Observations

We have now worked our way up Los Andes and are in the last province that we'll visit before we move on to Buenos Aires and then home.  Every place that we've visited has been for the first time so we've noticed some things that seem different from home, and, in some cases, from what we remember of Buenos Aires.  With the exception of Mendoza, we have spent all of our time in fairly small centres and most of our activities have been outdoors so we've had lots of new experiences.  Besides that, after Gord's South American version of A Tale of Two Cities, I think some lighter news is in order.  So here are some things that have stood out to us:

You already know that we've been in many places where we couldn't get WI FI.  (Or, as they say in Spanish: Wee Fee).   And sometimes when we could get it, the signal was so weak that we'd time out trying to open email or a web page.  Really, they only places where we had dependable WI FI with a speed that we consider acceptable was in Bariloche, Mendoza and Salta (notably, the 3 large centres that we've visited).  I can only guess that the people here depend on texting and, as far as internet access goes, that they don't know what they are missing.

For some inexplicable reason, Axl Rose/Guns'n Roses is very popular in the places that we have visited in Argentina.  On a bus, the driver plays Axl Rose music, in a restaurant, more Axl Rose (lovely dinner music), in a shop, you guessed it, Axl Rose again.  Go figure.

The portions served in restaurants are humongous.  Most of the time, I only need half of what is served.  Sometimes less than that.  I don't know how Argentinians can pack away that much food.  To top it off, they eat dinner at 10PM.  People eat that late whether it's in a restaurant or in their home.  We've had a 10PM dinner a few times but I just can't sleep after that.  I don't think that I would ever be able to adapt to eating so much at so late in the day.  So, you'd think that wouldn't be a problem because we can just eat earlier.  Wrong!  Most restaurants don't even open until 8 PM so, as a result, we spent more time that we expected looking for places to eat dinner.  Fortunately, there are always a few places open that cater to tourists that are not Argentinian.

Sugary, carb-filled breakfasts are the norm.  In all of our hotels, breakfast consists of croisants, cakes, cookies, cereals like Sugar Frosted Flakes (called Zucaritas! - little sugars) and sweetened, liquid yoghurt.  What's with liquid yoghurt, anyway?  Oh yes, and of course there is ham and cheese (the most consistently served food of all).  In some hotels, they serve eggs but that's not often and, when they do, it's just for the gringos. 

To give you an idea of how much ham and cheese is revered here, this is a sample sandwich menu in a small cafe:
Cheese sandwich
Ham and cheese sandwich
Ham sandwich
Ham, cheese and tomato sandwich
Ham, cheese tomato and lettuce sandwich
Of course they will have other things on the menu but if they only have a selection of 5 sandwiches, you can bank on the above options.

They also throw ham and cheese into other dishes as a surprise bonus.  I ordered a mixed vegetable salad in 2 different places and they came to the table loaded with ham and cheese.  They like their steak down here (and it tastes wonderful), but they certainly seem to prefer ham and cheese.

In and round Mendoza, if you want to sell your car, you fill a 2 litre plastic pop or water bottle with water and place it on the roof of your car.  Then, you post your phone number in the window and wait for the inquiries on your car to come in.  I suppose, the bottle standing on top of your car is more noticeable than just having a For Sale sign in the window.  However, this provides a great opportunity to prank your friends.  Just put the bottle on their roof and post their number in the car window and they should have some interesting phone conversations. 

Car dealerships sell many different makes of cars.  Every car dealership has different makes, but they all have a bunch.  For example, there was a dealership across from our hotel in Salta that sold Chevy, Ford, Toyota, Mini, BMW, Audi and Volkwagen.  I presume that this means the contracts between the manufacturers and the dealerships are different between North America and South America.

In the southern parts of Patagonia, there are no recycling programs.  Now that we are used to recycling, I find it uncomfortable to throw plastic bottles, papers, and the like into the trash bin, but that's what they do so that's what we did, too.  On the other hand, El Calafate and El Chalten have banned plastic bags completely, yet, everything else is trash.

Still on the topic of waste,  I saw exactly zero public garbage bins in Patagonia and Mendoza.  (There are waste bins in the public parks in Salta).  In the national parks, there are signs that instruct you to take any trash with you when you leave the park but that seems to be the full extent of the trash collection.  In Bariloche and Mendoza, businesses and residences have a metal rack in front of their properties and garbage trucks collect the trash from them every night.  That's right.  Everyone's garbage gets picked up every night.

There are very few highway signs to tell you the distance to towns and cities and even when to slow down for a curve.  In and around San Martin de Los Andes, someone has decided that there are too many and all (every single sign that we saw) of the distance and directional signs has been used for target practice.  Not just a few bullet holes.  I mean shot to smithereens.  Now I understand the pointlessness of installing road signs. 

Argentina's economy is in dire straights again.  They devalued their currency shortly before we started this trip and that resulted in everyone losing about 25% of their incomes and savings.  People who have money to do so are buying $US at a big premium because they are afraid that their peso could be worth nothing.  We have had people volunteer to trade pesos for $US because he government will not allow them to buy any foreign currency.  Every person that we have met and talked to hates the current president and the general consensus is that she rigs the elections to stay in power.  She is wealthy and her family owns a bunch of big businesses.  As far as we can tell, everyone believes that "Queen Cristina"  is totally corrupt and driving them all into destitution.

Bariloche is famous for having fantastic chocolate so, who better than someone like me who is somewhat ambivalent about chocolate to disprove those claims?  I have failed.  The chocolate is truly fantasic.  I assume that the tradition of artesanal chocolate making came from the large contingent of Germans who settled in Bariloche but I'm not certain.  Anyway, one of the good things about leaving Bariloche is that I can't get anymore chocolate.  I'd weigh 300lbs. if I lived there.

On fashion, platform shoes are all the rage for women.  Giant, clunky 2 or 3" platform shoes.  They look like they weigh 10 lbs. each.  Very elegant.  And they come covered in glitter, sequins, fake animal skin - all kinds of hideous designs.  Proving that real people actually do dress like Lady Ga Ga.  Note: There is no evidence of this fashion trend in Salta (which is in the north west of Argentina) but we've seen it everywhere else that we've been so far.

More on women's fashions: leggings are everywhere (again, Salta is an exception).  Skin tight, all colours, all imaginable patterns and worn by women of all sizes and ages.  I mean all ages.  I admit that I can't stop staring at 75 year old, overweight, toothless women wearing brightly coloured, floral, skin tight leggings.  I wish that I'd photographed some of them to have evidence of how bizarre it is.

There have been no barbers in any of the places that we've visited so far.  Hairdressers cut both men's a women's hair but, more often, men cut their own hair.  It shows.  There are a lot of bad haircuts.  Hairdressers also don't take appointments so you show up and wait in line.  They must wash, cut and dry hair a lot faster than hairdressers in Canada, otherwise, I'd be cutting my own hair, too.

People in Buenos Aires dress up a lot so I expect to see different fashion and hair trends when we get there.

When a male/female couple walk together, commonly, the man carries the woman's handbag, usually over his shoulder, and not looking at all uncomfortable.

Argentinian Spanish varies from region to region.  I don't think in Spanish so I depend on being able to understand some key words, translate them, and then figure out the context of what is being said.  However, I rely on being able to distinguish those key words.  In Bariloche, San Martin and Mendoza, their manner of speaking is to attach every syllable in their statement together so, even though they are saying something that I should be able to understand, I have no idea what they are saying.  To make it more difficult for me, they run sentences together, too.
Then we arrive in Salta, where they speak differently again.  They don't blur the words and sentences together but they pronounce several letters and groups of letters differently from what I learned so I don't recognize words that I know when spoken Costa Rica style.  I have concluded that my Spanish is hopeless and I now open almost every conversation by asking, in Spanish, if the other person speaks English.  They seldom do and then comedy ensues. 

Overall, the people in very location have been very friendly and accommodating and don't seem fussed when we struggle with Spanish.  Many of them live very simply and seem to appreciate our business in their establishment and our interest in their country, of which they are very proud.   Although we are careful about where we go at night, we have felt safe everywhere, with the possible exception of when we were waiting in the dark and in the clouds on top of that mountain in Gord's story.   So far, so good.

Until next time.