Vacation? Again? I am pretty sure I have taken around 10 vacations this year already. People have been asking me if I am ever NOT on vacation. I haven’t even been here a week and my Argentine family asked me to come with them to the countryside to their second home, what they consider their real home, to relax a little.
To set the tone, remember there was an economic meltdown in 2001, similar to severity of our Great Depression. Bank accounts were frozen, a max of $200 could be withdrawn each week, the president fled the country and 5 government officials denied presidential assignment. The peso was devalued by 1/3. Imagine that? 2/3 of your money is gone. Not money invested that grew over the years in stocks, I’m referring to the money from your weekly salary. Inflation is settling in too.
8 years later the country is beginning to see growth through the help of government programs. They have subsidized transportation systems. It is US$ .30 for a metro ride. They pay “carteros” to collect recyclable trash, well they dig through your trash wearing a uniform finding salvageable items to create sellable art. The government set an entrance fee for those citizens whose countries require a VISA for Argentineans to enter (I paid USD $140 to enter). Now that only seems fair.
What did my Argentine family do? They frolicked in Europe for 2 months and then returned to buy a house. A brand new one in a gated & guarded community. All new appliances, and yeah it is more impressive than new houses in my Florida hometown. We left Friday night for the 45 minute drive and stopped at a fancy restaurant for some amazing steak & salad with some great red wine and chocolate volcano dessert. I have to say, once again, the best of those items I have eaten here in Argentina! No wonder they call this the land where “food is from the gods”. Mind you, we ate at midnight and the entire town was out!
We went to bed after 3am and slept until noon. My host dad brought me breakfast in bed and told me the score of the Argentina-Germany futbol game. My host mom gave me a tour of her large backyard, complete with orange tree, lavender plants and spices of all kinds lining both sides of the yard. I guess they learned to be self-sufficient. Of course I had a divine lunch followed by a 3 hour siesta. I read some Pablo Neruda on the patio, danced to some Spanish music with my host dad, helped my host mom with her counseling master’s exam and then showed the host family how to use their new dishwasher that has been sitting there for a year!
We ate dinner at midnight, which happened to be, of course, the world’s best pizza- yeah definitely better than Italy. And we had champagne, of all drinks! We then shared European travel stories and pictures over some chocolate dessert….their goal is to convince me that Brugges does NOT have the world’s finest chocolate.
Sunday we got up early at 11am (yes, this is early in Buenos Aires) and went for a hike. For the USA Independence Day Gustavo surprised me with a variety of Argentinean grilled meats. We then dressed up to go to a fancy overpriced cafe for the traditional "cafe cortado" and cheesecake topped with dulce de leche...hmmmm! We then spent the evening over a bottle of white wine discussing how to import dulce de leche products to the USA so we can be millionaires and travel the world for the rest of our lives hehe.
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