Appreciating depreciation

Aaaaah! Upon arrival in Buenos Aires it felt like I was opening a book I read ages ago – a book that I really enjoyed, but did not fully comprehend or take my time to explore enough. Coming from India – a country that in most ways are very different from Argentina, I was motivated to once again grasp the latin culture and explore the beautiful continent of South America.

La Boca .....SO touristy! Almost like Montmartre...

In the footsteps of the (a little bit) younger me
In 2007 I visited Argentina together with my mate Tom Erik. We spent abut a month exploring the regions of Buenos Aires, Mendoza and Salta. Almost 1/3 of the population live in and around Buenos Aires – it is a megacity that has both a modern and old charm to it. Mendoza is smaller with about 1 million inhabitants. It is located just by the Andes – about 4-5 hours with bus from Santiago de Chile. Mendoza and its region represents about 70% of Argentina’s wine production. We loved Mendoza – it was small, cosy and had a relaxing feel to it. Good food and a very good nightlife. The streets were wide, and the city is constructed with a clever irrigation system. This allows the rain from the Andes to pass through the city and finally water the wine crops around the city.

Bife de chorizo - Impossible to describe the sensation of eating it... If you are a beef lover, no matter where you went, how much you paid or what you had - if you haven't had a steak in Argentina, then you seriously have something to look forward to (I'll get back to why in another blog post)

Some hours North is Salta – a city located near the mountains bordering both Chile and Bolivia. Salta has for centuries been a place for trade and commerce between Alto Peru (the old name for the region that is now Bolivia) and the ports of Uruguay and Buenos Aires.

Argentina is a about seven times the size of Norway and its situation on the Southern hemisphere gives it the opposite clima cycle that we are used to. The weather in Buenos Aires is often compared to that of New York – only of course with summers around end of the  year and winter in july.

Anchored my sailboat in Puerto Madero - the new and fancy "docklands" of BA

Couchsurfing appreciation – mi casa es su casa?
My plan was always to stay for a quite a while in Buenos Aires. The intention was to settle temporarily to improve my Spanish, really get to know the city and to use it as a base for exploring Argentina. In 2009 I hosted Carmen from Buenos Aires in Stavanger through Couchsurfing.org. During Carmen’s stay in Norway she was unfortunately robbed of her wallet, losing important papers and money. Feeling very quickly that I could trust her I lent her some money so that she could get onwards to Bergen and eventually reach Oslo, where she had half of her luggage plus some money in a friend’s house. Since then we’ve kept in touch online and by sending postcards.

Welcome to Argentina! Empanadas and cabernet at 2 am!

Two years later and it is my turn to surf her couch. The couch is even more than a couch! Carmen let’s me stay in her guest room in her apartment in Palermo Hollywood – one of the trendiest and coolest parts of Buenos Aires. Within just a few hundred meters there are excellent bars, restaurants, night clubs, gym, laundromats, ice cream vendors, bookshops ++.

The building has a roof top pool - excellent for hot and lazy days (i.e. every day..)

Huge meal for 2 people = NOK 100 (Nose is slightly pink because of X-mas season)

Gray day - but this is the view from the pool. I can live with that!

Habla mas despacio por favor
I will be based in Buenos Aires for quite a while. In January I start one-on-one Spanish classes and before that I am reading vocabulary, grammar and practicing as much as I can with the people I meet. This I find to be quite easy – I can easy talk with people about how to get around the city, asking basic questions and talking about what I am doing. People here are also give you a chance – they will try to understand me, even though I might sound very strange and they will try to reply in a modified and easy to understand manner. Every now and then you meet someone who sees an opportunity to practice English with you, which I think is ok – I let them answer in English and try to speak back in Spanish.

Palermo Hollywood by night

Currency depreciation
In 2007 Tom Erik and me enjoyed Buenos Aires especially because of its low prices. Service, quality and selection of food, bars and clubs were high and plentiful – but due to the challenges faced by the economy, prices and currency were in our favor.

It’s been four years and a lot of turmoil in the international financial markets since my last visit. Inflation since 2007 stands at about 45-50%. This means that a bife de chorizo that in 2007 cost 50 pesos (and with the currency rate at that time NOK 99) now costs 74 pesos. 50 % increase in prices over a 4 year period is a lot! It is of course not uncommon in developing or third world countries with such high figures – but Argentina is Latin Americas third largest economy and the past years have seen a more stable environment than that of the years round 2000.

Luckily for me – the currency rate development has come to a rescue! The Argentine Peso (ARS) has depreciated some 28-40 % towards USD, EUR, CHF and our beloved NOK. This means that despite an increase in the price level – the depreciated value of the peso against the Norwegian krone makes prices again lower. The depreciation of the peso is a result of the mix of inflation in consumer prices and the Central Bank’s dollar purchases which keeps the peso low (this is done to keep peso low for export competitiveness).

Norwegian Soprano – Former Argentinean President: 1 – 0

Former President Julio Argentino Roca is on the 100 pesos note

Kirsten Flagstad - Norwegian soprano decorates our 100 kroner note

Ché / Fuser / Ernesto decorates the entrance to the medical faculty of the university in BA

Clubbing with an old and a new friend (Arne and Xavier)

Typical BA street: Wide and green

Me in front of River Plate

"Punta La Mujer" (white bridge) and new skyline in Puerto Madero

Cosy street in San Isidro

Who's this guy?

Typical house in La Boca - maybe the inspiration for Øvre Holmegate?

As I will stay for quite a while in Buenos Aires – I will write more specific entries about my stay here and of course some reflective thoughts about my adventure in India before Argentina.

Enjoying Yerba Maté in Palermo!

A festivus – for the rest of us!
Today (time of writing) is the 23rd of December – on this day many people celebrate FESTIVUS, a made up holiday “to celebrate the holiday season without participating in its pressures, religious aspects, and commercialism”. This original, funny and not so stupid idea comes from the family of one of the writers of the Seinfeld show. If you want to have a laugh, check out this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS7-jcsB_WQ

Happy festivus to all of you from Buenos Aires!

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