Sailboat ants
Trip Start
Oct 19, 2007
1
71
126
Trip End
Ongoing
Buenos Aires,
Argentina
Friday, January 4, 2008
I check out some historical sites, the "Pink House" where Evita rallied 1000īs of Argentinians from the balcony with her dramatic speeches back in the 40`s or 50`s, a museum, about 10 different monuments (this city loves monuments) and a cathedral (which is like looking at a map of California, since the church contains statues of saints with such names as San Diego, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Benito and San Bernardino). Wander around most of the day, eat at a couple of restaurants and realize this city is pretty cheap since the peso trades 3.15:1. Earlier in the day there was a huge protest with 1000`s probably 10`s of thousands participating (this city loves protests almost as much as Alert Einstein loved disheveled hair or 1st cousins). People were banging away at instruments, banners were flying and fireworks were exploding everywhere. These weren`t just lil pussy firecrackers either, these were the big guys and you had to be careful crossing streets to make sure you didn`t step over one as that could have done some irrevocable damage to your nads. The sound of such large fireworks is immensely loud as the bangs ricochet off the various buildings. The whole thing is pretty cool since I have never witnessed such a protest of such size and force in all my life. Traffic has to be stopped though and cars simply pull of to the side and wait it out. I have a feeling the citizens are used to such a thing by now. Buenos Aires is much different than any city I have ever experienced and very different than anywhere in I visited in Brazil. Everyone here is in jeans or pants, nice shirts, sport coats or suits even though it has to be 35C. Nobody is wearin beach shorts and nobody has their shirts off unlike in Brazil. I follow the parade of protesters around for a bit and join in the excitement whenever a group stops and starts drumming away on the various drums and dancing around.
I later buy a SIM card, now I have my US number, a Buzios number, a Rio number and a Buenos Aires number. I have to label the SIM cards I am not using so I remember the number in case I ever need them again. Weird thing I notice here, traffic lights go from red to yellow to green. Not sure what sense this makes, I guess it gives people a head start to leave early. Drivers here are crazy and awful. It`s like 80 year old ladies on crack driving around as fast and recklessly as possible. I hit up one of the pedestrian streets that is filled with more stores than whores. I buy two shirts for $20 pesos each which is less than $7USD. I also notice that Asian people take pictures of the most retarded things. This one asian chick took a picture of a ceiling of a shopping mall. I mean what the hell is that for, a bland ceiling of a shopping mall, what is exciting about that. It would be like taking a picture of fucking Finland.
I find I have 2 new roomates and they are both Isreali of course. The one is very pro Jewish which is odd actually. Usually Isreali`s just care about partying their asses off and finding chicks. I end up going to dinner around 11pm which believe it or not is not too late her. Most people eat dinner around 10pm. Portenos (those who live in Buenos) keep very odd hours. I really want some wine as Argentian wine is supposed to be superb and reasonably priced. I see on the menu you can get house wine for $11 pesos for 3/4 of a glass or 1/2 a glass for $9 pesos. Well, might as well get the bigger glass for 67 US cents more. A good deal - $3.67USD for a big glass of good wine. The waiter brings me a bottle and opens it and pours a glass but he only fills it up barely half way. Hey jerkoff, I said tres - cuatro, not half. But then to my surprise he leaves the bottle on the table. Whoa, could this be, did I just order an entrie bottle of wine for $3.67USD? I drink the glass but I don`t want to pour another one in case he charges me for each glass. You may think I am being stupid but I really could not believe that wine could be this cheap. Hah, the waiter has to think I`m an idiot as I have to ask him if I actually bought the entire bottle for $11 pesos. Well fuck me, I did buy the entire bottle, man I am going to drink more wine than Stan`s girlfriend drank water. Ok, so the 3/4 was 3/4 of a liter (normal sized bottle) and 1/2 was 1/2 of a liter (probably a craft sp??). The place is actually starting to close so I have to take my bottle of wine and vamos. Wine is weird, it gets me much drunker and much quicker than liquor or beer, relatively speaking. I walk down the street pass all of these people who are all dressed to the 9`s. Im wearing torn kaki shorts, a t-shirt with holes in it and I haven`t showered in 48 hours and I am tired which causes me to walk a bit haphazardly while carrying a 3/4 finished bottle of wine. I totally look like a wino. I go chill on Ave 9 de Julio and take in the city fron an unique vantage point. As I am sitting there I feel like a homeless person for the first time in my life. If I stuck out my hands people would probably give me $. But when I think about it, I sort of am homeless, kinda like Gunn is sort of cool but not really. I see some leaf cutter ants down by my feet and a couple of them are carrying leafs and they are sticking up like sails and since there is a decent breeze the ants get blown all over the place. I watch the same ant and he gets blown over like 5 times in 30 seconds and each time it loses ground but it keeps getting up without letting go of it`s prize. It`s hilarious as it just keeps falling over on it`s side and I just keep falling over laughing at this idiot as this whole scenario is the perfect example in minitature form of one step forward two steps back. Then I think about how someone else I am not aware of (maybe someone accustomed to 4 dimensions or something) just like the ant is not aware of me is laughing his ass off at the stupidity of me getting so much entertainment from an ant continuously falling over.
Go back and talk to my Isreali roomates for much longer than intended. Interesting conversation though. There are over 3,000 Isreali`s in Buenos Aires at any one time and lots of people in SA think Isreal has like a hundred million inhabitants as opposed to just 6 million because there are so many of them here. I learn about the dispora and how Jewish people kept Hebrew alive for thousands of years even though they were separated by 1000`s of kilometers. I learn a bunch of other interesting shit that I won`t bore you with. Like I said the one dude is very pro Isreali/Jewish. I don`t really make it out though but that`s fine, I have a lot of time here.
Fin
