Worth Reading Again: The Buenos Aires Herald

Dating from 1876, the English-language Buenos Aires Herald has an illustrious history - never more so than in the Dirty War days of 1976-83, when it outspokenly exposed the brutality of the military dictatorship that ran Argentina during those years. While it had the advantage of publishing in a foreign language that relatively few Argentines read, it also published its editorials in Spanish, and both editor Robert Cox and his associate Andrew Graham-Yooll had to flee into exile because of death threats to themselves and their families. Cox’s successor James Neilson, still a columnist today, moved his family across the river to Uruguay.

In less contentious times, the Herald has lost some of that edge, but it still provides a good critical analysis of Argentine politics, labor, and society for non-Spanish speakers. Graham-Yooll, who still contributes to the paper on occasion, is also a literary journalist and novelist capable of interviewing Gabriel García Márquez in Spanish and translating his work flawlessly into English. The current staff is not so thoroughly bilingual, and attentive readers will notice linguistic eccentricities, such as occasional false cognates and Spanish-language syllabification.

More importantly for overseas residents and potential visitors, the Herald’s acquisition by the financial daily Ámbito Financiero has meant an infusion of cash that’s allowed it to improve its website dramatically, with most of the content now available online after 2 p.m. Argentine time daily. The Sunday edition has an excellent summary of the week’s events by columnist Martín Gambarotta, and there is also improved coverage of food, wine, nightlife, and travel.

Where's the Bife? Argentines Becoming Vegetarians?

Citizens of the Southern Cone, especially Argentines, are renowned as carnivores. According to a recent article in The Economist, though, the Argentine diet is changing so that vegetarianism is no longer an eccentricity. Consistent with its market-oriented economic determinism, The Economist attributes this primarily to beef shortages and rising prices, noting that per person consumption will fall from 68 kilos in 2008 to 57 kilos in 2009. At the same time, it acknowledges some Argentines’ concerns about the impact of high beef consumption on personal health.

To tell the truth, this take on vegetarianism in the region is more than a little behind the curve. Even in 1976 - a time when tourists to the Southern Cone countries were relatively few - the venerable South American Handbook counseled visitors to “Eat plenty of salads; they’re safe in Argentina, and good.”

In reality, despite Argentina’s reputation for elevated beef consumption, it’s probably the easiest Southern Cone country in which to be a vegetarian. While beef has long been a staple, vegetarian buffet restaurants have been abundant in Buenos Aires since the 1980s, even if their quality was only so-so for the most part. There were exceptions, such as Palermo Soho’s established La Esquina de las Flores, and there are even more today, such Palermo Hollywood’s organic Bío Restaurant, both of them cited in The Economist article.

Even at non-vegetarian restaurants, though, vegetarian items such as pastas and savory pies - chard pie is a standard in many Argentine households - are genuine options. Still, diners need to be alert to the sauces - especially since Argentines often use the term carne (meat) to refer to beef. Chicken, pork, and the like are something else - often referred to as carnes blancas (white meats).

If it’s not that hard to be vegetarian in terms of access to the proper food, it can be more difficult in social terms. The asado, or mixed-grill barbecue, is not only a staple of the Argentine diet, but also a custom to which there is enormous pressure to conform. Anyone who goes to a gathering of family or friends and declines to eat beef can still become something of an outcast. For that reason, more than a few Argentine vegetarians have returned to their carnivorous roots - or at least decided to go along with the group on such social occasions.

In reality, it’s probably harder to be a vegetarian in Uruguay or Chile - especially in rural Chile - than it is in Argentina. That said, it’s not usually a problem if you’re on a guided tour or if you can explain your dietary preferences to the waiter or cook in question (it may be easier to simply plead alergia - allergy - if your language skills are not up to the task). That said, the Santiago restaurant El Huerto may well be the continent’s top vegetarian option, even if first-rate meatless meals are harder to find outside Chile’s capital.

Eclipsing Easter Island: the Astronomy of Chile

In November of 1994, eclipse chasers from around the world converged on the Chilean precordillera village of Putre, near the Peruvian and Bolivian borders, to view one of the longest total solar eclipses on record - more than three minutes. In an arid, thinly populated area with few services, thousands of people camped along the international highway that links the Chilean port of Arica with the highlands of Bolivia, but today there is little evidence that such a transitory event even happened.

Something similar could occur next year on Rapa Nui (Easter Island), as the longest eclipse of the 21st century - four minutes and 45 seconds - is due to take place on July 11th. All the island’s 1,500 hotel rooms - nearly all of them in the village of Hanga Roa - have been booked. During the period in and around the eclipse, the price of the five-hour flight from Santiago (LAN is the only airline that goes here) has nearly tripled.

In fact, the home of the legendary moai has long been a site for astronomical observations - the statues at Ahu Akivi (pictured here), near the Maunga Terevaka area where a music festival is to take place at the time, stare directly into the setting sun at the spring and autumn equinoxes. Still, there is concern about such an influx to a small island (only 171 sq km, with about 5,000 inhabitants) that is, in essence, one large archaeological site. Normally, over the course of 12 months, about 50,000 unique visitors arrive on the island, though many of them are concentrated in the summer months of January and February (when the ten-day Tapati Rapa Nui festival takes place.

It’s unfortunate, given the pubicity that eclipses get, that few foreigners appreciate that Chile is the Southern Hemisphere’s most important single country for professional astronomers. The desert north, from La Serena to Antofagasta and even San Pedro de Atacama, is home to major international observatories such as Cerro Tololo (pictured here), La Silla, and Cerro Paranal; all of these are open to visiting tourists, though tours usually require advance planning and reservations. These are almost invariably daytime visits - the romantic stereotype of astronomers peering through their telescopes on all-nighters has been superseded by their viewing and interpreting data on their computer terminals, mostly during daylight hours.

There are also, however, small-scale municipal observatories, such as Mamalluca and Collowara, where nighttime visitors can peer at the southern skies through large, if not quite professional, telescopes. Space Observations is a commercial but engaging and highly professional operator with nighttime excursions on the outskirts of San Pedro de Atacama.

Safer than Home, in the Southern Cone

A few years ago, as I was delivering a slide lecture on Buenos Aires in Southern California, someone brought up the issue of personal safety in the question-and-answer period. My impulsive response, which brought a nervous laugh from the audience, was that “there are no drive-by shootings in Buenos Aires” - which there are in Los Angeles.

It’s true that, before Americans go overseas, one of the first things they think about is crime and insecurity, even if their own country can be as dangerous, or more so, than many foreign destinations. Colombia, to cite one example, has a terrible reputation that lingers from sensational - and sensationalist - stories of its drug wars and guerrilla insurgencies. Mexico, especially the cities along the US border, has seen some horrendous crimes and smuggling of drugs and people to the north is notorious.

Yet both those countries are generally safe, sometimes extremely safe, as I pointed out in writing about Colombia last year. In that context, it’s always surprised me that so many residents of Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay think that their countries are dangerous - as José Miguel Insulza, Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) pointed out in a recent interview, “In spite of the social perception and public opinion alarm, countries to the south of the continent have lower rates of insecurity compared to other countries of the region.”

That’s not to say crime does not exist but, as Insulza notes, “All over the continent news begins with crimes.” A sensationalist emphasis on crime stories, which increase TV ratings and sell newspapers, does a disservice to countries and cities that don't really deserve it. To my mind, for instance, it’s a testament to urban security when park playgrounds near my Buenos Aires apartment in Palermo are full of families with kids well after dark and often until midnight or later in summer. Likewise, I’ve spent extended periods in Santiago and other Chilean cities, without excessive concern for my personal safety.

Chile, for its part, has Latin America’s most highly respected police force in its Carabineros. Argentina can’t match that, unfortunately - provincial police in Buenos Aires are notoriously corrupt and highway checkpoints are often opportunities for them to shake down motorists for minor equipment violations - but that rarely affects foreign visitors. Uruguay falls somewhere in between, but closer to Chile - its police are generally trustworthy. With all of them, though, investigative professionalism lags behind.

Buenos Aires, meanwhile, is creating a new municipal police force to take over many of the functions of the Policía Federal (pictured here), which until now has handled police matters in the city. The feds are arguably more competent than provincial forces but it remains to be seen whether the new force, whose officers are mostly ex-feds, will be any improvement.

Béisbol Hits Buenos Aires

In Argentina, fútbol (soccer) is the undisputed king of sports, despite shortcomings that include its apparent unwillingness to control organized hooligan gangs - in fact, team officials often collaborate with them. Argentine soccer’s most urgent concern, though, is meeting its payroll - unless clubs from the first division down get their act together, the players will not get paid, and the season that’s due to begin August 16th will not start.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t sporting alternatives. If soccer fails to start on time, Argentines will at least have the option of the upcoming béisbol season, when Buenos Aires’s Liga Metropolitana de Béisbol starts play in September. In truth, baseball is far from the phenomenon here that it is in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean - rather, it’s a recreational niche sport. Venezuela is the only South American country where baseball is more important than soccer; even in neighboring Colombia, which has also produced many major leaguers, baseball remains a distant second.

Eight teams comprise the league, which continues play through December, at Ezeiza’s Estadio Nacional de Béisbol, which has hosted the Panamerican Games, near the city’s international airport (former major leaguer Candy Maldonado, now an ESPN Spanish-language broadcaster, has offered baseball clinics to Argentine youth teams here under the auspices of the US embassy). The Liga Metropolitana is a wood bat league - no metal bats allowed.

Six of those teams are exclusively Argentine, while one is Cuban and the other, a recent creation, is the Shankees Baseball Club - composed mostly of US expats. In the past season, they finished second to the Cubans. Philadelphia-born Paul Perry, son of an Argentine mother, manages the team, which adapted its name from the Argentine pronunciation of the word yanqui (Yankee). He supplied the photo that appears here.

On my recent visit, I had hoped to be able to practice and/or play with the Shankees. Sadly, a day of inclement winter weather - following a string of mild, sunny winter days - eliminated that day’s workout. Still, I’ll be back in town in September and hope to see, and perhaps participate in, part of the Shankees’ season.

Global Warming, Local Cooling? Winter Hits Argentina

Whenever anyone asks me what the climate is like in Buenos Aires, I usually say it's like New York without the winter - it can get
damp and cool in June, July, and August, but it's rarely frigid. Snow is, usually, not even a once-in-a-lifetime event. Two years ago, though, it snowed in the city for the first time since 1918. Monday afternoon, when I flew out of the the international airport at Ezeiza it was balmy, but since then the weather has suddenly changed, with sub-freezing temperatures in the capital and snow in many other locations, even in southern Buenos Aires province. The Buenos Aires Herald has English-language coverage of the current storms, which includes a slide show from around the country.

Some parts of Argentina, of course, get snow every year - ski resorts such as San Carlos de Bariloche, San Martín de los Andes, and Villa la Angostura (pictured here, in a summer whiteout) depend on snowfall for their livelihood. As it happens, with concerns about swine flu and the state of the economy, there are some outstanding values on ski vacations, for those willing to take a statistically minimal risk.

Sex & Food in Buenos Aires

Just before I left California on July 2, I received a phone call from a national magazine asking me to write a piece on “Authentic Buenos Aires.” While here, I’ve done some of the groundwork and am flying back home Monday, but will return in mid-September to research the article, which involves seeing “Baires” in the company of local experts on its sights, hotels, restaurants, nightlife and shopping.

What constitutes “authenticity,” of course, is a debatable subject, and one truly “authentic” institution that the article is unlikely to cover are the city’s albergues transitorios, the “love hotels” that rent rooms by the hour (or a bit longer). Colloquially known as telos (an inversion of the word “hotel”), these can range from truly squalid to surprisingly sophisticated, but are not just for clandestine affairs (South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford and his Argentine girlfriend would probably not have used one). Young couples in search of privacy may be their main market, but sometimes even married couples, who may want to get away from the kids in their small apartment, will use them.

Telos are usually inconspicuous and discreet (though the Barrio Norte telo shown in the photograph here at least wants to suggest something forbidden). Often they have no sign, or simply a plaque that says “hotel” (with no specific name) or “albergue transitorio” (which can confuse foreigners, as the word albergue can also mean a hostel). If you show up alone, with luggage, you’re likely to get bewildered stares from the check-in desk.

Other Southern Cone countries use different euphemisms. In Chile the most common terms are hotel parejero (couples’ hotel) and motel (especially outside the cities, but a motel can also be what North Americans would normally expect; usually the décor suggests which sort it is). My favorite euphemism is Uruguay’s hotel de alta rotatividad (“high turnover hotel”).

Telos are coming up in the world, though. A recent Buenos Aires phenomenon is the telo that offers gourmet food to enhance the couple’s experience. Those who just want to sample salacious food, without paying for a room, can try Palermo Soho’s self-described “aphrodisiac restaurant” Te Mataré Ramírez, which also offers sophisticated erotic (but not pornographic) entertainment.

How Expensive is Buenos Aires?

Given the ups and downs of the Argentine economy, and its capital city, this is a question whose answer requires periodic revision. The most recent answer comes from the Mercer consulting group, which last week ranked Buenos Aires as No. 112 of 143 cities worldwide for expat cost-of-living. In comparison with 2008, when Mercer ranked “Baires” 138th of 150 cities, it would seem that the city has gotten more expensive but, nevertheless, it falls in the lowest quartile of the cities surveyed. For purposes of comparison, Tokyo is the most expensive, New York City ranks eighth, San Francisco 34th, Washington DC 66th, and Johannesburg 143rd. Neighboring Chile’s capital city of Santiago ranks 128th but, with the Chilean peso’s recent rebound, I would expect the two cities may have reversed position. What does this mean in practice? In reality, for instance, public transportation in Buenos Aires is preposterously cheap. The basic fare on Metrovías, the underground system popularly known as the Subte, is 1.10 pesos - about 29 US cents (compare that with New York City’s subway fare of US$2). The standard bus fare in Buenos Aires is 1.20 pesos, on a system that operates 24 hours a day. Cab fares cost US$1 for the first 200 meters, and only 10 US cents for each additional 200 meters. Since the economic collapse of 2002, of course, prices have risen considerably. At that time, I thought nothing of inviting my several nephews out to dinner and picking up the tab. In 2009 that’s a lot harder but, nevertheless, today I enjoyed an exceptional three-course lunch, with a glass of wine, at Belgrano's Lotus Neo Thai (the city’s top Thai restaurant, and one of few places where it’s possible to get truly spicy food) for about US$12. Still, for some things, you’ve got to pay. As shopping expert Patricia O’Shea, the Irish-Argentine co-owner of Hotel Home Buenos Aires, told me this morning, visitors who buy cheap goods such as bargain leather jackets may find their purchases will literally unravel. Quality goods, she says, will be not be cheap, but they will be cheaper than their overseas counterparts - and they’ll last a lifetime. One recent development, though, threatens to make the country more expensive. Only a short time ago, when I went to the corner bank, the ATM told me it would charge me 11.46 pesos (about US$3.50) for my withdrawal of 300 pesos (the maximum allowable transaction, less than US$80). I rejected this withdrawal, from the Banelco system, and went to a nearby Link ATM that did not collect the charge. Still, banks tend to ape each other, and it wouldn’t surprise if this becomes universal. According to my contacts in Santiago, ATMs there have recently begun to impose a fee of 2000 Chilean pesos but, at least, ATM users can take out larger amounts of cash than in Argentina.