Our Journal

Cordova

A couple of hours drive and we were in the midst of traffic that could have been Manhattan.  Big city can often be disorienting and the driving isn’t much fun on a big bike.  The Argentinean “I’m the center of the world mentality” can be a frightening thing behind the wheel.  We found a hotel, parked the bikes, and stared at urban bustle.  The city is beautiful with a historic pedestrian downtown, colonial architecture, several universities, bookstores, cafes, shopping malls, nice restaurants, giant parks with tennis centers, amusement park, BMX track, skateboarding, museums, etc…  Where were we?  Europe?  It was St. Patrick’s Day so we went looking for an Irish pub.  One was full of society folk poised at tables watching a group of drunk Irish boys with green and white faces sing songs.  Then a man in Scottish garb played bagpipes.  We left to seek the other Irish pub in search of Guiness, but we soon learned that Cordova, like most of Argentina, is tranquilo, mostly quiet groups sitting at tables, again very Euro.  And Guiness only in the bottle.  The painted Irish boys showed up and immediately introduced themselves to us, all traveling around Argentina for a few months.  They left and we later learned had skipped their bill.  The manager thought they had been with us but luckily he let us off.  Two Canadian guys attached themselves, visiting businessmen.  One, last name Hotott, married with kids back home, hot on every girl in sight, including some guy’s wife.  She escaped by taking his number and promising him three beautiful girls the next night.  His partner, Tommy, an older guy of the old school whose wife had died of cancer a few months before, was clearly disgusted with Hotott and turned in early.  I saw them both a few days later.  Tommy had met locals and had been invited to dinner in their homes and they took him all over town.  Hotott looked beat and had met no one.

The next day I found a mechanic, in fact I found several but couldn’t find one too interested in working on my bike, all too busy or just not too enthusiastic.  Another day I found a guy who had done a lot of traveling by bike around Argentina and he knew the SuperTenere so we dismantled everything and took off the carburetor again.  He obviously knew what he was doing so we arranged a price and I left the bike with him. 

We spent a couple of days exploring the city.  We quickly learned that the Argentineans are not the dancing Latins.  In Formosa they riled up with cumbia and techno music but nightlife consists mostly of sitting down in cafes.  All night.  No really, I mean until dawn.  At 5 am, cafes and bars are still full of people, just talking.  There are discos but people wait in line for hours to maybe get in.  We both have specific rules against that.  After three years in the ADD Caribbean where by midnight everyone is up dancing and Brazil where they can’t help themselves if music is playing, this European café matte drinking Latin was something new.  It takes some getting used to, but this calmer time encourages a longer attention span and more stimulating conversations. 

They all carry some kind of anti-American sentiment on the surface but just underneath are some welcoming folk.  We’ve tried to keep in mind that they are in the middle of something like our Great Depression.  A little over three years ago their currency, which had been pegged to the dollar, lost 66% of its value overnight.  20% of Argentinians are without work, another 20% work part time.  After years of being the Latin American example of success and having an economy far superiority to their neighbors, they now have an inferior currency and have to watch as Brazil and Chile economies are doing well.  A cartoon in the paper showed Busch calling Kirschner by mistake – “… sorry, wrong number, do you have Lula’s number?”  This must be tough on a mentality that is used to believing they are European, not like their Latino neighbors.  An article I saw in the paper showed a comparative study in education in which they only compared themselves to the U.S., Europe, and Japan.  For most of the world, the “Falklands” belong to England, but billboards and T.V. ads are still pursuing ownership of their “Malvines”.  Their president Kirschner played up their bloated egos by calling for a boycott on Shell and Esso (Exxon) for raising prices.  The locals will tell you that Shell has the best gas but their business dropped by 70% so they lowered prices below the Argentinean and Venezuela rates.  Local sentiment seems to be that Argentina is for Argentineans and criticize the opening of the country to foreign investment during the 90’s by president Menem, who self exiled himself to Chile to escape charges of corruption (although in true Latino ex-president form, he wants to run for office again).  No one seems to know what exactly what rent wrong in Argentina.  Some 97% of Argentineans polled said they distrust their government.  Economists in the IMF would say they didn’t follow their plan closely enough while some economists outside would say that they followed it well, but the plan is not set up for Latin American countries to succeed. 

Looking around South America, just about every country has had its crisis in the last five years - Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Paraguay, Venezuela, Colombia and Argentina, most of which followed advise from the U.S. during the 80’s and 90’s closely in opening their markets and privatization.  At the moment Ecuador just kicked out another president and Bolivia is at a political stalemate between the president and indigenous leaders who could perhaps turn the country into a narco state (Bolivia is the third biggest producer of cocaine and cocaleros want the eradication of crops to stop).  Chavez continues preaching his anti-U.S. programs to willing socialist ears throughout South America.  What happens from here?  Why have free market reforms not produced what they promised?  Are they implemented by a corrupt and uncaring elite or are the cards stacked against these countries to compete on the global market?  From looking at the U.S. press we are all too focused on Iraq, Terri Schiavo, and the old and new pope (a former Hitler Youth whose first pronouncements as pope included an attack on homosexuals calling them dehumanizing).  I certainly don’t have the answers and as we move south the best we can do is buy up as much of this delicious cheap Argentinean wine as we can to help their economy along and hope things improve before they choose a Che, Castro, Chavez, military, or narco alternative.

un abrazo, Chris

contact us:  chris@isabm.com   matt@isabm.com