The airline industry takes a lot of heat these days for everything from smaller seats to smaller tomatoes on the salad. But when you stop to think about it for a second, the system behind it all, that makes it all even possible in the first place, is something of a miracle. Think about the parameters that factors into every flight, from tire pressure to de-icing fluid, routing around airports and traffic on the tarmac to global coordination between tens of thousands of planes every day. In the end, all you have to do is drop off your bag and hop on the plane and more often than not, every single one of those parameters – literally thousands of them – line up and work together.
In my case, my bag managed to run through the airport quicker than I did and within 20 hours, 6150 miles were behind me and the huge city sprawled out ahead.
Huge is a bit of an understatement for a metro area of over 14 million people, the second largest on the continent (Sao Paulo edges it out). There’s a saying in entrepreneurship that to build big, you simply have to create a model that works and then keep adding zeroes. That seems to be the prevailing attitude in Buenos Aires. In this case, they borrowed the model for a city from metropolitan Europe, transplanted it to the gulf and started adding zeroes. The city is often called the Paris of South America for its architecture and metropolitan feel. Or, as local pride goes, Paris is the Buenos Aires of Europe.
It certainly does have a different feel than any other Latin city I’ve been to thus far. For how many people live there, the city is incredibly clean. The name Buenos Aires is no misnomer. There is absolutely no city-air smell, even in the crowded downtown parts where I am staying. The traffic is light and drivers are generally polite and minimize honking (completely unlike the hectic, noisy traffic of Lima or La Paz). And a generally more wealthy population that can afford clean, quiet cars and trucks helps too.
Buenos Aires has its poor areas like every large city, in this case mostly in the suburbs rather than in the metro area. Packed 15-20 story apartment buildings are as common as blades of grass in the suburbs that I saw. Mixed between those are the more traditional Latin working class houses: low, sprawling complexes of brick and cloth. But as a result of the fertile river valley area and some smart city planning, the entire city is peppered with temperate and sub-tropical forest that lightens the entire atmosphere. Of course, the gorgeous summer weather never hurts either.
The makeup of the people is quite different in Buenos Aires than in a lot of other places. Most Argentinians are of Italian descent, with less mestizo mixed in the population. The metropolitan area is pretty diverse and welcoming, with cultural areas from around the world within walking distance. I noticed on the way in that for such a large city, Ezeiza airport is pretty tiny; I suppose a lot of people come in, but few ever want to leave!
Today was the end of the Dakar Motor Rally, held this year in Argentina and Chile. The city had a gathering in the main square for the end of the race and set up a sport for motocyclists to show off skills. For New Years, every restaurant and bank in the city was closed, but hey, the vendor’s chocolate bonbons and girls parading around in pickup truck beds was more than enough to keep everyone happy.
Looking forward to finally getting some sleep and whatever day tomorrow is. I’ll work on posting some pictures in the meantime.
Finally, Leroy would like to give a shout-out to Beni and Quincy, ‘the coolest elephant friends a pig can have’, Ki the turtle and, of course, Elena. ‘Love to all my people from Argentina. Peace!’
Quote of the day: (sp) ‘Welcome to Buenos Aires and Happy New Year! Health, love, and money… uh, in that order. Thank you for flying Delta, a member of the OneWorld alliance.’
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