It's weird, but by Day 3 I'm getting used to the time change and the hours we're putting in. We're up at about 7 ish (6AM EST), getting ready etc - even though it's pitch black out. We normally don't get in before 11, and don't go to sleep until well after 12, go figure?
Breakfast at Hotel Presidente:: I gotta say this about Argentineans: they eat and they love their beef and sweets. Breakfast in the hotel is complimentary, and so not your typical "Continental" breakfast. They serve pastries...wait, I must say that again...they serve PASTRIES. Everyone you can imagine, from honey laced croissants, to cheesecake, from fruit tarts, to a choclate lattice raspberry pie, from cookies and sweetbreads, to fruitcake. Oh yes, since this is an "American breakfast" they add a few slices of ham, cheese, scrambled eggs, and mini hot dogs, and even some fruit and cereal, but the pastries are outta control. Many a day i've had to skip it, and stick to the yogurt....lol.
Simmons:: we visit the Simmons plant in the Gerli barrio of Buenos Aires (note: barrio actually translated to neighborhood). We tour the plant, and they also share quite a few of the impacts of the Argentine Financial crisis, and also discuss their relationship with the American companies: Sealy, it's american Simmons counterparts, etc. Then we get to watch the mattresses as their being built from start (literally from the wire used to make innerspring coils) to them being wrapped in plastic for distribution. We head from there, to YPF.
A note on the neighborhoods:: the barrios are interesting for their - er - narrowness, and the diversity. Our bus driver has to be credited for turning through some street where it would be hard to get a Peugeot or Volkswagen through, to be honest. Everything is compact, because the population is pretty large and concentrated in the city. We saw stucco neighborhoods, with modest homes and courtyards. We also saw some shantytowns that resembled those in Africa. According to our professor, people are emigrating to Argentina from poorer countries, and settling this area by any means necessary. From what we see, it's a pretty meager existence. It highlighted the inequity between the decent off (or well to do) and the really poor. You can see more pics here. We see this again when we get to the Avenue Florida...
YPF/Repsol:: we travel by bus to the Mar de La Plata, to the YPF/Repsol plant in La Plata. It's an oil refinery, and our host gives us a presentation on their products, import/export status, the impact of the Argentine Financial crisis, as well as their future goals/objectives. The companies we're visiting are leading Argentine companies, and very modern considering what most of the students actually imagined. We then head back to our hotel.
Avenue Florida:: unfortunately I don't have pics of Avenue Florida, because I'm a little scared to pull out my camera, and I'm rarely scared anywhere. Avenue Florida is at once: full of shops, both tourist and non-tourist, as well as eateries and currency exchanges, street vendors and high-end stores. The closest visual analogy I can come up with is walking through a mall in the movie Blade Runner, because the stores are all street facing, built up 1, 2 and 3 floors overlooking the street, and with neon signs, awnings and other visual cues (such as a 10 foot high replica of a woman's frame wearing a red leather jacket that floats over the street), all geared to capture the attention of the foot traffic walking the streets. It's kind of overwhelming.
It also offers a variety of entertainment, as well as crime. We've seen singers with ad hoc kareoke (sp) concerts, and free tango demonstrations, and magic shows. We've also seen tons of beggars, homeless folks that live on Florida, picking through the vendors' garbage when they close up shop. I've seen families, mother, father AND children, out as early as 9 AM, and staying well past 11. I've seen a man missing both legs, that sings for his dinner. Apparently, the tango lessons also draw pickpockets (similar to NY) so we're warned to avoid the street version. We're also warned not to travel alone.
We almost got 'Got':: meaning ROBBED. This traveling in pairs advice came in handy. On the way back to our hotel, walking down Avenue Pelligrini, past a dimly lit hotel, with no visible police presence around, my classmate suddenly felt something wet hit her in the back of her head. Clutching her hair, and her purse, she tried to figure out where it came from. An Argentinean man appeared, offering us napkins and trying to get closer to her. She kept walking away from him, trying to figure out what had hit her. So, he started trying to approach me, napkins in hand. I took the napkins, but held my purse and stayed at arms' length. He then reached toward me, wiping a napkin on my coat. I told my friend "let's hurry and get back to the hotel", and we pretty much trotted back to a better lit area. Apparently, he'd thrown a bit of tomato at her hair, to get us to stop. When she wouldn't let him near her, he wiped the remaining tomato on my jacket, to get closer to me. Oh well...all he got for his trouble was dust, and a waste of a good scam...lol. I've never seen this before, but apparently this is big in larger cities.
We did end up having dinner later....I still have to tell you about the buffets in BA, and the bife (the meat here is OUT OF CONTROL)....
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