Buenos Aires - places tourists don't go.

Link to other threads on 'Shiney's Travels'
http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/threads/shineys-travels.61299/

In December Mrs Shiney and I, once again, went on our travels to out of the way places. We spent some time in Buenos Aires and saw a lot of the touristy things but also saw places that tourists wouldn't dream of going. I'll intersperse touristy and non-touristy sights throughout this thread.

Like a lot of cities in in the developing world they have an enormous population with a large part of it very poor. As their government has been so inept and corrupt things are getting worse. A few years ago there was an enormous slump in their market and a very high percentage of young people became unemployed.

They had a choice of turning to crime or trying to make a living somehow. Argentina does very little in the way of recycling so some of them started sorting through the rubbish to see what they could recycle. The main thing that they found easy to sell to large companies was cardboard and these people gradually became known as Cartoneros.

One very enterprising person/artist/handyman came up with an idea to try and teach them to not just sell the cardboard but to make useful things from them. He raised some money from businesses and got hold of a very run down abandoned building from which they could work. The building is in a very poor area that people would not want to walk about in or park a car - unless they wanted the car to disappear.

We hired a local guide who could go to the type of places and was able to drive into the gated yard - having given advanced notice. We asked the guide whether we should be giving them some money and were told that they were too proud to accept it. What they would accept was Mate (a herbal tea drunk by everyone in the country - more about that, later), sugar and biscuits. So we took a load along.

This is their workplace. In the far corner one of them is being interviewed for a newspaper.


This was on an upper floor and the lower floor was derelict, the concrete stairs were broken and there were electric wires hanging everywhere.

This is the man who thought up the idea


The walls of his office are covered in drawings and plans of things that they make.

This is the area in which he makes his prototypes


Whilst the young men work their girlfriends or wives pop in and have a chat. Everyone was really friendly to us.


Those things above are in the process of being made and here are some other things they do.



They make furniture, lightshades, toys, pencil boxes and a whole variety of other things.

 

They've been doing this for a few years now and, instead of them having to rummage through the rubbish the businesses let them come and take their cardboard away. Some people help by providing vehicles to carry the stuff.

They are, now, looking at recycling other materials.

These are some of the other cardboard items that are in the process of being made.

 

They have a lot of parts filed away



and everything is numbered


Another thing that visitors are welcome to bring is glue



Apart from gluing things together they make a paste out of glue and cardboard dust and use it as a filler.


They fill the gaps and then sand them down.


Apart from the knives that are used for a lot of the making they have other tools and lots of sanding blocks. They also use face masks when using the glue.

 

At the other end of the scale you have the fantastic Colon Opera House. It's built on a grand scale and there a lot of leaded glass features


Loads of different coloured marble


A lot of the intricate work is covered in gold




Vast areas


And a lot of mosaic

 

There are faces in the frieze work


They had lots of costumes on display




and a lot of marble statues. Can you guess the title of this statue?


The detail in the sculpting is meticulous. It even shows the indentations made by the child's hand in the mother's leg!

 

Back to the deprived areas

In a mostly abandoned industrial area there are some fantastic works of graffiti

 

Some more

 

We've been to some really out of the way places over the years . It's fascinating to see the way people live, or lived, in some of the more distant places. We also go to visit many ancient sites around the world, travelling through deserts, rain forests and jungles. Although it's getting a bit tiring for us nowadays

 

Wow Wow & Wow again.!
Shiney it is wonderful to see success come from their ingenuity with so little.. We hear very little about Argentina so wonderful you & Mrs Shiney got to see a bit of the other side too..

The street art is amazing as is the dome but the street art has the feelings of the people..

Do they have much of drug problem amongst the young there like they do in Brazil..?

 

Buenos Aires has a big drug problem but this isn't seen by tourists.

The city is enormous and although the main city has a population of approx. 3 million the total conurbation has something in excess of 12 million. The poorest areas have a very serious drug problem because the cheap drug they get is called Paco. It's not really cocaine but is the dregs of the chemicals used to make cocaine mixed with coca leaves. It's highly addictive and poisonous.

Little of the problem is seen in the main part of the city as the police are very vigilant and don't have a great deal of compassion. The political control of Argentina makes it a very militant state and the people have very strict rules they have to follow. Demonstrations are allowed - as long as they're licenced and keep on the move at all times.

From a tourist point of view, Buenos Aires is a good city to visit. There's plenty of historic buildings, gardens, famous cemeteries, culture and very good shopping and eating. Eating out is very cheap so there's an abundance of restaurants.

As they have galloping inflation the rate of exchange is good as well. There's the official exchange rate (6.5 to the $ when we were there), the 'Azul' (official blackmarket - which the government ignore - where I was getting 9.2 on our first day there), the rate that local shops and restaurants would give you (they just gave a straight 10 to the $) and the hundreds of people on the street selling pesos at a good rate but there was over a 50% chance that they would give you counterfeit money!

I changed dollars every day at Western Union as inflation was so high I got a better rate every day! We needed pesos for big shops, transport, markets etc.

Whilst we were there they were having heatwaves which caused considerable problems. The power companies couldn't cope with the demand so there were power cuts all the time. People were rioting because of it and, for no particular reason, they were picking on Chinese supermarkets to smash and loot (a lot of ordinary supermarkets are owned by Chinese).

The government are trying to stop the import of high tech products like smart phones and computers in order to promote domestic ones (which are rubbish). They put a 30% tax on any high tech products brought into the country.

Having said all of that, very little of what is going on affects tourists.

We stayed at a small, business, hotel right in the centre of town, so we were able to walk to most places of interest. The hotel was good but a lot cheaper than the big chains.

The view from our window


The road had 22 lanes and there were two bus lanes, in each direction, right down the middle of the road. As congestion was very bad it was easier to travel by bus than taxi. The buses had dedicated lanes so kept moving with no trouble.


and at night


Some of the main streets had benches for people to sit on. They were made of concrete although they looked like upholstery.


In the financial district the bollards were quite twee


Ceremonial guards that patrolled around the main square where there was the governor's palace, the state bank, the cathedral and other important buildings.

 

Christmas was coming


This tree was covered in Swarovski Crystals







Rhodochrosite