Argentina: Quirks and Qualities

QUIRK: Garbage Cans. Why is it that every cabin and every hotel room that I’ve stayed in has only one garbage can located in the bathroom; and why is said garbage can so tiny that you can fit exactly nothing in it; and, why does this garbage can have a lid with a rotating top that cannot function if there is actually any garbage in the bin?

QUALITY: Dulce de Leche…for breakfast…I mean caramel in the morning, does it get any better than that?

QUIRK: Flash Web Animation. In planning our two months of traveling this summer, we surfed a lot of sites from all over the country, and it seemed that EVERY site used the same Web designer because they all had a flash splash page that took forever to load and featured background music that could not be turned off.

QUALITY: Everyplace that we have traveled in the campo has had fabulous neighborhood dogs that kept the girls occupied for hours.

QUIRK: Maps with No North. We have noticed that in Argentina, maps are often displayed with an eye toward a pleasing layout and often do not have any indication of which way is north! Of one thing you can be certain though, north is not at the top of the page.

QUALITY: You can sit in a cafe for absolutely ever, sipping on agua or cafe con leche, and the waitstaff will never try and roust you out of your seat. (We truly tested this in Cordoba where we encamped at a cafe for 6 or 7 hours during our layover. At one point, we had two computers plugged in, running movies which four of us were watching on headphones with Y adaptors…no problem!)

2 Responses to “Argentina: Quirks and Qualities”

  1. yanqui mike

    Hi Michelle and Tom!

    Nice blog …I love to relive my first impressions of this strange yet familiar place.

    As to the “No North” …it’s because it has always been that way.

    The first map showed the old fort (the site of today’s Casa Rosada) with the water below it. Every map since then has oriented it the same way.

    un beso,
    Mike

  2. Michele

    Thanks for the positive feedback on the blog.

    On the “North” map problem, I was actually referring to the zillions of neighborhood and regional maps that I’ve been perusing to plan our summer traveling — all pretty much sans North! Of course, the BA maps are also sans North, but at least they are all consistent in terms of their orientation!!

    Besos,
    Michele

Leave a Reply