extinction."