Sunday in Buenos Aires

Sunday 21 st February

Breakfast of ham and cheese media luna and coffee at Tunin. Then Subte to Peru to look round the Sam Telmo market. Walking down Avenida Peru I was messily pooped on by a bird and kind woman offered me some tissues to clean up. The market was busy with lots of stalls selling all manner of stuff, lots of tourists like me taking photos and at least one pick pocket as I found when I was about to pay for the entrance to a museum on the corner of San Lorenzo and Defense. Horrible sinking feeling as I reached for my wallet and it wasn't there. Usually if I go somewhere I think might be risky I leave everything except some cash and a single credit card behind but I wasn't thinking today. A busy street market full of tourists is the ideal place for pickpockets. The guy at the museum, who spoke excellent English, was incredibly helpful and phoned the police for me and they gave me the address to make a report. Luckily it wasn't far away and a very helpful woman took all the details via a girl who acted as translator. She was there with her friend who had also had something stolen. After the police woman handed me the official police report I then had to beg her for 5 pesos to get the Subte back to the hotel where, thanks to Skype, I was able to phone all the credit and debit card organisations to stop the cards. One bank told me two unsuccessful attempts to use my credit card had already been tried. Just time to shower and change before getting a taxi to the nearby airport.

Did wonder whether my wallet was lifted by the kind woman who offered me tissues and helped clean my trousers after the bird pooped on me, but if so either she was a very opportunistic thief or she had a tame bird who she could signal to poop on passing "marks". 

San Telmo Market

San Telmo Market: Mate Mugs

San Telmo Market: You've got to pick-a-pocket or two

General impressions of Buenos Aires.

Very European, more so than Santiago. The standard of living, like most of South America I've seen so far, looks approximately European but southern or eastern European rather than North Western. Well above most of SE Asia.  Noticeable that there are people living on the street, not just single men and women but people with children. For many disabled people begging looks to be the only option. Definitely see more cripples than you would in England. I use the word "cripple" deliberately, not in a pejorative sense, but because in England and most of the "developed" world, you just don't see many people hobbling along the street with malformed legs.   

One of the things I have found interesting is that, a century or so ago, Argentina, and probably Chile too, were so successful. Buenos Aires really could compare itself to Paris, Germans were escaping poverty at home to build new lives in Patagonia  and so many Italians poured into Buenos  Aires that the local dialect is said to resemble Italian more than Spanish. Despite losing two disastrous wars, occupation and division, Germany is now the "go to" country for refugees from around the world and I can't imagine many present day Germans or Italians heading to South America for  a better life. I wonder why. 

Subte

It's quite old, the first lines dating from 1914, and runs just beneath the streets. Many stations have interesting art works on the walls. Lines A to E run from Plaza de Mayo in the centre outwards while Line H cuts across them. Line A has fairly new air-conditioned Chinese trains while Line D is definitely not air conditioned. Both have overhead electric power. There is a flat fare and you can buy multiple single use tickets for 5 pesos each at the stations. Rather like the Paris metro, musicians, vendors and performance artists all try to make a living moving from one carriage to the next.  Unlike Paris or London many of the places of interest are far from the nearest station. Apparently the bus service is good but didn't get to buy the stored value card needed to use it.