Why Argentina?
I've had an interest in traveling to Argentina for a number of years, but for some reason it ranked lower on the list of places I wanted to visit. After having visited Bolivia in June 2012 with a Habitat for Humanity team, I decided that it would be great to visit more South American countries.
If you follow this blog, you know that volunteering as a team leader with Habitat for Humanity is an important priority for me. It has provided many opportunities to travel to very interesting places and experience aspects of the culture and life rarely available to the average tourist in many countries including Argentina.
When it comes to Argentina, I have been intrigued for some time about this relatively large country that takes up a notable portion of South America. Among the things that have attracted me to Argentina are the city of Buenos Aires, Tango, its reputation for excellent beef, large farms/ranches and Patagonia. It is widely accepted that Argentina has the best beef in the world. I was able to see or experience all of these things, except getting to Patagonia. Maybe another trip!
Getting There
I arrived in Buenos Aires on August 8 and departed on August 24; not a long time, but a very good time. The travel to/from Argentina was easy and efficient, which is a notable contrast with other international flight experiences. The flight from Toronto to Buenos Aires had a stop in Chile for about 90 minutes and the route into and out of Santiago provided the highlight of the travel - the spectacular snow-capped Andes. Mountains are always one of my favourite parts of any landscape and it would be very difficult to surpass the view of the Andes.
After leaving the Andes behind, the scenery soon changes to flat, open areas for as far as the eye can see. There are huge tracts of farm land, which obviously is central to its significant livestock production.
Arriving in Buenos Aires, I immediately noticed that the city is modern in most respects compared to many centres where Habitat works around the world. Traveling from the airport into the centre of the city is much the same as it is in any North American city, except for the numerous toll stations in Argentina.
Buenos Aires
For my first trip to Argentina, I didn't know quite what to expect. It is a modern city in most respects and, while some of the infrastructure is a bit dated, it has all the urban amenities we are used to at home such as Starbucks! There are modern highways and streets complemented by great architecture influenced by the French. In fact, there is a diversity of European influences in the city.
We stayed at the Portal del Sur Hostel
(http://www.portaldelsurba.com.ar/en/index.html), which recives a top
rating by Lonely Planet. It is in a great location for exploring
important areas by foot (about one block from the intersection of two
major streets - Avenue 9 de Julio and Avenue de Mayo).
One of the key attractions within 15 minute walk from the hostel is the Plaza de Mayo, which is "ground zero" for the city's most spirited protests over the years. In the centre of the plaza is a small monument to mark the first anniversary of the city's independence from Spain. Even today, major protests are a regular occurrence in the plaza, sometimes starting there and other times starting elsewhere and then moving to the plaza. One of the long-standing protests - the Madres de la Plaza de Mayo takes place on Thursday afternoons to honour the "mothers of the disappeared." The "disappeared" were children who went missing under various dictatorships.
On a guided tour, we visited the Plaza de Mayo and places such as San Telmo, Boca and Recoleta. In San Telmo, we strolled along a city street filled with vendors who show up every Sunday to sell their crafts and wares. This was a lot of fun and gave us a flavour for what could be described as the informal market place. Our next stop was Le Boca, a blue collar area settled by Spanish and Italian immigrants and that influence can be seen in the buildings and shops. In this part of the city, we encountered Tango street performers who were available at a cost to dance with interested parties and teach them a few Tango steps. One of the features of La Boca are many building covered with corrugated metal siding that have been painted in bright colours. The large football (soccer) stadium in Boca is one of the colourful buildings.
Our tour concluded with a visit to the Recoleta Cemetery where the walkways are lined with impressive statues and sarcophagi. Many notable people are in the graves including Eva Peron, various presidents of Argentina and other high profile rich and famous people.
One of the cultural highlights of the trip occurred in the evening after our city tour when we went to Esquina Homer de Manzi for dinner and a professional Tango performance. The show consisted of several dancers, a few singers and a small band of instrumentalists. Along with the city tour, we had a great introduction to Buenos Aires.
http://www.esquinahomeromanzi.com.ar/en/
Santa Fe and the Habitat for Humanity Project
The next morning, we left the hostel at 8:00 am with our luggage in hand for a bus ride to the Habitat Argentina national office for an orientation session and an opportunity to meet all the folks who work in that office.
The orientation provided us with an overview of Habitat Argentina, its programs, information about our project and a few cultural things such as learning the ritual of drinking the mate (the national drink) and the Argentine kiss. We also learned that about 10,000,000 Argentines (1/4 of the population) live in poverty housing, that there are 87,000 homeless people in greater Buenos Aires and 100,000 properties remain uninhabited.
After the orientation session. we shared a lunch of homemade empanadas (yummy) with staff and then headed to the bus station for the journey to Santa Fe.
The trip to Santa Fe is about six hours long and, while a bus trip of this length is not especially appealing to me, it was a notably more luxurious than what most of have experienced at home. The seats were spacious and comfortable, and we were even served a light meal. We had reserved seats on the upper level and were able to relax comfortably. After leaving Buenos Aires, the scenery is pretty much the same for the entire trip - flat farm land as far as the eye can see. There was much evidence of large scale farming - herds of cattle, large commercial size farm machinery, grain elevators and more. Another thing that stood out from time to time were small settlements where people were obviously living in substantial poverty.
We were met at the bus station in Santa Fe by the local Habitat staff person and walked the short distance to the hotel. After quickly checking into our rooms, we went out for what was the first of several good meals in Santa Fe. There were several options for dinner and most restaurants were within walking distance of the hotel. The breakfast meal in Argentina is light, which was an adjustment for some folks. However, we had substantial and excellent meals at lunch and ate well at dinner meals. The lunch meals were home made by a supplier Habitat uses locally and they were are best meals in Santa Fe.
In brief, our project involved expanding a small existing house to significant increase the living area of an existing house, install a septic tank and do some painting. Projects like this are part of the Habitat Argentina "seed house/progressive build" program. The tasks were varied and there was lots to keep all 14 of us busy. While I won't go into all the details, among the most physically demanding task was digging a 3+ metre deep hole about 2.0 metres across to stack four cement sections to create a cylinder shaped septic tank. There was plenty of other digging, working with cement, installing corrugated metal roofing, etc. Another bedroom was added as part of the extension and the foundation was put in place for an extension that would allow the kitchen to be moved and significantly increase the living area of the house.
In addition to working on the house, we spent two days scraping/repairing walls and ceilings and painting at a neighbourhood community centre used as a nursery school/kindergarten. Habitat Argentina is strongly committed to community development and incorporates this into the work of Global Village teams.
The house we worked on is where a family of five live - Cristian (father), Veronica (mother) and three girls (Azul - 9; Sol - 6: Pia - about 18 mos.). Currently, all five share the same bedroom, so the extra bedroom is greatly needed. A big highlight of the build was having the family around every day. They warmly welcomed us and made us feel at home even though we completely disrupted and made a mess of their home every day.
Other local people were regulars at the site, including the mason and people who were members of previous Habitat families. I think Habitat Argentina is doing a great job in helping build community and we saw much evidence of this.
The neighbourhood is an area that was greatly affected by a major flood in 2003 and much of the area was under about two metres of water. There was a two-month evacuation from the area. Work was done to make the area less prone to flooding that enabled people to return. While there is some economic variation across the neighbourhood, it really is an area of poverty, often extreme.
On our final work day in Santa Fe, we had a farewell BBQ lunch with the family and their neighbourhood friends. Each of us was given a certificate of appreciation by a family members or one of their friends. The spirit of appreciation for our efforts is symbolic of what one experiences on a Habitat trip such as this and contributes to building the "global village."
After the farewell event, we returned to the hotel to relax for a while, collect our luggage and walk to the bus station for the six-hour journey back to Buenos Aires.
I departed Santa Fe with a feeling of having accomplished something important, especially making new friends.
R&R
After arriving back in Buenos Aires in the late evening of August 21, we were able to sleep a bit later the next morning which was greatly appreciated. After breakfast, we had a short evaluation meet with the Habitat National Director and one of her staff. Then, it was off to spend the best part of the day at an "estancia" (rural estate or ranch). Estancias are mostly located in the grasslands or "pampas" of South America and there are many in rural Argentina. Historically, they have been used for livestock (cattle or sheep) and are closely tied to Argentina's reputation for high-quality grass-fed beef. Workers on estancias are called gauchos. In recent decades, ranching and farming has become more intensive and commercialized, which means that most estancias are now used for tourism purposes such as guest ranches and destinations for day trips.
The estancia we visited was located about 75 km from Buenos Aires and covered an area of 1,300 hectares. In addition to a wagon ride, a demonstration of gaucho skills, browsing through an on-site chapel and historic museum, and relaxing in the sunshine, we were served an Argentina BBQ lunch and entertained with a cultural show. The show consisted of music, singing, Tango and other dancing. The meal could be described as "more than enough." There were several salads, breads, barbequed meats (sausages, chicken, beef) and desserts complemented by some very fine Argentina red white.
The second day of our R&R consisted of a trip to an area of greater Buenos Aires called
Tigre (tiger), which is located in the delta of the Parana River. After a leisurely bus ride to Tigre with a couple of stops along the way, we took a very interesting boat tour in the delta waterways. Of special interest were the homes built on small islands or patches of land surrounded by water. The only access is by boat, so living in these dwellings would be a challenge even if staying there only part time. Many homes along the waterways are large mansions and others are simple cottages. Marinas and rowing clubs in the area leave the impression that this is an area for the more wealthy Argentines and tourists.
Final Thoughts
I arrived home from Argentina three weeks ago and since then have reflected many times on how blessed I am to have traveled there and be able to make a contribution to the efforts of Habitat there. Among the things that most impacted me was the warm way in which we were welcomed by the Habitat Argentina people, the partner family and their friends. I was also touched by the incredible sense of joy and fun of these people despite their challenging economic situation. There is much we in more wealthy countries can learn from them when it comes to community and family life.
