Day Three

BA really does have a bit of a Paris feel to it. Every piece of one of the buildings was imported from France, even the stone. It is a port city - locals are called portenos - so when they were importing goods by ship they used european building materials for ballast in the ships. Also has a lot to do when the buildings were built, many of them around the time of the centennial celebration of 1916.

The people, also, are very european looking. The great european migration to Argentina was about the same time as the huge influx into the USA - 1890-1914. Half were Italian, a fourth Spanish, and the other fourth a mix of other european countries. No evidence of indigenous people or of mixing with them. Apparently they were killed off right away. Lots of italian family names and the food reflects that.






This clock tower (that was its original name) was a gift from Great Britain, so it came to be called the "British Tower" until the flare-up over the Falkland Islands. The Argentines refer to them as the Malvinas and have a memorial with an eternal flame (at least, according to the guide, it is as regular as it gets in a Latin country) to the 600+ who died in that skirmish. Locals wanted to tear down the tower but instead they now call it the "Monument Tower."

The "British Square" is now called "Airforce Square."

The major export is soybeans.






This plaza is a memorial to the car bomb that destroyed the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires. Argentina has the largest Jewish population of any country in South
America. 29 people were killed. There are 22 trees for the 22 embassy workers who were killed.

BA has the highest per capita plastic surgeons of any major city. Our guide reported that there is 100 boob jobs a day (or 200 new tits?). If you have a job with a good insurance policy it allows you to have plastic surgery every 2 years. We were on the lookout for "lions," their name for freshly fixed people. They also have the highest per capita psychologists of any major world city. Fits right in with their obsession about attractiveness and fitness.

They may be facing an "Egypt" effect - revulsion at political dynasties. My seat mate on the long flight here said that the young Kirchner was in line to become the president after his mothers election following the death of his father, but who knows after Cairo.






He is personalizing the ubiquitous "cups" used to drink their famous and bitter tea.

Location:Buenos Aires