Buenos Aires (part 4)

Monday 21st: I was up at 8am, and toured San Telmo where I had been with Cristina and Antonio. The Lezama Park had many homeless people - they are everywhere in Buenos Aires. The Orthodox church had a colourful facade. I ate the lunch special, garnished potatoes and chicken.

I arrived at the Brazil embassy at 3:30pm to pick up my passport and Brazilian visa. I had been to the embassy on Friday, with a stack of documents like hotel reservations as requested on the website, but it turned out than only a bank balance was necessary. Today I was turned away by an impatient guard (I should have tried to speak Spanish). He closed the door on me, but made a more friendly attempt later. An African-looking Brazilian woman was very helpful in translating for me. It turned out we had both missed the closing time of 3pm. The guard said to come back at midday tomorrow. It was my first significant negative experience here (and wasn´t that bad, of course!) I consciously focused on the friendliness of the woman, to avoid dwelling on the negative.

Tues 22nd: I spent the morning reading about clashes over the indigenous peoples, particularly concerning the Jesuits and the Bandeirantes, which is fascinating history. The latter were hardy frontiersmen representing the Portuguese presence based at Sao Paulo. They set out in bandeiras ("flags" in Portuguese) expeditions to capture natives for the slave market. However the Jesuits (an order of Catholic priests who had an extensive presence in the continent) resisted this plundering of their missions, and were the main force resisting slavery. Full credit to them! (The Jesuits are best known today for education: they are highly educated, and run some schools. Their founder, a Spanish knight, developed devotional disciplines. They were active in the Counter Reformation during the Middle Ages, which I don´t support because I value the creation of Protestant Christianity (but do support in that the Catholic church needed change). Some have promoted conspiracy theories about the Jesuits, but expert historians dismiss these as fabrications.) I am no expert on the Jesuits, but my main point is their actions in South America are remarkable! The fictional movie The Mission is based on various real events concerning the native Guaraní people, set near Iguazu Falls. I highly recommend it!! My reading was stimulated by conversations with the Western journalist. He had many positive things to say about the Jesuits, having being educated by them in high school. He had criticisms of the church too, but I think he was choosing to be positive.

I picked up my passport and visa from the embassy. I had paid less than AU$40, compared to the $77 it would have cost, via mail, in Australia. I wasted a lot of time with the process, but it was an achievement to be an Australian, getting a Brazilian visa, in Argentina! By now I had cooked a couple of simple dinners in the hostel, despite the challenge of finding and buying ingredients in unfamiliar supermarkets.

I headed towards a used English books store recommended by the journalist. He knew the locations of three English book stores off by heart! I wanted to buy a Spanish language textbook. On the same block was another bookshop, and I wandered in. I got talking to Andrea who was working there. She was a very nice person, interesting, and very pretty incidentally. As I sensed our conversation was drawing to a close (she had closed the shop I think, but also likes to study there for its internet), I discovered she was a Christian, and she invited me to her nearby church later that week. I bought a Spanish book from the other shop.

Today (?) I had a fantastic social day, not doing much in terms of sightseeing, but meeting many people both in the hostel and around San Telmo. One friendly outgoing guy was from a small island in the Caribbean. He was giving out flyers on the street, but turned out to be a law student or something! He suggested catching up for coffee later to share our experiences, and took my email but never contacted me.

At night I went for a long walk by myself through the streets, starting around 10pm. I ended up at what I would later realise was Constitución train station. The neighbourhood looked more and more dodgy the further I walked, and I heard later it is indeed a bad area. Many people were in the vicinity of the station. As I kept walking, I passed many open stalls and shops, the latter mostly shuttered for security save for a small window. There are many police around the city. I missed my street and ended up at the Obelisk, observing the restaurants become progressively more affluent. I got back around 11:45pm.

Wednesday 23rd: I had breakfast with Jaime and Cecilia, who are temporarily working at the nearby medical centre and are very friendly. I blogged for a long time. I dropped by the bookshop around 2pm, but it was closed. She had mentioned mate, the national drink which is like a tea, but not for today apparently!

I had a hilarious experience with "Fernet cola", which I had never heard but is popular in Argentina. I had stopped into a supermarket to buy a drink, and this 1L bottle was on special. Outside, I started to drink it, when a man who was sifting through trash called out to me. "I don´t speak Spanish" I said in Spanish, but he kept gesturing. I assumed he wanted the plastic bottle, so I skulled most of the drink in two big goes. It was quite bitter, not the sweet imitation Coca-Cola I had expected. There was a little left, but I figured it was possible he also wanted some, and in the very least could just tip it out, so I handed it to him and walked away. I had a delicious lunch at a "per kilo" restaurant, which is a self-serve buffet where you pay for the weight of your food. (It is good value, and there was lots of salad and savoury. I have been eating a lot of meat and breads here, so really craved some salad. Apart from health, another reason to eat less meat here, at least in Brazil, is that the Amazon gets cleared for livestock!)

Anyway I sat down and for the first time noticed I was light-headed, and my head swam a little. I thought it felt a bit like skulling 3 beers quickly, but it didn´t feel like alcohol because I also felt a mild euphoria like a stimulant: I felt "happy", also and calm in contrast to some stress earlier from walking around in the heat. The feeling was not overly intense, but it was good! I recalled stories of travellers being drugged and robbed, but I never thought for a moment this had happened, and I felt fairly sober and in no danger. Out of deep curiosity only (not out of fear nor anger), I walked around trying to find the supermarket/kiosk where I bought the drink, this being the only potential culprit I could think of. I recalled a conversation with Peruvian friends in Melbourne, when they mentioned chewing coca leaves while walking the Inca trail, to reduce altitude sickness. Since it was the same continent, could the drink have been labeled "coca" and not "cola"? After much walking I could not find the same kiosk.

Eventually I walked into the English bookshop to speak with the fluent owner. He said this would not be the case, because they don´t sell coca extracts in the supermarket. He listed a number of drinks, and when he said "Fernet cola" I remembered that was it! He explained that Fernet was an alcoholic drink, and that it was mixed with cola. In Australia, supermarkets do not stock alcoholic drinks, so I was not expecting this. Though the alcohol section in some supermarkets here is extensive and obvious, in the particular refrigerated section where I bought the drink I saw only non-alcoholic drinks.

Today, people on the street were starting to feel more "familiar". In other words, the fact I am in a foreign country feels less intense. In my two trips to Asia, I had the funny experience of adapting to the environment, in that my surroundings stopped feeling unusual ("there´s so many Asian people!") and I didn´t really notice anymore. Also, the massive buzz I´ve been on (not from Fernet, just a natural high!) has worn off. I´m still having a fantastic time over here, it´s just I´m not feeling so "buzzed".