Taxis, trains and Portenos

A few words about Buenos Aires. As we look around the city, we both feel we could be home in Toronto. The people look exactly the same and it is frankly difficult to determine the visitors from the inmates. Yesterday I stared and stared at people thinking these must be the tourists, but when they opened their mouth a rush of Spanish came out. The reason is simple; we have the same European roots, even the same timing of immigration waves. There is a huge Italian population just as there is in Toronto that came at about the same time but turned left instead of right and ended up in Buenos Aires instead of Toronto . There is also a huge Jewish population that hangs out in the district of Once that also came during the same timeperiods as Toronto Jews and frankly look the same. I am sure that if I dug a bit Iwould probably discover they are the same. So, when you look around you might think you are in Paris if you look at the buildings or New York if you look at the people shopping but it definitely has a Toronto feel to it which is why Torontonians like it so much I suppose.

When I asked some Brazilians why they liked it, thinking they would say because of its’ vibrancy, nightlife and so on, they surprised me when they said they came here to relax. It is “low key” they told me and they could just enjoy the meals and the music. Wow, what must Rio be like? The restaurants, by the way, do not even open until 8 pm and it is not uncommon for Portenos to start eating at about 10 pm.

I am surprised at how casually people dress for New Year’s Eve. We went down to Puerto Madera last night and just sat on a bench watching people go to their parties. The girls were wearing the fancy dresses and shoes you have already seen in the pictures and the guys were wearing jeans and a T shirt. There seems to be something totally unfair about this state of affairs, but I guess the women are dressing more for each other than the men, I suppose. At midnight last night, you would think we were in the blitz, and those people that were in the London blitz must hate December 31. Rockets were going up all over the city. There did not appear to be a central place for fireworks but everyone had their own and they used them!
They do speak Spanish here, of course, but we have a mutual misunderstanding of each other. In other Latin American countries, "ll" sounds like a "y" sound but here "ll" sounds like a "sh "sound. It is amazing how many ll words you hear when you are asking for directions. They do not understand me and I do not understand them. The taxi driver last nightactually said he did not understand a word I said… Needless to say, he did not get a tip from me. Actually, no-one gets a tip from me because I do not think it is the custom here.

Taxi drivers are generally a riot. We were going downtown with one yesterday during the day and when we were going through Once I asked him what he thought of Jews just to get a feel if there was any anti-Semitism. He just put out a kepa and started laughing. (I guess you had to be there.) Another cab driver with Italian blood ( you now by the hand gestures) told us how much he liked pizza and wine and how he was really going to enjoy his pizza in the family December 31 party. If it wasn’t for the Spanish, which sounds more like Italian and we were just watching his hands, face and eyebrows, we could have been in Rome, ( especially the way he drove). When I asked him, by the way, what he thought of Moslems when we passed a huge mosque, he just shrugged his shoulders, but not in a good way.

Today we are going to head out to a sleeping city, I presume. It is 11 am but I suppose most Portenos will be bed and the stores closed. If Sylvia’s knees hold out we will do a lot of walking today. Happy New Year!