La reserva ecológica

26 Junio

Friday morning I got up and and took the Subte to somewhere near 9 de Julio. From there, I walked to several places that google listed under "Sony." Of 5 or 6 places I found only 1, and it was an eyeglass store. So I walked to Avenida Florida, a pedestrian street full of places to shop. I was on a mission to find a cord that connects my camera to my computer, since my original disappeared. On Florida, I found a store labled Fugifilm, and went in and used my juvenile spanish with the women who worked there. They were extremely helpful and gave me a directions to a Sony store --only 5 blocks down the street I was on. It was in a luxurious mall called Shopping Galeria Pacifica. I managed to find exactly what I needed, but I had to pay a pretty penny for it. Then I went to meet Cambria at Plaza de Mayo which is in front of the Casa Rosada. When I found her, she was surrounded by a flock of pidgeons who were trying to get at some food that a woman spread out. It was crazy. We sat near them for a while waiting for Bridget to come, and a family came and started feeding them by hand. Video on Facebook. Plaza de Mayo is a great place for people watching. One peculiarity was a man carrying food around on his giant hat to sell it.

Eventually, Bridget arrived. She had gotten off the Subte early and didn't have her Guia T, so she got a little lost. From Plaza de Mayo, we walked back down Florida to lunch at the amazing mall I had told them about. I got some Wok Chicken with Mashed Pumpkin, which seems to be just as popular, if not more so, than mashed potatoes. Even though they're known for their meat, Val would appreciate a lot of the food here. None of their soda or juice has any high fructose corn syrup. I'm enjoying it myself. They taste fresher. They have hardly any fast food restaurants: only McDonald's and Burger King, but they are pricy here, and people usually opt for something cheaper and healthier. This morning on my way to the bus stop I saw a man carrying half of the torso of a dead cow on his back from a truck into his store. It occurred to me that I have never and probably will never see such a bizarre thing in the states because all of our restaurants' meat comes pre-preserved or packaged in some way. And it occurred to me that such a sight wouldn't be at all weird to my great-grandparents. Good ol' U.S. food industry.

Anyway, we finished eating, and walked past Puerto Madero to the reserva ecológica, which I need to study up on the history of. Apparently, it used to be a big dump because of all the pollution. Especially during past dictatorships the government would dump all their construction waste into the Rio de la Plata. But after a little democracy, the long-ignored place become the home of tons of species of animals and plants. Now there are trails for exercise and picnic tables for picnics. It's definitely more quite from the nearby busy city and the air is cleaner. After walking what seemed like forever, we three made it to the Rio de la Plata coast, which is practically the ocean but hasn't quite become salt water yet. The beach was incredible. All of the rocks looked like they came from a demolished city. There were hunks of mortared brick, and tile mixed in with concrete, and even pot shards, all of which were worn down from being in the ocean several years. Then we hiked back to the entrance and walked down Viamonte where I bought a newspaper. We settled down at a nearby cafe and figured out the best movie time and location. Then we went to our respective casas and had dinner, after which we returned to a theatre near Expanish and watched Transformers 2 in English with Spanish subtitles. The most interesting thing about this was the sense of humor of the Argentine audience. Certain things that didn't seem that funny were hilarious to them. I decided that Americans (myself included) have become too difficult to entertain. I also noticed that the movie was extremely USA-centric. Even though it was an apocalyptic movie in which they traveled to 2-3 other countries and should concern the whole world, only the USA and its governments were mentioned. I probably wouldn't have noticed this if I were watching it in the states. I never realized that the movies that we make go out to the entire world, and they all say something to the rest of the world about the USA and what kind of people we are. In many ways my temporary sister here, Brenda, is more up on US pop culture than I am. I never chose to have American television be my representative, but alas.

27 Junio

Saturday I said less than a thousand words. It was very quiet because I woke up late then strolled around Recoleta and part of Palermo, just me and my camera and wallet, until it got dark. Thus, I have no stories to tell, but you can see part of my journey on Facebook just before my Uruguay pictures.