Argentinean Also/Ands...

So again, like Brasil, there were quite a few observations that just couldn’t be missed, but didn’t find their place in my postings…

1. Argentineans have some sort of strange system/obsession for collecting glass bottles. Basically, if you want to buy a beer, you have to swap a bottle or pay a deposit until you bring it back. Even on the bus, our waiter sternly reminded us to give them back to him. My only thought can be that they just reuse them all, because glass recycling is hardly a lucrative industry.
2. Argentineans are not as disinterested to serve you as the Brazilians, but they definitely think they are somehow better than you, and will take any opportunity to remind you of that. On one occasion this meant the taxi driver – who I had just caught out trying to take us the longest way possible – insulted us by saying that he was the whitest person in the taxi and refused to take our money. Fine with all of us but my ‘darker’ skinned Ecuadorian friend.
3. There is a real dog/poo problem here, which no one seems the least bit interested in cleaning up. Particularly in Buenos Aires, you will have to walk with your eyes down, but also in Bariloche, where you will have to look out for them chasing cars.
4. Again, like Brazil, Argentineans are mostly pretty friendly, willing to help you when you are lost, but they still have no idea about giving you the right directions and won’t admit that they just don’t know.
5. A lot of people in Argentina speak really good English – especially in BA – but saying that, in other more provincial places, like Mendoza, they can get quite rude when they don’t understand your accent in Spanish.
6. Argentinians and Uruguyians love to talk about locations in terms of blocks or “cuadras” – it sounds so American, but it is just how most of their cities/towns are planned out, so I guess it makes sense.
7. If you are staying in BA, you will have to get used to doing the chicken-run (so called by my Argentinean Spanish teacher in Perth) across the mostly six-laned highways. It’s either that, or join the poo on the tarmac.
8. Despite all the traffic, car manufacturing in Argentina has a pretty splotchy past, with almost no production throughout the 80s and 90s. And it shows – ever wondered where all the old Fiats, Renaults and Citroens have gone? Argentina! Out of every three, at least one or two cars should be at the tip.
9. Further to this, their windscreens are in the worst condition ever, if you happen to chance upon a new model that is. Even on buses, most of them look like they have been used as stunt cars.
10. They have the worst diets here. Apart from the meat-cheese-bread-meat routine, on buses you will often be given three different types of sweet biscuit as a snack, and most dinner tables will dose children as young as toddlers with soft drink. A random article I read in “Women’s Health” here said that more than 70% of people don’t have more than 2 serves of fruit and veg a day. And it shows. Although there are not a lot of overly obese people, most people carry their fair share of love handles and rolls. Not so great when the average height is for men and women, is not much more than 5ft 3” and 5ft 8” respectively.
11. And finally, although I can’t really complain about this, ice-cream is everywhere – especially in dulce de leche (I can’t believe this stuff hasn’t made it out of the country yet – check the link beside).