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39. 13/3/00 Buenos Aires -The Busy City is Too Much and Meeting The President : ... After the small towns of Patagonia Buenos Aires was a shock. I spent a couple of days doing the tourist things , but the size , noise, busy-ness of the place was too much ..On my last day an unusual thing I met the President

Fri - I arrived on the night train from Sierra Del La Ventanta and walked around ..I wouldn't say it's like a European city..but I guess it is interesting. I found a great hostel for $6 (4Km out at Av San Martin and Juan B Justo) Strange although its a big city and a capital city BA is actually cheaper than other parts of Argentina..I guess cos there are so many economies of scale and competition Fri - Stayed at a cool hostel for $6 a night Sat - too many people, too much traffic, too much noise...the big city feels so lonely. Tigre I saw the weekend houses of the rich all on different islands in the river delta Sun - I went to the Guacho (cowboy) museum, then wondered around the old areas like St Elmo.. Of course I saw Tango shows in the streets...but

Tango isn't Tango No Tango is the name for a whole genre of close dancing where the couple have to be very cordinated, because the steps often involve kicking your foot between the other persons legs..this apparently demonstration Tango..normal Tango is apparently very slow indeed. Sensual ? To me it's daft it's just a sign of incredibly repressed sexuality.. what's wrong with the bed ?

I didn't get into Tango.. nor into the female dancers ..the clothes make some of the dancer very attractive! I also went around the suburbs of La Boca and Retiro and found a very well done nature reserve made out of a dump on the site of the river silting up right in front of the city center Mon - Tue - Met the President... serious. Every Tuesday afternoon they have a tour in English of the government HQ the Palacio Rosada, an historic pink mansion inn the center of town. No photos inside please, for security reasons ! It was quiet dull , just another old historic mansion, full of boring hero worship of ex presidents..busts and stuff. then we came to a room a bit more interesting a Marie Antoinette type ball room .... Another tour group of suits entered from the other side . Our guide stopped speaking apparently I thought irrated about having our tour disrupted. The other guide came over aand stuck his hand out to shake mine.. "Buenas Tardes" I said "You all know the President" our guide said , I didn't believe this , but the guy continued shaking everyones hand and then asked us if we would like to pose for photos (in the forbidden area !) I thought if this guy is the president , then hasn't he got any work to do ?, instead of wasting his and Argentinas precious time on the likes of me. It was clear I was alone in my cynism for politicians all the other tourists were enthralled...Of course if I had thought fast enough and not been so respectful I should have asked on behalf of all my Argentinians friends behalf if he was going to do something about the endemic corruption in the country , which means that some teachers have not been paid , because some provincial politicians have stolen so much money. We had a bout 50 photos taken ..I hope I'll get some copies soon. Turns out he was the president, he wanted some alterations doing to the building and he showing a team of architects around , led by Argentinas premier architect who was the man who designed the world's tallest building hte Petolis twin towers in KL, Malaysia. So I had met too famous people who I didn't recognise..I was the only one seriously underawed..for me it's not a big deal just to meet someone famous..but it's something to talk about never the less. Wed - took the ferry to Colonia Uruguay. with the free tickets I got for developing my film.., but I had to pay $15 taxes of the $20 ticket ...South American capitalsm again ..free is not really free

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