Guided Tour by the HBomb

On their last visit to the zoo, Anne and Mark showed HBomb a lot of animals.  Today, they went to a larger zoo outside of town and things were a little different.  This time, it was HBomb pointing out the details to Mark and Anne.

Hey! Pay attention....

It's right there!

HBomb's favorite animals were in the aquarium.  He pointed out sharks, fish and a couple of sting rays to make sure that Anne and Mark didn't miss them.

After that, he pointed out the cheetahs (the Spanish word for this is "chitah," so at least it's easy to remember).

Before they left, HBomb even pointed out to Anne where the best place to get your hands and feet wet before you head for the day would be.

But we don't want to mislead.  On his first day of tour guiding, there were some missteps.  For example, HBomb got a bit upset when he could not find a wallaby or kangaroo in the exhibit.  Better luck next time on that one, HBomb!

But all in all, it was a pretty successful trip.

Almost done, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel....

So, as a reward for a job well done, HBomb treated himself to a couple of minutes at his favorite part of the park.  Which animal was it, you may ask?  Well, actually, the thing HBomb found the most exciting was the timed water fountain (which we did not even know they had at the zoo).  Go figure.

Head to Head Rankings

Seeing the sights can be several different kinds of experience, depending on the sights.  Sometimes, you can see something completely different from any thing you've seen before.  Other times, you can see the same thing, done in a slightly different way.  Still other times, you see things that start to look familiar.  In this last case, you may have no option but to rank the current sight against those you have seen in the past.  We have previously noted Anne's palace rankings (recap: Versailles is #1).  Today's edition: the best and worst others of obelisks.


For those of you who do not know, obelisks date back to ancient Egypt (or something) and were used by ancient peoples as either do some type of religious ritual to honor their deities (if you believe mainstream archaeology) or to communicate with aliens (if you watch too much of the History 2 channel)

So anyway, what possible criteria could we come up with to rank obelisks.  Well, that's easy.  Obviously, the Washington Monument in DC is going to win, so we just select the criteria that it has and use that as the criteria against which to measure all others.  So let's say (1) location, (2) whether Mark has toured inside of it and (3) document alien visits (3) whether it is a monument to George Washington.

So, to no one's surprise, the Washington Monument (pictured at the top of this post) finishes #1, largely because it aces criteria 2 and 3, with the only thing working against it being location (Washington is a nice place to visit, but let's be honest, it was built on a swamp).  So, how about the best of the rest.

The Good:

It's hard to argue against an obelisk in Vatican City, which brings a high score on criteria #1, location.  Although it totally fails on criteria #3 - not named after George - it gets partial credit for the tours because you can tour St. Peter's and all of that.

Ok, the obelisk pictured immediately above is located in Buenos Aires.  Since Anne, Mark and the HBomb are currently lived in the same city, it gets points for location.  Furthermore, if you are standing at this obelisk and look around to the storefronts on either side, you can see the Teatro Colon, one of the best theatres for acoustics ever built.  So that's pretty good.

Now let's move on to ...

the "others".

I don't remember where the obelisk pictured immediately above it located, so it is impossible to evaluate it on criteria #1: location.  It's score will have to remain incomplete.

Ok, so this bad boy was located in Istanbul but is originally from Egypt.  The location is not bad, but the thing working against this obelisk is the ancient hieroglyphs.  As anyone who reads ancient hieroglyph will immediately recognize, this has a typo

 This one is in England.  Too rainy.

And last, but not least, this one from Prague.  It is interesting, good location, but it looks like the roofing blew off.  That will always count against you in an obelisk beauty pageant.

Acostumbrarse

Anne, Mark and the HBomb have been in Buenos Aires for a couple of months now, and they are starting to get used to the differences they have encountered.  Hbomb is still getting used to the differences in shoe sizes, but otherwise, he is fitting in nicely.

There are some things that Mark and Anne anticipated to be weird (e.g. toilets flushing the opposite direction?).  Those are easy to get used to.  Other things are like a throw back to the old days in the U.S.  For example, there is not a "no call" list here.  So Mark and Anne often get to respond to surveys and telemarketers - just like in the days of rotary phones and Family Ties.

One of the big differences that actually takes a little getting used to is the money in Argentina.  Argentina uses the peso.  The bills are pretty and come in difference colors.  There are at least three different 100 peso bills, Mark's favorite is the one with Eva Peron on one said and the Virgin Mary on the other (this kind of tells you how Argentina feels about Evita).  The 10 peso note has Gen. Belgrano on it, who is famous for creating the Argentine flag, among other things.

When Mark was an undergrad at Grinnell (about 200 years ago), one Argentine peso was worth exactly one dollar.  Argentina had a strategy of maintaining that 1 for 1 exchange rate with the dollar at that time.  The administrations in Argentina between then and now have abandoned this strategy and now, a peso is worth much less than a dollar.  Although the exchange rate changes daily and has other complications, to make the math easy, let's just say that one dollar is worth about 10 pesos.  The problem that Anne and Mark have encountered is that the 100 peso note is the largest bill in circulation in Argentina.  When they arrived, they did not have any banking privileges in Argentina, so everything had to be done in cash, and the biggest bill available was equivalent to a $10 bill.  That takes some getting used to.  Additionally, since people generally spend more than 100 pesos at a time for their purchases, many people carry only 100 peso notes.  As a result, most stores, taxis, coffee shops, etc run out of smaller bills for change.  Whenever Anne and Mark buy something with a 100 peso note, the cashier will ask if we have any "chicos" (little guys ~ smaller bills).  Smaller than a $10 bill?  No, not really.  And when the stores are desperate and run out of centavos (which are not worth much: if a peso is worth a dime, a centavo is worth 1/10th of a penny), they sometimes ask if we will accept candies in place of centavos for change.  Mark's answer?  I could get used to that.

But the real issue to which Anne, Mark and the HBomb need to adjust is the driving.  Mark has previously driven in foreign countries including Bulgaria, Italy and Morocco and had some challenging experiences doing so.  Argentina presents a whole different can of worms.  For example, this:

The part on the right is for the bike lane.  But why are the yellow and red lights on at the same time?  That's not some kind of malfunction or glitch, is it?  Nope.  It's more like drag racing.

When you're sitting at a red light, the yellow will come on to alert to waiting drivers that the green light is coming.  As if anyone did not know that the green was coming next.  Of course, this just means that everyone here punches the gas when the yellow light comes on and no one actually waits for the green.

So that's interesting, but not that hard to get used to.  Also, no right turn on red.  Weird, and slightly harder to get used to.  Also, apparently, if someone turns on their emergency flashers, head's up because they can pretty much do any crazy thing they want: stop in traffic, U-turn in front of on coming traffic, turn left in front of other lanes, it's all good.  

The two things that are they don't have here that I kind of miss, though, are lane integrity and the concept of right of way.  First, they do have lanes painted on the streets.  However, they are completely meaningless.  Drivers float in and out of them across the traffic with no signal and no notice.  Keep your head on a swivel, ladies and gentlemen.  Second, there is no concept of right of way, it is every driver for his or her self.  An example:

I especially like the guts of the person on the little moped as they cut through the left turning traffic.  Nice work.  And I should note that this is not an extreme or unique example of driving here, that's just how it is on the roads here.  But you get used to it.

Cementerio de la Recoleta

Today, Anne, Mark and HBomb went to one of the "must see" attractions of Buenos Aires, the Cementerio de la Recoleta.  To his memory, this is the third cemetery Mark has visited as a tourist attraction.  Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia hosts millions of visitors every year.  It has military and national park vibe.  St. Louis Cemetery in New Orleans, LA is an old cemetery with mausolea (plural of mausoleum?) built to deal with the fact that that city lives below sea level.  Recoleta has similarities to each of those places, but really is very different.

Recoleta is somewhat like Arlington Cemetery is that there are famous national figures buried there.  While Arlington Cemetery has two presidents (JFK and Taft) laid to rest there, Recoleta has 19 Argentina presidents.  As for most famous figures, while St. Louis Cemetery has a purported voodoo queen (Marie Levoux), Recoleta's most famous resident is former first lady, Eva Peron ("Evita").  And for those of you who think that Evita is just the lady from the Broadway musical or the movie starring Madonna, let me fill you in on this: Eva Peron is a BIG deal here.  Still.

And while Arlington Cemetery has a military set-up, and St. Louis Cemetery has a very crowded feel, Recoleta (and this is weird to say) feels like a city.  There are cross streets, addresses, and neighborhoods.

crowded feel in St. Lous #1

HBomb explores the neighborhood

Recoleta is a study in contrasts.  There are some structures there that are properly referred to as works of art.  The big families of Argentina put time and effort into constructing elaborate resting places for their members and the results are, at times, beautiful.

The structure below, which looks like a chapel, is actually the mausoleum for just one family. 

In contrast, some other structures have fallen into disrepair.  The plots are bought in perpetuity, but apparently, the maintenance is not.  Some of the structures are damaged, others are destroyed.

Exposed coffins are inherently creepy.  Mark, Anne and HBomb saw some other damaged areas that were equally disconcerting.  On top of this, there are legends that go with the cemetery, that make it feel a little creepy.  There is a legend of a grounds keeper who committed suicide so that he could be buried in this cemetery, and now haunts the streets at night, as well as other legends of ghosts and ghouls.  One of the worst is the story of Rufina Cambareces.  In 1902, poor Rufina found out that her boyfriend was having an affair with her own mother just before her 19th birthday party at Teatro Colon.  She passed out and could not be revived.  Three doctors declared her to be dead.  So they put her in the coffin.  Tragically, she was not dead, but suffering from catalepsy, which has symptoms including rigidity and low vital signs.  She was was accidentally buried alive.  Eventually, they opened her coffin, but by that time, it was too late.  They found only scratches on the inside of her coffin and on her face.  Now she is reburied and placed behind only a glass door, apparently so that she can break out easily if she wakes again.  Yikes.

Winter is Coming!

Separated at birth?

This past Tuesday, March 31, there was a big transportation strike in Buenos Aires.  In a city that depends on public transportation, the lack of buses, subways, trains, ships and airplanes caused a lot of problems for a lot of people.  Coincidentally, March 31 was also the scheduled premiere of the first episode of season 5 of the HBO hit series "Game of Thrones."  For those of you not familiar with "GoT," it's kind of hard to explain.  But if you decide that you are going to start watching it, let me give you this piece of advice: don't get too attached to any characters.

Anyway, as a result of the transport strike falling on the same day as the premiere, there were many invitees who were unable to attend.  As a result, the premiere needed attendees to - basically - take up space.  You know who is good at taking up space?  Mark.  And that is how he got invited to the premiere.

The event had the feel of a real Hollywood event, thanks to the efforts of HBO and the American embassy.  Guests, including the movers and shakers of the Argentine entertainment industry, arrived to the Bosch Palace and were greeted by a red carpet with photographers (professional and local press).  Actors in costume surrounded a replica of the throne from the series, which guests were invited to sit and get their photos taken in.

The beautiful people starting trickling in

Once inside, guests were escorted through the foyer to the second floor.  There, a 5 piece string ensemble was playing the show's theme song as the guests socialized before before taken to the main dining room.  There, they were met with a feast that could have been taken from a scene in the show (unfortunately, it probably would have been a wedding scene - and as fans of the show know, the weddings usually end badly - ask Rob or Joffrey - oh, wait, you can't!).

After a period of socializing and brief comments from HBO and the Ambassador, the show was on.

An Eggstravaganza

Today was the Easter Egg hunt and social gathering.  Anne, Mark and H-Bomb tend to do these types of things in style, so they headed to the Bosch Palace in the Palermo neighborhood.

In the under 2 years, category, there were some initial challenges in the egg hunt.  It was not a great degree of difficulty course, as you can see from the photo above, however there were still some problems which we might categorize as "conceptual" and "motor skill" related.  Basically, the 0-2 crowd sat around and drooled at one another.  Eventually, when they walked around, no one had any reason to pick up one of the eggs.  So, the hunt lasted quite a while.

H-Bomb initially decided that the point was to drop or throw the eggs.  Which was fun for a little while....

And then decided that the point was to hoard as many eggs as possible.  Unfortunately for H-Bomb, he had ditched his Easter basket in the stroller on the way to the egg hunt, so he was stuck trying to hold as many eggs as he could.

After several minutes of egg hunter, the guest of honor arrived.  Most of the kids were honored to see the Easter Bunny.  A few were a little intimidated.  And then there was H-Bomb.

The first time setting him on the Easter Bunny's lap - no problem.  Giggles, smiles, and what not.  Then Mark picked up the H-Bomb so other kids could get a shot with E.B.  Initially, this was ok, but then H-Bomb decided he needed to go back to the Bunny.  After several unsuccessful attempts at distraction, H-Bomb returned for a second round with E.B.  After several more minutes giggling and smiling, Mark again came in for the extraction.  H-Bomb was less than pleased and tried to stay longer with the Bunny.

Eventually, the Bunny had to go home, so H-Bomb relented.

Almost Time for Back to Work...

Belgrano Skyline as seen from across the horse track.

Well, it's Tuesday, so our long weekend is coming to an end.  After today it's back to the grind for 3 days and then another three days next week before another 4 day weekend (I'm not sure what the Argentines are celebrating, but I am glad that they are celebrating something).

Anyway, today was another beautiful day in Buenos Aires, so we explored a little further.  H-Bomb found a tree that was growing horizontally, so sort of climbed it for a while.  Good times.