My company offers “work from anywhere for 4 weeks every year” as a perk. Inspired by my son’s lavish praise of Argentina after his recent trip and as an escape from the winter weeks in CaliforniaI, I used this perk to visit Argentina.
Established in 1536, Argentina is the 8th largest country in the world by total area. It covers about 2.78 million square kilometers, making it the second-largest in South America after Brazil. Among the many countries I have visited, Argentina is not an easy destination in terms of the effort taken to plan a trip there. These 6 weeks in Argentina make for the longest trip away from home.
It has been my very first time visiting South America. America with two continents of South America and North America, is a vast piece of land. The map may have disguised that it was a short distance down from North to South America. It took us two 7 hours plus flights to fly from San Francisco to Buenos Aires via Panama City. For travellers in Asia, it takes over a day or over 40+ hours from Asia to get to Buenos Aires, making it pretty prohibitive except for the very determined. Staying in Argentina for almost six weeks, we stood out with our lack of Spanish speaking ability, our Chinese appearances, we were recognized by airlines staff – we lost a piece of our luggages in the domestic flight from Buenos Aires to Iguazu, the airline staff helping us to track our luggage recognized us a few days later when we checked in at the airport for another flight.
Currency is another discovery. Argentine Peso is among the very few currencies I cannot order from the US banks. Why? The guess is that some form of currency control is in place, to control the inflation whose monthly inflation dwarfs the annual US inflation rate that our Fed has worked very hard to keep within 2 % annual rate. Argentina’s monthly inflation can be 3% or higher month over month. The way to get some Argentina Peso is to go through currency exchange shops or to go through West Union Bank. The exchange rates vary. Having some Argentine Pesos is useful as some local shops can give discounts if paid in cash or ask for surcharge if paid in credit card. For the same token that one cannot get Argentine Peso outside of Argentina, there is little reason to keep the Argentina Peso outside of the country. With such a vast piece of land, and the population seemingly working hard, and there are no major wars for the country, what causes the economy in such a dire state is not something I can understand in our weeks of stay. For those who have watched the movie “Evita” or love the song “Don’t cry for me Argentina”, there maybe something to do with the Peronism, the Argentinian movement, centered on social justice, economic independence, and political sovereignty, advocating for pro-labor policies, state intervention in the economy, and national autonomy. After close to eight decades, that ideal seems to be just as far away. In spite of this, we still see the remembrance of Evita Peron quite often, and the cemetery of Evita Peron remains the most visited in the famous Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires. The current government tilts towards US-style capitalism more, leaving some claim that there is only rich and poor in the country, and there is no more middle class. Whether the labor-friendly Peronism or the current radical “shock therapy” program aimed at dismantling Argentina’s interventionist economic model, the country has substantial economic challenges.
The cost of living is not particularly cheap. It is possible to spend 2 to 4 USD for a comfort food meal. The coffee shop is 20% to 30% cheaper than that of the US. The steakhouse, serving very good steak, can be 30% to 50% cheaper. The Don Julio restaurant, #1 in Latin America with Michelin star, is also cheaper than the US fine dining. It still feels like a challenging country for the locals to live in with the relative income and the high inflation. We do not however observe unhappiness. In fact, Argentina’s happiness ranking places it well in South America, with recent data ranking around 42nd globally, not bad for the economic challenges the country is in. There was an election during our stay, the citizens still support the current radical reform. (We also learned that during election day, the restaurants cannot sell alcohol).
Argentina is part of Latin America in terms of culture (note that Latin America is not a continent) and geographically part of America. Culture wise, it is very different from North America English speaking culture. Even in Buenos Aires, the capital, it is common to get a clear “No” response when asking ¿hablas inglés? (Do you speak English?). The place with the best spoken English is the airport and the staff doing the check-in. And for the few lucky chances we run into someone who speaks English well, it comes across that these few are gifted in languages. It is clear to us, living in this part of the world, speaking Spanish is more than sufficient.
Google Translate and Google Lens are amazing innovations for travellers like us. I must admit that using a translator all the time takes effort in every conversation and shopping, not to mention when the technology can decide to stop working when you need it. I feel like becoming mute in expressing beyond basic needs. There was one time that we wanted to tell the Uber driver that he was on the wrong route and it was just hard to communicate without him getting off the highway and stopping on the roadside after quite some effort. Even with more technology, the ability to communicate naturally with each other remains an important part of human-to-human connections. I have learned some Spanish, probably enough to figure out roughly what is on the menu. It becomes obvious an extensive immersive experience, way beyond 6 weeks, is necessary to acquire a foreign language.
We visited Buenos Aires, Iguazu Falls, El Calafate, El Chaten and Bariloche in Argentina; one day on the Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay, one day on the Brazilian side of the gigantic Iguazu falls. These cities/towns are very different from one another. Still the Parrillo/Asado (BBQ meat) together with Spanish cuisines like choripan, empanada, alfajor and Italian cuisines like pizza, pasta, gelato are found everywhere. Argentina is a place for meat lovers and dessert lovers. Of course, it is a country of soccer lovers too where Messi and Maradona have been immortalized with countless murals in every city.
Diego Maradona, Eva Perón (Evita), Che Guevara, Mafalda,
Carlos Gardel, Pope Francis, Lionel Messi
Next: Buenos Aires Oct 24 to Nov 14.
oliviatamccue 
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