Saturday, January 15, 2005

International Criminal Flees To Buenos Aires

I've just realised that I'm an international criminal! I had forgotten that lying at the bottom of my bag I had brought with me a bag of (2 year old, but still tasty) dried apples and had been shuffling them across the Argentina-Chile border with disconcerting regularity whilst blithely stating that I wasn't carrying any organic produce on numerous sworn statements! As soon as I realised the offending articles were disposed of (yummy), but still, it's hard to tell what could have happened as the Chileans are a bit nazi about that sort of thing.

Enough of my petty worries, what about Buenos Aires? Well BA (because that's what people in the know call it) bears an uncanny resemblance to urban France, namely Paris (of about 15 years ago as most of the cars are Renault 19s and Peugeot 504s). Which is a bit disappointing really because I could have just popped on the Eurostar for 50 quid return and seen roughly the same sort of thing but with added history. I mean it's nice enough and all, and there's plenty of decent shopping and I did go and see the Casa Rosada where Madonna sang "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" (oh, and apparently some bird called Eva used to talk there too), but it's just a bit too European, which is not what I'm looking for when I'm travelling to far-flung destinations. For instance the biggest tourist attraction is the Recoleta cemetery where all the great and good from Argentina's history (except Jose de San Martin) are buried. Although buried isn't quite the right word as the cemetery is chock-full of mausoleums, each one trying to outdo its neighbour in splendour and ornateness, so in fact one should say that the bodies are "stacked" instead. But even for somebody with more than a passing interest in history it would be difficult to recognise anybody except Evita, unlike Paris's Pere Lachaise which is overflowing with world luminaries from Moliere to Morrisson and Wilde to Piaf. Don't get me wrong, BA is not an uninteresting place, it's just that there's nothing that really stands out; although that may change as I am off to a tango show tonight and tomorrow I head off to the (in)famous La Boca neighbourhood.

P.S. I seem to be posting a few off-topic messages lately and don't want to bore or annoy people, but this article really made my blood boil. America's total ignorance and complete lack of respect for the priceless and irreplaceable archaeological treasures is a slap in the face to the whole of humanity (similar to the looting of Iraq's national museum which they also failed to stop).

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